Metamorphosis for 2024

2023 was a very long and difficult year for me. I went through an unexpected spike of depression, suffered multiple of physical health problems, moved across the country (again), questioned my career, and bought a house. The year was very hectic.

All the same, 2023 was a very good year for my growth. I became a senior-level engineer. I rekindled a few lost friendships. I got into bouldering and running habitually. I finally moved all my data completely out of Google. I set up a NAS. I began working for a non-profit again. I became significantly more house-handy.

Growth is very important to me because it marks the progress and improvement of a person. For 2024 I have a few resolutions set for myself:

Self-host more. ¶

I've always relied on external VPSes and cloud providers to manage all my data. Moving away from Google this past year was a leap in the right direction but I'd like to take it a few steps further. I want to eventually host all my own data for privacy and maintainability reasons.

Finish renovating my house. ¶

I have spent hundreds of hours (and hundreds of dollars) the past few months renovating my new house. My initial goal for completing major renovations was July 2024 but I would like to aim for a earlier date. Fortunately, I am ahead of schedule by moving out of my old apartment earlier than I originally planned.

Go to therapy. ¶

I never considered therapy until recently. In the past, I have solved my mental health issues by overloading myself with work so I never had time to think about my problems, but I would like that unhealthy behavior to change. My goal with therapy is to better understand how my brain works so I can tackle my depression more effectively and learn how to love myself more.

Write more reviews and creative writing. ¶

While I am not the best writer by any means, I still love writing in my free time and posting various content on my website. I'm proud that I have been consistently posting to my website for so many years. As of late, however, I have only been writing technical pieces inspired by my daytime job, or writing very brief summaries of my full thoughts. This year, I would like to post more creative writing and media reviews. I've consumed so much phenomenal media the past two years (Elden Ring, Tears of the Kingdom, The Secret History, No Man's Sky, Across the Spider-Verse, Arcane) but haven't posted about any of them. I can start by revisiting one of these and writing about it. I am hoping to improve my writing in the process.

Stream and record videos again. ¶

In the first half of 2021 I began to get into streaming and making videos. My momentum was cut abruptly short by moving to California and a number of other life changes, but I want to get back into it. In fact, now that I own a NAS and have mostly settled in my new home, it should be significantly easier to record my own videos and store them.

I can never be certain of what the future holds regardless of what plans I set for myself; however, it is always worthwhile to reflect on the past and improve for the future. I optimistically look forward to 2024 with high regard and I hope to make it a great year!