2018 in Review
As yet another year comes to a close, it’s time for annual reflections! Every December, I like to look back at what happened over the preceding 12 months and ask myself questions like, “Where did I start out? What happened? And where am I going?” This time around, I want to work through all three. To begin…
Where did I start out?
This answer is short and simple. At the outset of 2018, I was 2 months into a new job, and had also recently moved away from the apartment that had been my home for 6 and a half years. By that time, I was comfortably settled into the new place. As for work, I was in the middle of building up a routine and figuring out how to do everything I was to be responsible for.
With the question of where I started answered, it’s time to move onward to…
What did I accomplish?
I’ll be blunt here: It’s a bit embarrassing looking back at the first half of the year! I couldn’t think of any notable accomplishments off the top of my head until June or so. I even tried digging through my emails to figure out what I was up to, and sure enough, there wasn’t anything exciting until the middle of May. I’ll chalk that up to being distracted by getting settled at work!
But anyway, to answer the question, you might remember that one of the biggest drawbacks to moving was resigning from my volunteer work since the shelter was too far from my new home. While I had applied to volunteer at two nearby shelters soon after moving, scheduling constraints prevented me from starting for several months. In May, I finally got started at two shelters — one on each day of the weekend.
I’m a little disappointed to say that the nature of the volunteer work isn’t quite the same as before (I knew this upfront). At the shelter I left late last year, my role was strictly socialization. In other words, I played with the cats so they would be used to being around people! The staff also knew me well and gave me wide latitude to work with the animals as I saw fit.
In contrast, at these new places, my foremost responsibility is to feed the cats and clean their cages. Only after finishing those tasks am I allowed to play with the cats. On the plus side, one shelter has promised me a spot in the socialization program as soon as there are openings. If this is the price I have to pay to get to the more interesting and rewarding work, then I guess I’ll deal with it!
Around the same time that I started volunteering again, I also had an opportunity arise for some consulting work. While I’m not allowed to share too much detail here since I signed a non-disclosure agreement, I will say this much: Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have been interested since it entailed working on things I had sworn off of months ago; however, I changed my mind when I discovered I would be working with some former co-workers and long-time family friends. It certainly also helped that the client gladly accepted the hourly rate I requested!
Speaking of work, that reminds me of another accomplishment. In my new job, I found that my existing skills were lacking when it came to certain tasks. I needed better tools for working with large sets of data and automating routine tasks. If you’ve ever tried to use Excel with hundreds of thousands of rows — to say nothing of millions of rows — you know what I’m talking about! My boss uses a language called R for lots of his analysis, and I decided to follow suit. I took a few introductory online courses (which are amazingly offered for free), got certified, and am now regularly using R for all sorts of things!
This year, I also made some new friends. The day before Independence Day, out of the blue, a coworker mentioned she and some friends were hosting a dinner party and invited me to join. Being the boring person I am, I of course didn’t have anything better to do, so I decided to go. When some of her friends started showing up, imagine my shock when I recognized one of them from school! We hadn’t seen each other for 7 years (although we had talked online briefly at one point), and it was fun catching up with him.
Since then, several of the people in that group have become good friends of mine. Every few weeks, somebody hosts something, whether it’s a birthday celebration, holiday dinner, or just a random get-together. I feel fortunate being included as a part of the group, and the events are especially enjoyable when the discussions inevitably become heated!
By now, I’m sure anyone who knows me even casually has realized I have notably omitted one huge event from this year so far. I’m saving the best for last! Let’s not dance around it anymore: Yes, I bought a house! Documenting this whole affair could easily take up an entire essay, but for this piece, I’ll keep it brief.
Towards the end of summer, I started thinking about what I wanted to do when my apartment’s lease was to expire at the end of October. One crazy idea came up: What if I bought a house? After all, a lot of my family is in the area, they’re not likely moving, and I want to be near them. On top of that, do I really see myself moving to a new area any time soon? Nope. With that, the search officially began in early September.
Searching was a lot easier than I expected. Frankly, the hardest thing about this part was getting my lazy ass out of my apartment in time to see open houses. To make a long story short, after visiting somewhere between 40 and 50 properties, I finally found one that really wowed me. I made an offer, and after a little negotiation, the sellers accepted! This is where things became nerve wracking.
If you’ve never bought a house before, at this point, you’ll be signing and initialing countless documents. Why is this so stressful? For starters, a house is almost two orders of magnitude more expensive than any other purchase I’ve made in my life before (a new car was the previous record holder, and that’s only a 5-year commitment). Needless to say, you better be damn sure this is what you want. On top of that, these papers say you understand and appreciate what you are getting into, and you will assume all responsibility for the property once it is officially yours.
Do I really think I fully understand what I’ve gotten myself into? If I’m being completely honest, no! That’s not to say I didn’t do the due diligence or that I have any regrets, but surely there’s much I still need to learn about owning and taking care of a house! I guess I’ll find out about those “known unknowns” as time goes on. Still, it’s a wonderful feeling coming home at night and being able to say, “This is mine.”
Phew! That was quite an eventful latter half of the year! Now that we’ve gone through the current year’s accomplishments, let’s consider the third and final question.
Where am I going?
Of course, this is all speculation and subject to change, but if I had to guess, there are 3 major things I will focus on in 2019.
#1
One big goal for the coming year is making my house into my home. I’ve already put together an extensive to-do list and have been slowly chipping away at the minor items, such as installing doorstops and touching up paint in a few spots. To give me some extra time to work on the house, I resigned from one of the animal shelters. That freed up my Saturdays.
The first major house project I’m going to tackle is redoing the garage because it’s so ugly — especially compared to the stunning kitchen just a few steps away! Painting over the drywall and installing some additional lighting should go a long way towards making the garage feel like it belongs with the rest of the house. Farther down the road, I want to accessorize the back yard with a barbecue and possibly a fire pit, and I may re-do my bathroom. We’ll see how I feel as the year goes on!
#2
Another goal for 2019 is learning more R. I’m comfortable with the basics, but I know there’s so much more one can do with the language! I started a few courses several months ago but ended up putting them on hold when other activities took precedence (namely, house-hunting). I aim to find some time to finish what I started so I’ll have an even bigger skillset.
#3
The third and final item is, in fact, something I’ve had on my list of goals for a decade now, yet much to my disappointment, it has repeatedly gone unachieved. I still want a relationship. With all the past difficulty, one must wonder: What makes me think this year will be any different?
Well, a few months ago, I let a coworker talk me into trying online dating again, and while I will be the first to admit I often find it downright painful, I can’t deny that it has been going better than previous attempts. Why that is, or what’s changed, I can only guess, but I do find it an encouraging sign. Maybe in 2019, I’ll finally get somewhere with this ever-elusive goal.
That about wraps it up! We’ve reviewed where I started in 2018, what I did, and where I want to go. If you made it this far, thank you for reading, and I wish you a Happy New Year! May the coming year bring plenty of occasions to celebrate, and I hope we are all able to accomplish the goals and resolutions we set for ourselves. I look forward to running through this exercise again next December to see how things unfolded!
