This year marks a milestone in my career: five years of experience.

I didn’t really know what I wanted to say about that, but I thought I would try to reflect on it because it is significant to me.

The first thing that brings me to reflect is a feeling of gratitude. I am grateful for my team, whom I work with everyday; I take a lot of pride and pleasure in the things we work on and accomplish together. I am grateful for the senior engineers in reach at the company, whom I learn so much from through collaboration or imitation, and are obliging in their answers to my questions. I am immensly grateful for my current and previous leaders and managers, whose guidance and faith in my success I would not have reached this milestone without.

Secondly, I feel lucky. I am indeed fortunate to be building a career in a competitive, rewarding field where five years makes a remarkable difference. I feel the difference, the growth. The growth I have experienced is compounding; I feel that I have learned more, worked more effectively, and performed better in the past year than I have in the years previous cumulatively. That makes me eager for the working years ahead of me. I feel fortunate to look forward to Mondays.

I feel triumphant for overcoming five years worth of challenges, mistakes, and inquisitions. I have done difficult things inside and outside of work. I do not always recognize my own accomplishments, I think, only because it is going according to my simple plan: work hard.

Five years ago, I saw a long, daunting road ahead of me. Now, I look back and see just a few step between where I am and where I started. Until the next milestone, I anticipate most more moments of clarity.