Some unstructured thoughts on the coming year, in true “If I Had More Time, I Would Have Written a Shorter Letter” format.
This year is probably the year I have run the least in the last 10 years. While similar in latitude to Austin, running in Florida is just a whole different beast. The humidity is awful and there is such a dearth of parks and trails. But I (after at least 2 years of dilly dallying) finally signed up for the Masters Swim class at my local state college and have been swimming twice a week since September. And I re-registered for next semester plus Saturday mornings.
I’m also committing to regular weight-lifting this year. I did employer-sponsored cross-fit from 2016 - 2018 and I had a real love/hate relationship with it, but it was so good for my body and mental health. I’m going to try just starting the Strong Lifts 5 x 5 program with some tweaks and I’m trying to come up with a no-equipment version that I can do easily when we’re away, which I hope is a lot more this year than previous years.
It seems that every year since 2020 I have wanted to travel more but life just doesn’t cooperate. I had hoped to be at my last job for several years but there were layoffs and structural shifts and while I made it out unscathed, it felt like my time to leave was imminent if I wanted to maintain any career trajectory. So I spent most of the middle of 2024 interviewing and doing take-homes and let’s be real, handling multiple rejections. It’s tough out there and all the job seekers have all my sympathy right now. But I did land a new fully remote role (my actual first choice in all the many applications) in September and I’m excited by the work I’m doing again, which is its own cool reward. But I do it means things will be stable a bit and give us a good chance to visit a few places. We’re desperately seeking somewhere out of the south to spend our summers and perhaps our longer retirement.
But it’s complicated because planning is not our strong suit and having plans tends to stress us both out in different ways, so IDEK, I guess we will see where we land.
And as is my usual dichotomous self, I want to be both more and less online. I want to actually post more blog posts and contribute to the small and dwindling number of real people left online trying to connect with others, but I want to avoid the social media traps and doom scrolling. It’s a delicate balance that requires time and attention and prioritizing, and that’s hard, mmkay? Because mostly when I sit down at my personal laptop, I want to watch aspirational youtubes and futz with my backend blog system, not actually spill my thoughts out on the screen.
But here we are, and the time will pass either way, so I’m going to try to make the most of it.