the relocation, the hustle, and everything in between, my best year yet: a 2025 retrospective

Maxtro & Moses, August 2025

as i sit here writing this from my parent’s house again (second year in a row lmao), i’m trying to process everything that happened this year. if i had to pick two words to describe 2025, they’d be “motion” and “transition” – because yeah, this year really put me through it.

looking back at my 2024, i was about dreaming big and taking action. didn’t know i’d be testing those principles this hard in 2025.

the apartment saga(s)

january kicked off with house hunting in lagos. i thought i knew stress? lol. spent weeks looking at overpriced apartments, dealing with sketchy agents, the whole nine yards. found my first apartment by late february and honestly, it was everything. perfect layout, good lighting, quiet neighborhood, the works. i was ready to settle in for the long haul.

spent march through may furnishing it, getting it about 80% done, really making it feel like home. did my desk setup, sorted out the kitchen, shopping, everything was falling into place.

the gigs and the hustle phase

right around this time, i was wrapping up a side project with a UK agency. fair pay, nothing crazy but enough to keep me afloat after dropping literally all my money on rent and furnishing. the project was good experience though, mostly frontend work (custom code) – all while still working at my full time job as a full stack developer,

but i knew i couldn’t just coast. so i went into full lock-in mode. vehemently coding, upskilling, building projects, updating my resume. the hustle was real because rent wasn’t going to pay itself.

the plot twist nobody saw coming

then june happened.

got an invite to apply for a backend engineer role. opened the JD and immediately knew this was my jam – backend development, AI products, working on educational technology. literally everything i wanted to be doing. applied same day.

three interviews later (technical assessment, system design, cultural fit), the offer came through. perfect role, perfect team, perfect opportunity. just one tiny problem – i had to relocate.

bro. i just got an apartment. just furnished it. just settled in. and now you want me to pack up my entire life and move to abuja?

the relocation budget was there, the role was everything i wanted, but man i wasn’t sure at all. spent like two weeks weighing the options, talking to friends, running the numbers. eventually said fuck it and accepted. moved by june ending.

best decision i made all year, no cap.

the relocation effect

my motion increased x5 immediately. like, i was already moving earlier in the year but this just accelerated everything. even my friends noticed – quality of life skyrocketed almost overnight. better salary, better work environment, new challenges, new city energy. everything just clicked.

the team was incredible. actually incredible. people who knew their shit, pushed me to be better, and made work enjoyable. can’t understate how much this mattered.

abuja: the final boss of house hunting

remember when i said lagos house hunting was stressful? yeah, that was tutorial mode. abuja house hunting was the actual game, and i was getting absolutely cooked.

four months. FOUR MONTHS of house hunting. ridiculous agents asking for fees upfront. insane prices for mid apartments. viewing houses that looked nothing like the pictures. spending money here and there on transport, agent fees, “inspection fees” (whatever that means).

this alone deserves its own article but we move. the struggle was real and it definitely made the highlight reel, even if for the wrong reasons. finally found a place around october but man, i earned those keys.

honorable mention: Thank you Ebi! you should be kept in a museum. your type is rare! “we gatz jazz up!“

peak software engineering era

this year i genuinely and significantly peaked in my engineering career. had to get better, and i did. 🖊️

technical growth

joined the R&D team working specifically on AI products – chatbot systems, MIND (our AI platform), and various backend services across multiple products. this pushed me into AI environments i’d never worked in before. learned so many AI terminologies – embeddings, vector databases, RAG systems, fine-tuning, prompt engineering, the whole ecosystem. six months ago i only had surface level knowledge of these concepts, now i’m building production-grade AI systems.

built a handful of projects at work:

• complete chatbot infrastructure from scratch
• MIND platform improvements
• Others that i don’t think i’m allowed to mention yet ;)

personally, i also built:

• moniva: a visual database management platform (express.js, react, better auth and all the fun stuff). this one actually took off on twitter, people were using it and giving feedback which felt surreal
• Taimar: full-stack app (express.js, react, expressjs) pomodoro but collaborative features for remote teams, super proud of this one
• invoice management system: full-stack app with woocommerce integration and automated VAT tracking ahead of tax season stress
• my portfolio: finally. been meaning to do this for literal years, nb: i had one, just had to improve it significantly

some of these projects genuinely took off on twitter – people actually used my shit which still feels wild to say. getting real user feedback on stuff you built hits different.

