If there's one thing I'd go back and tell myself the moment I got my degree, it's this: stop putting off the skills that don't have a deadline attached to them.
Throughout school, and even after, I kept telling myself the same story about things like game development, Rust, C, C++ — languages and areas I was genuinely curious about but never actually touched. "I just don't have the time for that right now." I said it constantly. And looking back, it wasn't really true. I had time. I just spent it on things that felt more urgent in the moment, and let the stuff I actually wanted to learn sit on a shelf indefinitely.
Here's what gets me: I didn't need hours a day. Even 10 minutes to an hour, consistently, every day, would have compounded into something real by now. That's the part that stings a little — not that I didn't grind on it, but that I convinced myself the bar was higher than it actually was. I was waiting for some future version of myself with more free time, more energy, more bandwidth, instead of just starting small with what I had.
But there's no use crying over spilt milk. Dwelling on the lost time doesn't get any of it back — it just adds guilt on top of the original problem. So instead of beating myself up over it, I'm just changing what I do going forward.
The plan now is simple: a little bit of time every day going toward these passion projects, while the bulk of my day still goes toward the things that actually need to get done. Not a dramatic overhaul, not waiting for a free weekend that never comes — just a small, consistent block of time for the stuff I've been putting off for years. If I'd started that habit back when I first caught myself making excuses, I'd already be so much further along. So the best time to start was then. The next best time is today.
