This year, I started coding seriously, and I was able to hit 2,025 commits. For me, 2025 was a significant year because I knew it would help me reach my goals, and learning to code would open many new doors. I realized that every commit counts, and with each one, I learned more and grew.

What's the deal?

Hitting this milestone taught me a lot about the importance of being consistent and trusting the process, as I was able to learn full-stack development, Linux, DevOps, and many other skills in a single year. I realized that small daily actions, like committing, make me better over time, and even such tiny steps improve me significantly. Beyond the numbers, what mattered most was the change in my mindset and the fun I had during the process. I tackled numerous errors and cried many times because the stubborn Nginx issue wouldn't go away, and I would stare at localhost:8080 with a "Bad Gateway" error. However, I realized that the fun and memories I had during the learning process are much more important than the result. For example, I won't forget the first time I wrote a full-stack app, or my first-ever production app, at links.egeuysal.com. Those moments were magical, and to be honest, I'm just starting. I'm currently building a SaaS product called Ryva, and I'm likely to fail, but that's okay because learning to code at such an advanced level at such a young age has a crucial benefit. Time. I'm grateful for this opportunity and to my dad for purchasing the laptop I needed for backend engineering. Thanks, Dad!

Highlights and Fun Stats

• What usually takes years, I compressed into one focused year.
• I've built over 25 apps that are deployed.
• I remember one time I built and deployed something in 53 minutes. To be exact, it's link.egeuysal.com

Some of the projects I'm most proud of are Ryva, which I'm still building, but the infra is just sooo solid. Additionally, I had a project named Cove, which is similar to a messaging app but with a primary purpose of solving the issue of lost links. It's by far my most complicated project, and it's also fully built. It took me around a month to make this project because I didn't have a lot of time, and also, the backend is currently down. It's under cove.egeuysal.com. Another project I'm so proud of is Bridge, and I'm still using it. Bridge solved the problem of organizing notes and sharing notes instantly via a CLI tool or the new UI! It's still actively maintained and receives new updates; check and try it out at bridge.egeuysal.com. Now, it also supports tables, todos, and syntax-highlighted code blocks. I used localStorage so that Bridge can remember which todos are checked or not checked. It uses GitHub-flavored Markdown.

Lessons Learned

Being delusional can be helpful if used correctly. Set yourself such great goals and work for them so hard that it's undeniable you're going to achieve them. My goal was to learn full-stack engineering in such a short time, and I succeeded thanks to everything. The next goal is to build a SaaS that scales to $100k ARR by graduation. It will be legendary.

Besides, I learned that taking tiny steps is crucial because if you code 12 hours a day, you will burn out eventually. Instead, code 2 hours every day and never stop; protect the flow state and momentum. In addition, building projects was the best decision I've made. When I started, I wasted my first two months relying on AI to code everything, which didn't help me at all. For example, timora.egeuysal.com was my first actual project. Yet, it wasn't my project, but AI made it. Over time, I slowly transitioned from AI to myself, and links.egeuysal.com was the first project that I styled, not the AI, but I still had AI build the logic because I wasn't sure how to do it myself. Lastly, whenever I picked a project topic, I always tried to choose a topic that solves a real issue, rather than AI-related nonsense or something generic, but an idea that had the potential to become a SaaS.

Looking Ahead

I'm excited for 2026 because I will finally be able to ship something real and gain traction, rather than getting lost in the code. When I started, I began coding to build a SaaS, and it evolved into something much more special. It was mentally draining when I wasn’t seeing progress, but once I saw the end of the plateau, everything got significantly faster, and I was able to learn the whole backend + DevOps in under 4 months. Finally, the dreams are becoming realities, and a new journey, beyond coding, is starting. Stay tuned and also sign up for ryva.dev.