2018 — A Year in Review

The best year I’ve ever had

During this time of year, a fair amount of people begin to reflect on the previous year of accomplishments, disappointments, and everything in between. Many people also begin to plan what they want to do differently and improve upon for the next calendar year. This normally takes the form of a New Years Resolution, but I wanted to tell you about the strategy I used for 2018 instead.

Last year, just after New Year's Eve, I wrote a blog post titled 28 Goals For 2018. The motivation behind that blog post was to ensure I was working hard to have the best year of my life and had goals that I was consistently working towards throughout the year.

I very consciously decided that wanted to do a list of ‘goals for the year’ instead of a ‘New Years Resolution’ for a couple of reasons:

1. You’re bound to fail at a resolution, even if just temporarily, at some point. And as soon as you fail, it gives you ample opportunity to subconsciously or consciously say ‘Oh, I failed, so now I can just quit, right?’
2. My thinking behind setting goals for the year is that I have a whole year to complete them! If you think about it like that, an entire year is so much time to accomplish your goals, but it’s also not too much time that you never actually work towards completing your goals. The goals are consistently on your mind and you have a finite amount of time before you plan on completing them.

The other thing I did with these goals was set fairly lofty goals… I set quite a few goals that were just outside of the realm of possibility, but still close enough that I could imagine somehow actually doing them in 2018. Sure, there are quite a few things that I wasn’t able to accomplish because of this, but it forced me to completely rethink how I was approaching accomplishing these goals. Although I may not have accomplished a lot of them, setting lofty goals also caused me to accomplish some things I would have never imagined doing otherwise. I also probably made way more progress on some of my bigger goals due to this than I would have otherwise.

Overall, I made some damn good progress towards a lot of my goals. I accomplished some things that I am extremely proud of. I had some goals I thought I would do, that turned into other amazing accomplishments instead. And I truly think 2018 was the best year of my life so far, and I’m really happy to be able to say that.

Here are some highlights from my year that I’m proud of:

Doing Work at RapidAPI I’m Proud Of

This past year was the first year that I had a full-time job throughout the entire year. I’ve worked for RapidAPI for a little over a year and a half now and it has been such an amazing experience! Like any job, it’s had its highs and lows, but all in all, I’m really proud of the company RapidAPI has become and is continuing to work towards being. The entire team has done some absolutely amazing work, and it’s been a year of me doing amazing work that I’m proud of too. I can’t wait to see what we continue to do as a team and as a company.

Countries I Visited for the First Time in 2018

I almost feel like I sometimes talk about traveling too much, but it’s only because it is such a big part of my life and I love to do it so much. Whether it’s for work or for fun, any excuse I can take to get out and go see the world I’ll absolutely take it!

I’ve seen quite a few amazing countries and had some of the most amazing experiences, and I truly find that to be the most valuable part of my life right now. I love meeting new people, seeing new places and cultures, and having stories to share with other people to hopefully motivate them to get out and go see the world too.

Here is a list of the 10 countries I visited for the first time this year, as well as one of my favorite memories from that trip (although there are many, many more memories I have from all of these places).

• Dresden, Germany — Never resetting my sleep schedule because I was only there for three days, which then made staying awake all night at the German Techno club very easy.
• Bali, Indonesia — A monkey took a water bottle out of my pocket, untwisted the cap, and then proceeded to drink the rest of the water. It was so bizarre and extremely funny to watch. (Honorable mention: just doing nothing by the pool all day at the Villa I was staying at).
• Tokyo, Japan — One morning I went out to go see the city and find a place for breakfast. I ended up having one of the best pastries I’ve ever had and a lovely coffee that morning, and it was just a peaceful, perfect morning.
• Barcelona, Spain — Partying until 7:00 am, with The Chainsmokers playing the best DJ set I’ve ever seen, as the sun rose, on the beach in Barcelona, with my best friend Sam.
• Amsterdam, Netherlands — Staying on a houseboat in the canals of Amsterdam with Sam and just relaxing, catching up, and talking about life.
• Boom, Belgium — Tomorrowland. I don’t need to say anything more than that because it was the best weekend of my life, but I have one particular memory I love: crowd surfing while riding on a 5-foot long inflatable whale at the Galantis show. What an unreal.
• Oslo, Norway — Honestly, all I did was rest and recover at a hotel during my layover coming back from Tomorrowland…
• Singapore, Singapore — Exploring and taking pictures in one of the most beautiful and unique cities I’ve ever visited.
• Tel Aviv, Israel — Getting to meet the entire RapidAPI team during our company offsite. But also the night we went to a bar with some of our team and we ordered every single drink on the menu.
• San José, Costa Rice — Paragliding. It was unlike anything I’ve ever experience before and really felt like you were a bird soaring through the air.

Spending Time with the Most Amazing People

Whether it’s the people I’ve known for years or the new people I’ve met throughout all of my adventures, one of the most important things in my life is the people around me. I just wanted to use this opportunity to give a shout out, I love you, and I appreciate you to some of the amazing people who have had an impact on me this year.

Sam, Katherine, and Matt: My best friends all from different peoples of my life. I love nothing more than catching up with, hearing about what you’re up to, and seeing how we’re all working towards being the best we can be. Being able to talk about life as well as go on some crazy adventures like traveling the world, Tomorrowland/so many concerts, exploring Colorado, relaxing and catching up in Illinois, Vegas, and much more. I love and appreciate all of you and wouldn’t be who I am without you. Here’s to seeing all of you even more in 2019.

My parents: You have truly made me who I am today and I could not be more grateful. I like to think I’m doing pretty well for myself, but it’s really all due to what you’ve done for me first and helping set me up for success. Thanks for putting up with my nonsense and shenanigans, me not calling home enough, and forgetting to tell you about when I’m leaving the country. I appreciate you understanding and letting me do my thing. I always would love to talk more, so please feel free to call me as much as you like. I love you both more than I can tell you and thank you for everything.

Everyone I’ve met in San Francisco: I know I’m not in town nearly enough, but thanks for always wanting to catch up when I am actually there. It’s been great getting to know you and I hope to continue getting to know all of you and getting closer throughout this next year. Andrea, I know you’re back in Switzerland now, but you were a huge part of my time in SF. Ben, it’s amazing that we’re always able to catch up after a few weeks and it’s totally normal for both of us. Hopefully 2019 we will finally find an apartment to move in together. Dawson, thanks for introducing me to so many people and I hope you’re doing so well traveling the world. Idit, it’s been great to work with you and continue to talk about personal and professional development.

What the Next Year has in Store

I can absolutely say this last year has been the best one yet, so here’s to another amazing year and making it even better than 2018. I cannot wait to continue sharing what I’m up to and doing amazing things with everyone in my life.

I hope every single one of you has the most amazing year too. Leave a comment down below with the best thing you did in 2018 and one goal you have for 2019!