2024 has come and gone. As is tradition, I want to use this post to review the year, my goals, what I did, and some of my favorite things.
Goals from last year
The last three years (2021, 2022, and 2023) I’ve set goals for myself going forward.
Goals from 2024
- ❌ Climb a v8
- ❌ Climb a 5.12c
- ❌ Publish more of my writing
- ❌ Finish creating A game
- ✅ Travel more
Soooo…this wasn’t the best year for goals and I think it marks a turning point for how I want to continue setting goals for myself going forward. Every year, I will have reasons for why I didn’t finish something. This year happened to be a year of a massive work project spanning April - August that took up so much time, really draining me in the process, and leaving me wanting more relaxing things after work. Thankfully it turned out well, and the people I work with are incredible humans making it worth it in the end.
That being said barely hitting one goal doesn’t feel good. You can’t predict what a year will bring. What events will derail plans or what new interests/passions will spawn new goals altogether? So this year I’m going to try setting “intentions”, these will have soft goals associated with them. But I’m going to measure them differently. Before that though, I want to take a look at the year. Go through some of the highlights and talk about some of my favorite things.
A review of 2024
The first big event of 2024 was a trip to go on the Germany, Italy & Switzerland tour via EF Ultimate Break (I’m not sure anyone reads this but if you stumble upon this I work at Education First, on these products). This was an absolute blast of a time, it was so illuminating and inspiring to meet the people who travel through Ultimate Break. My family was fortunate enough, that I did a lot of traveling growing up. A trip to Europe is not an intimidating endeavor for me. That being said, growing up with travel is a luxury not everyone has. Getting to see firsthand how a product like mine gives people the confidence to travel was genuinely very inspiring, and incredibly motivating. This was one of my favorite photos from the trip, atop a mountain in Lucerne.
Next up was a trip to the East Coast in April. It started as a work trip to Boston with the fun twist that my return flight was going to Montreal instead 🇨🇦. After spending a few days in Montreal, seeing the sights, eating the poutine, and meeting some internet friends for the first time. I booked a flight to Washington D.C. for yet another internet friend meetup. In total, I was gone 13 days beboping around the east coast and having a blast. My favorite picture from this trip was coworking on a rooftop alongside my friend Beardie.
Now we enter the part of the year where that big work project kicks into high gear. Working long hours, the whole team sprinted headlong toward a launch that was slated for sometime during the summer. I’m honestly too thankful for the people I work with, despite the long hours, and weekends everyone continued to keep their spirits high and build each other up. That didn’t make the time-altering effects stop, but we made it. Some highlights from March -> August including a 7 mile move north in Austin. This puts me within walking distance of a climbing gym and the train station (it doesn’t go very many places but it’s cool). I think the Elden Ring DLC was released sometime during this and was incredible. But other than that, these months were a lot of work. I didn’t fully settle into my new place until well into August. Favortie picture from this period was Evee in a coffee shop at 3:30 am on one of the last nights of on-call work.
The last half of the year involved lots of PTO where I mostly just stayed a home recuperating, not coding, and getting back into my various hobbies. While writing I can think of three things I’d want to remember in the future and will be relevant further down. The first is that September after years of resistance, joking with friends that I “didn’t need to stretch”, and generally ignoring all fitness but climbing I finally started going to a yoga class regularly. What a humbling, illuminating, and motivating experience. I was extraordinarily lucky to find an instructor that I love, who teaches a class I adore and is great at making sure everyone has something to do and work towards. The second was a trip back to Montreal! This time for a work Q1 kick-off, a few coworkers and I got there early. It was honestly such a blast seeing everyone, made me thankful all over again for the awesome people I work with. Lastly was a giant friends-giving party in Flordia. I and 10 of my closest friends descended upon the beaches of Flordia for a week of hanging out and good vibes. My favorite picture from this period was the top of a hike in Montreal.
For my money, those are the big highlights of the year that feel comfortable posting about online.
🏆 Favorite things of 2024
This is in no particular order, just a bunch of stuff I liked this year.
- Cotopaxi travel backpack - Not a lot to say, a very well-designed and durable backpack. It went with me a on almost every trip. Perfect for airports and planes alike.
- Elden Ring Shadow or the Erdtree - Incredible in every sense of the word. Challenging, fun, cathartic, and overall just an amazing experience.
- I AM YOUR BEAST - See this post for more thoughts. But overall just a really awesome game.
- Wind and Truth - The first arc of Stormlight Archive finished. What a ride, overall I enjoyed the book as a longtime Cosmere fan. But this was the book that had the lowest lows out of the 5 books for me. I’m writing a post on my thoughts which will be linked here eventually.
- Nebula - As I continue to try and curb my use of popular social platforms, reducing YouTube became something I wanted to do and Nebula filled in that gap perfectly. Plus I get to watch videos from a lot of the creators I follow earlier on there.
In addition here are a few “recap” images from this year.
Lots of time listening music this year 😅
✨ Intentions ✨ for 2025
As mentioned above I’d like to focus on a few themes or intentions that build to a specific end. I think focusing more broadly on intentions will take some of the pressure off and allow me to measure success based on progress while allowing me to still work towards things.
- Focus on my body - This involves two parts. Continue going to yoga/stretching, and train climbing. The two underlying goals are touching my toes and climbing a higher grade than I did this year.
- Create things I like - The two parts of this are to grind game development. I’m making one game a month alongside some friends to improve at this. The other part is to continue writing. I have half a dozen half-written posts I’d like to finish writing and release.