Twenty-seven | Lonneke Heijnen

I've done some pretty cool travels last year. The highlight was definitely my month to Mexico, where I for the first time went golf surfing, ate the 'real' taco's, and saw some amazing sunsets.
More travel highlights: my week in Barcelona with work friends, going to Madrid with my dad and spending a week on an island in Greece.
One year ago I didn't really know what I wanted to do career-wise. I felt quite lost. As a data scientist, I was spending lots of time coding, but the features I was working on weren't that interesting to me, plus I missed having more dynamic days. I started talking to lots of people: colleagues, friends, but also a coach. At first, it felt like all this advice only made me more confused, but my coach taught me to get more in tune with my own thoughts and feelings. This made me realize that I not only want to code during my work day, but also need to talk to people. I was scared this was going to make me seem less technical or skilled, but the combination of spending my days with both my hard and soft skills turned out to be the best combination I could ask for. I was not only thinking about new cool features for our product, but also spending time explaining difficult things in simple ways. And I started presenting for the first time! I am very excited about my work days now, way more than a year ago.
I'm in love with my garden. The way everything starts getting green in the spring, the way the light hits the flowers, the room for play with my nephew and niece, and the lounge set where I spent hours chilling on.
Sadly, I've lost both my grandfather and grandmother this year.
The past six months have also been very focused on getting back into a good exercise routine again. I'm loving it. I'm doing more running, pilates, and padel than ever.
I still get very excited about my birthday.
My top career tip of this year would be to get yourself out there and pick up things out of your regular scope / comfort zone.
Favorite meals as of lately: yellow curry and couscous salad
I really loved watching Off Campus a few months ago. Great TV-show, felt like old times where I was obsessed with a show.
AI changed everything about the way I work
I love office culture: all the banter, office lunches, hybrid meetings ,team outings, going for a walk during a 1:1, I love it all.
I think this year I've tried to make myself feel more relaxed as often as possible. I'm someone who is usual quite high in energy, or mental energy, but it needs time and attention to get myself truly relaxed. Slow breathing, doing things slow in general, going for walks, exercise - all help immensely.
Outfits can really improve your confidence during a day.
What I hope for upcoming year as a twenty-seven-year old: loads of memories with friends. That's everything to me.
I'm really proud for the fact that I've presented for 250 people last month.
I wanted to try to like olives this year. I'm still a bit meh about them.
Goal is to join a 10K run this year!
One of my birthday gifts is to go eat at a Michelin star restaurant (for the first time!!!!)
I want to listen to more diverse music.
My phone addiction has improved massively, but I still would like to throw that thing out of the window more often :)
Apparently, 27 is the age where people start to mention that you're almost turning 30.
I feel like life is only getting better.
I've become more of an Apple girly this year: my work laptop switched to a Macbook, I've gotten an iPhone and Airpods and I kinda love it.
Swimming in the sea is one of the best feelings ever.
I can't believe how lucky I am to have the coworkers I have.
I laugh every day.