Life is a bunch of side quests

When looking back on this year, I realised that yet again I hadn't achieved my main quest I set every year, to take on more freelance clients. However, I noticed a pattern throughout the years, one that's lead me to where I am now.

The Early Game

When I started out freelancing in high school I was a complete noob to software engineering, not knowing anything about HTML or hosting, or databases, I simply chose the game plan that worked for others; slapping together a WordPress site and pocketing the experience and a fixed fee.

The sites were nothing crazy, usually just a brochure-style page for a local business and a contact form. As gigs came in, the requirements of each client changed and I started to learn new things in order to fulfil those requirements.

For example, one time a client wanted something different in their website and had previously mentioned using Angular (🤢) so I spent a week or two grinding Angular tutorials in order to do the worked required of me.

This pattern of adapting to client requirements and learning something new became the side quests I pursued each year, all while my main quest—taking on more freelance clients—remained just out of reach.

Better loot!

From Angular, I started to learn about frontend frameworks like React and Vue and dabbled in both, ultimately sticking with Vue for the majority of my career since. But I couldn’t stop there. How do contact forms work? What’s the secret behind authentication?

These questions led me deeper into the skill tree; unlocking backend development with node.js, databases with SQL and NoSQL services, and even infrastructure setups.

Eventually I was starting to make side quests of my own, building out many, many project ideas over the past few years always with two goals in mind; "hey, maybe people will use this" and "this is a great XP grind". A lot of my own projects were focused on developing skills in areas I hadn't been before like building Mobile Apps.

Side note: Learning these skills eventually led me to getting a full time job as a software engineer!

However, the road wasn't always easy. There's been mistakes, and time spent on side quests with little to no XP gain, sometimes I'd learn something new thinking it would make the next main quest easier only for it to take longer or more difficult than my standard WordPress strategy.

One time, a client came to me asking for an Instagram Feed on their website, which I declined not knowing how to pull it off properly but a little time after I acquired a micro-SaaS doing that exact thing. Ultimately, this was a bad business decision, shrouded in good logic; I buy a side project that I can use to further my client gigs.

The year of boss fight prep

No year has showcased my side-questing addiction more than this one. At the beginning of the year, I was still working on ServerSinc, a server automation project meant to save me from the chaos of manual deployments of my own and client projects.

When I stopped working on it, I moved on to sharpening my skills by building packages for the Adonis framework. Frameworks are like swords for a developer—your main weapon in the quest for building great apps. These packages were like enchantments, levelling up my sword’s power with features like admin panels, billing systems, and blogging tools. Each one added new abilities, preparing me for client battles that hadn’t even appeared on the map yet.

But then, I realized I was spending so much time upgrading the sword that I wasn’t swinging it. Building a framework from scratch felt like crafting an entirely new legendary weapon. Sure, it would grant massive XP in a different skill tree, but it wasn’t the one I wanted to focus on. That’s when I found Laravel, a fully-loaded Excalibur with every enchantment I could dream of already included.

Over the past 6 months, I've been maining Laravel off and on for various different self-made side quests; absorbing the knowledge of the ancient texts (the Laravel docs) and Aaron Francis videos along the way.

Recently deciding I was comfortable enough using Laravel full time, I decided to start working on a WordPress-alternative in the framework that I'll use for every new client gig going forward; whether it's a low XP brochure site or high XP complex solution.

End Game (but not really, more like Prestige 2)

Looking back, it’s clear that while I may not have pursued my main quest directly, every side quest has been levelling me up in ways I couldn't have anticipated. From stumbling through WordPress sites in high school to becoming a software engineer, to diving into Laravel this year, each step has sharpened my skills and expanded my expertise. As 2025 approaches, I finally feel ready to take on the main quest.

In the end, my career is a lot like a looter-shooter: chaotic, unpredictable, and full of loot I didn’t know I needed.