Year In Review (2024)

Reflecting on the last year

It's the day after Christmas, which means it's almost the new year. It's been really great to take some extended time off of work and spend a lot of time with my family.

I'm writing this post as a way to exercise gratitude. I recently realized that this is the first year in a really long time that there hasn't been a significant amount of change in my life. I lived in the same apartment the entire year, worked the same job.

Some things that I'm gratfeul for this year:

  • Had a lot of opportunities to travel from Columbus, where I live, back home to Warren, where I grew up and where my family still lives.
  • A lot of my friends graduated college or started working full-time in Columbus, including one friend who moved from my hometown to Columbus.
  • Got to travel to Boston to visit my friend who just moved there to start a full-time job
  • Continued to grow a lot in my role at work. Had a great opportunity to develop something that different teams might be able to utilize.
  • Got back into running and ran my first 5k since 2018 (my last high school cross country race)
  • Started playing Tennis regularly with my friends over the summer.
  • Had a great year of watching sports. Got to attend SO MANY awesome games:
    • Columbus Crew vs. Aston Villa friendly (saw a Cucho hat trick)
    • Ohio State vs Indiana (top 10 matchup)
    • Ohio State vs Tennessee (top 10 matchup & CFP First Round)
  • Participated in my high school's "Alumni Marching Band" with my friends, and my little brother who is still in the band.
  • Got to take an amazing trip to Asheville, NC with my girlfiend over the summer. Saw some great mountaintop views and a mama bear with her cubs!
  • Saw a total solar eclipse! My girlfriend's parents' house was in the path of totality, so a few friends came with us to watch. I feel lucky we didn't have to travel far at all to see something so amazing.

Some things I'm looking forward to in the new year:

  • My girlfriend and I are planning on moving apartments since our current apartment is next to a busy street. I'm looking forward to a year with (hopefully) some more peace and quiet, and potentially a new cat if our next lease allows it!
  • My girlfriend will likely complete student teaching and wrap up her master's degree in education, and she can hopefully get a full-time teaching job in the fall. It has been awesome to see her leave the start of a career she didn't like to pursue teaching instead
  • Running my first 10K race in June at the Columbus 10K!
  • Cheering on six different friends of mine who are running the same half marathon race in April

"Goals" / new years resolutions:

  • HOPEFULLY writing more blog posts. Writing these posts are very enjoyable to me and fun to look back at
  • Taking more photos. I'm so bad at this. I really enjoyed the app "BeReal" and how it forced me to take a photo of myself / what I was doing every day (before the app got ruined by ads). I might need to find an app that does something similar