Vlog: On the Road Again, Episode 4

Welcome back to On the Road Again episode 4, from NearForm hosted by Michele Riva. Michele is a (happy) Staff Engineer here at NearForm and has a prolific speaking schedule. On his excursions to various conferences around the world Michele meets all kinds of interesting people and has new experiences which he will be sharing with us here and on his YouTube channel .

Michele is a (happy) Google GDE and (happy) Microsoft MVP and the author of Real World Next.js . You can learn more about Michele through  this blog post  or through his  own website .

Episode 4 of On the Road Again is about Michele’s time in Milan for Codemotion in October 2022.

Below is a text transcript of the video with timestamps. Michele: (0:00)

Hello, everyone. It's Michele here, staff engineer at NearForm, and today I'm in Milan for Codemotion 2022. Yeah, let's start the party.

(0:23)

I did my very first talk at Codemotion in 2019, exactly three years ago from now. So having a closing keynote here at Codemotion, it's really, really meaningful to me, and I can't really wait for it and truly looking forward to talking on stage.

There could be like three people in the audience and that would still be one of the most important stages for me. It's not a matter of how many people I can talk with, it's not a matter of how big the audience is, it's just being there at Codemotion, which is the conference that changed my life forever.

So I'm very, very grateful and I can't wait for it. I hope you can hear my voice because there's a lot of traffic.

(3:25)

Talks are over. It's now time for party and speaker dinners. See you there.

(7:18)

That was my very first talk at Codemotion 2019, exactly three years ago. And being there today, it's like closing a cycle for me, so I'm very, very emotional right now as you can guess.

Thank you. Whatever you go, whatever conference it is, there is one common denominator that is going to change your life forever. It's people. Whatever you do, be it Codemotion, be it a local matter, be it your office, be it your Zoom calls, no matter what, people are everything.

Every single time that you find yourself stuck in your career, every single time that you feel like you're not enough... And believe me, I've been suffering from the imposter syndrome for a long time. Maybe it's nothing, maybe I'm the imposter for real, but that's a whole new story.

Whenever you find yourself stuck, it's not for the book that you never read, it's not the tutorial you never finished, but it's the people you never talk with. I used to present myself, first of all, presenting my dog Linux, of course. I used to present myself as a staff engineer, at NearForm, Google Developer Expert, and Microsoft MVP.

But after I found my dream and I've been able to realize at least a tiny part of it, because it would take my whole life to realize it completely, I'm not a staff engineer anymore. I'm a happy staff engineer. I'm a happy Google Developer Expert and a happy Microsoft MVP.

And one very last thing just for you to know how I feel since I started doing what I love daily, how I felt after knowing myself, which has been incredibly painful and an incredibly long run, I have a small poem which I'm not going to tell because I could get very emotional. But while I wait for the MC to come on stage, I'd like you to give it a read. This is how it feels to me to realize my dream. Thank you.

'This is how a human being can change:

there's a worm addicted to eating grape leaves.

Suddenly he wakes up.

Call it grace, whatever,

something wakes him,

and he's no longer a worm.

He's the entire vineyard,

and the orchard too, the fruit, the trunks,

a growing wisdom and joy

that doesn't need to devour'