skills acquired

this year i deepened my expertise in:

• backend architecture: proper system design patterns, microservices architecture, API gateway patterns
• AI/ML integration: worked extensively with AI Infra, vector databases (Pinecone, Qdrant), RAG implementations and many moree.
• security: 😊
• full-stack work: while i’m primarily backend, built complete react frontends when needed (still prefer react + vite over next.js though)

also got deep into research – currently working on an explainable AI and user trust study, building a prototype web app to test how different AI explanation styles affect user engagement. this is stretching me in new ways and i’m here for it.

professional development

• completed my performance appraisal at work, got solid feedback on my contributions
• learned to work more independently while still collaborating with when needed
• got better at documentation
• improved at balancing multiple projects simultaneously across different products

the growth this year wasn’t just about coding better – it was about thinking better, architecting better, communicating better.

the DJ chronicles

used to DJ in lagos casually, nothing TOO serious. house parties, small gatherings, big gatherings too, vibes. when i got to abuja, i decided to take it more seriously. started posting mixes, reaching out to event organizers, building a name.

and somehow (was i really surprised though?), it took off.

early december found me DJ’ing at davido’s concert. me. in front of 5k+ people. actual madness.

standing behind those decks, watching the crowd respond to the music, feeling the energy – that was a core memory right there. still processing that one. the DJ thing went from hobby to legitimate side hustle this year and i’m not mad at it.

the low points

not everything was motion and wins though.

also dealt with some anxiety around the relocation decision and imposter syndrome when i started the new role. those first few weeks had me questioning if i was good enough, if i made the right choice, if i could actually deliver at this level. the usual mental struggles.

but i showed up anyway. leaned on friends when i needed to. came out the other side in a better mental state.

what’s next: looking towards 2026

next year is going to be even crazier, i can feel it.

technical goals for 2026

• deep dive into AI/ML: want to go beyond just APIs and low level implementations. looking to understand model architectures, training processes, maybe even build some models from scratch
• system design mastery: aiming to architect systems at scale, handle millions of users, think about distributed systems properly

• build in public more: document my learning, share more technical content, help other developers coming up (been doing this casually, want to make it a habit)
• explore new languages: maybe rust? go? want to expand beyond the javascript/python ecosystem

career and personal growth

• continue pushing boundaries at work, ship even more complex AI features
• take on mentorship more seriously (i’ve helped people transition into tech before, want to do more of that)
• grow the DJ career alongside engineering (why choose when you can do both?)
• travel more, experience more, document more

lessons from the chaos

take the leap even when it doesn’t make sense: moving when i just settled in felt stupid at the time but turned out to be the best move. sometimes the timing will never feel right and you just have to move anyway.

your network is everything: that job invite came from someone i knew, my DJ opportunities came from connections, opportunities compound when you invest in relationships. build meaningful connections, not just transactional ones.

motion creates more motion: once i started moving, everything else started falling into place faster. momentum is real. small wins lead to bigger wins.

invest in yourself relentlessly: all that lock-in and vehement coding earlier in the year set me up for everything that came after. the work you put in when nobody’s watching pays off when everyone is.

prioritize mental health: in tech especially, your mental state affects everything. therapy isn’t weakness, self-care isn’t optional, boundaries matter.

dream big and aim high: set ambitious goals. i wanted to level up my engineering career and took a risk to make it happen. worked out better than i imagined.

teach to learn: every time i explained concepts to teammates or helped someone debug, i understood things better myself. knowledge compounds when you share it.

gratitude

i’m genuinely grateful for everyone who showed up for me this year:

• my friends who talked me through the relocation decision
• my colleagues and teammates at work who pushed me to be better and made work enjoyable
• my mentor who’s been in my corner
• family
• everyone who used my projects and gave feedback – y’all made me a better builder

closing ?

2025 was truly my best year yet. work excelled, hobby excelled, life quality improved drastically. i went out more, experienced more, built more, learned more, became more.

from house hunting struggles to DJ’ing for thousands, from uncertainty about relocation to thriving in a new city and role, from regular backend work to building complex AI systems – this year stretched me in ways i didn’t expect and couldn’t have planned for.

the breakup still stings, the house hunting nightmares still give me flashbacks, but the growth, the experiences, the wins – they made it all worth it.

here’s to 2026 being even more unhinged 🥂

max & maxtro