2025 in Review

2025 in Rewind (January–April)

I didn’t start 2025 with a clear plan.

I started it with curiosity.

The goal for the first few months of the year was simple — do as much as possible. Build things. Try ideas. Learn aggressively. Make mistakes early while the stakes were still low.

Like many developers, I also had a very unserious but very real motivation: I wanted my GitHub contribution graph to be full. If you know, you know.

Optimizing for Learning

January to April was a period of experimentation.

I explored new programming languages, including C#, not because I needed them immediately, but because I wanted to expand how I think about software. Different languages force different mental models, and I was intentionally collecting those perspectives.

At the same time, I started exploring side hustles and freelancing — mainly to understand whether it was a viable path locally.

That experiment didn’t last long.

A Sobering Reality Check

Trying to freelance in Zimbabwe was disappointing.

I quickly noticed how undervalued software work often is. Extremely low pricing. Cut corners. Rushed deliveries. A lot of templated or AI-generated work passed off as “solutions.”

What bothered me more wasn’t just the pricing — it was the mindset. Many businesses were perfectly comfortable choosing cheap over quality. Some large companies were (and still are) running poorly maintained websites with placeholder text years after launch.

That environment was demotivating.

After serving just one client (my cousin, to be exact), I made the decision to step away. Not because I couldn’t compete — but because I wasn’t willing to compromise my standards or reduce my work to fit a broken market.

That decision mattered more than I realized at the time.

A Better Direction

Not long after stepping away from freelancing, I joined the Codementor DevProjects Challenge, themed “Create a fast and secure blog using JAMstack.” This experience introduced me to:

• JAMstack architecture
• Headless CMS concepts
• Eleventy (11ty)
• Decap CMS

Instead of building for clients, I started building for myself.

I created a personal blog — a space to learn in public and think out loud. I don’t publish as consistently as I should, but that wasn’t the point. The process itself was valuable. It reminded me that building can be playful again when it’s not tied to expectations.

March: Pressure Meets Opportunity

March changed the pace completely.

My school hosted two hackathons — one focused on fintech and the other on agritech. I formed and led teams for both.

The Wins

1. Fintech Hackathon: We built a peer-to-peer money transfer system using NFC. We didn’t just pitch an idea; we had a working prototype. We won first place and a $1,000 cash prize.

2. Agritech Hackathon: We took a different approach—no MVP, just a deeply thought-out idea grounded in real agricultural challenges. We placed third, and that idea became what is now known as AgriLease.

I was proud — not just of the wins, but of the range. Two different problems. Two different approaches. Both valid.

Ending the Chapter

By the end of April, the excitement wasn’t just about trophies or recognition.

It was about possibility.

We started asking bigger questions:

• What happens after the hackathon?
• How do these ideas become real products?
• How do we build solutions people can actually use in their daily lives?

January to April was messy, experimental, and uncertain.

But it laid the foundation.

This phase of the year was defined by one question I kept asking myself:

“What if?”

The next chapter would demand different questions — and different discipline.