Asklemmy

I made a major improvement in my ability to not give a fuck about my job.

I work in American retail.

i made a person

I made the decision to go back to school. There were various life reasons why I was unable to make that decision in my 20's, but I am happy to have the opportunity to learn again with a renewed sense of drive and direction.

My parents officially cut the life line -- I didn't need their money anymore and they're retired now.

But it made me take stock of my expenditure in a way I hadn't previously.

I met a wonderful woman. We are dating now

I got an invitation from someone I had been talking to online to come and have dinner with their family. It. Was. Awesome. I got a tour of their gardens, talked pest management, chicken composting, and propagation strategies, got a ukulele concert from their usually shy daughter with some special medical needs (and got to play something for her on the instrument she never shares), and had a lovely meal from their garden. Oh, and we traded plants and cuttings with each other to help diversify our gardens (and who they support)!

For complicated reasons over which we have had very little control, we have had to move house 3 times in the last 5 years.

In April of this year, thoigh, we finally found somewhere that we both really love and which should be pretty much permanent. I am very happy about that.

I got hella teeth pulled.

I know it sounds terrible, but it really needed to happen. I'm waiting on my bone grafts to set before starting on my first set of implants. Even with my plastic partials, it's a whole new world. I don't think I had cracked a genuine smile since highschool. Now I can't stop.

My car was totaled and I walked away.

Bought a house and started my dream job

I started turning away from atheism. I've always wanted to believe in God but i was literally unable to.

Everything sucked. 2023 was a calamity for me. I lost my best friend, I had a burnout, I got sick a lot, and it forced me to take 2 full weeks off to take care of myself in early December.

Those 2 weeks for myself are arguably the best thing I had this year however. I'll try to repeat this every year.

Finally sold that damn boat!!

My daughter (born 3 months early in mid-2022) was discharged from needing oxygen 24/7. After months of having to lug her tank and pulse oximeter around everywhere, even across a room, a wireless baby was a game-changer.

She's made huge progress in so many other ways, but this was the big one for us

Are we thinking in the short or long term here?

Short term (enjoyment for this year): I bought a motorcycle, something I've wanted to do for years but finally had the money and independence to do so this year

Long term (this will affect my future life in a good way): I got a summer research internship as a college student, which gives me valuable experience for later in life

I bought a house after saving for 6 long years.

I actually followed through on my "lose weight" resolution and dropped about 50lbs and put on some muscle.

I started therapy again and it's really helped me put the work in and learn to forgive the weird shit in my childhood. Feels good, mayn!

Well... there's not much. I have 2 nominations. They're not much, but it's something.

Discovering https://free-mp3-download.net/
I used to download low quality music from YouTube. Now I get FLACs.

2
I got to ride an old ZSSK 012 carriage. It's not comfortable, and it's also quite loud inside, but there's passenger seats in the back. The view makes it really worth it.

Video I took from the back

https://imgur.com/a/ClDOlaZ

There's also possibly another one, but I'll just keep that one in my head. It's a bit weird.

I got engaged!

I got a job that doubled my income and gave me the free time to do things like start a garden, learn macrame and spend a lot more uninterrupted time with my family. It was really life changing.

If I could undo this year I might though. I had 5 family members die including my grandma who raised me, my wife and I had a devastating miscarriage, my causing got hit by a car and may not be able to walk, I was diagnosed with a heart condition and put on lifelong medication and still might need open heart surgery, my deadbeat dad got out of jail and has been harrasing my mom and sister, and the icing on the cake, last week our best cat died.

Got to see the northern lights together with my so!

My eldest daughter is doing so well in violin that her school had to create a special level just for her and is busing her around to other string groups in the district for performances so they sound better.

So proud of that kid.

I started volunteering at a children’s theatre. Just finished the third of three production runs, seeing kids from 8 to 18 astound audiences with performances that surpass professional productions I’ve seen. It’s renewed my belief in the power of the arts to change lives, when my whole training and professional life has been in the sciences.

I started running this year and it has literally changed my life

Get fired and the hired with a boss that challenges me and trust me.

I made the first step in starting my own company. 2024 I’ll be working on getting more clients so that I can quit my 9-5

I switched from Xubuntu to Arch Linux.

I got accepted for my master's degree abroad, it's been a blast so far

I got a promotion, from a drafter to a designer. :)

This year has been a bit mundane. Good has been a steady stream with no particular highlights. Not complaining. I like stability.

Quit my corporate job for a small place with a mission to do good. Never going back to bigtech.

This was my covid makeup year. I sold the house I bought in 2020 and got one that suited me instead of whatever I could afford (my old apt was intentionally too small to spend time in so I could save for a house), I had a proper wedding ceremony to make up for the courthouse one in 2020 (which I attended on crutches). We went to some music festivals. Even at work I got to lead a project after the one i was meant to lead in 2020 got canceled by the pandemic.