My top 10 moments from 2024
Rhett & Link have a tradition of using their final podcast episode of the year to rank their top 10 moments of the year. These are always some of my favorite episodes of Ear Biscuits, so I thought I should try to do the same thing for myself.
For me, “top moments” refers to experiences I had that made a lasting impact on my life even if they were difficult. I was fortunate to have a fairly good year though, as opposed to 2023 which was probably the hardest year of my life. Ranking my moments was difficult, so don’t read too much into the order I’ve listed them in. I’ll start at number 10 and work up to number one.
10. Becoming obsessed with music again.
I give full credit to Charli xcx for making this happening; the release of BRAT was so monumental for my musical journey that I can’t possibly measure its impact. She was my most listened artist of the year and her songs made up half of my top 10 songs. It was because of BRAT that I discovered Magdalena Bay, SOPHIE, Alice Longyu Gao, and Caroline Polachek… each of whom also dominated my year’s discography. For most of my adult life I’ve probably averaged less than 5,000 minutes a year of music listening, and I’d go long stretches of not listening to anything.
9. Celebrating one year of playing tennis.
In an effort to stay active and be more social, I started taking tennis lessons and joined a tennis club in late 2023. For the entire year of 2024, I played tennis 2-3 times a week religiously and it’s probably been one of the greatest decisions of my entire life. Much like BRAT, I can’t begin to fathom the innumerable ways in which it has impacted my life for the better. To celebrate my 1 year anniversary I finally bought new tennis shoes and a better racket.
8. Moving into a new house.
My first house was purchased during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic with my ex when interest rates were at historic lows. When our relationship ended in 2023, I knew that I needed to get into a new place in order to be able to fully move on. I cried a lot on the day that I moved into the new home, but after about a month I was settled and at peace.
7. Seeing my niece grow and playing with her.
She turned 1 year old in 2024 and it’s been so much fun seeing her grow and getting to spend time with her. I hadn’t really spent time around kids or babies as an adult, so it was inspiring to watch her curiosity. The concept of Shoshin (Beginner’s Mind) has been very important to me ever since I started studying Buddhism 7 years ago, so watching her has been a helpful reminder to work on staying young at heart.
6. Dating for the first time.
I’m writing a much longer retrospective about my year in dating, so I’ll save most of my reflections for it… but overall I really enjoyed actively dating for the first time at the age of 31. I learned about myself, developed some new skills, made new memories, met a lot of cool people, and even ended up with some new friendships as a result.
5. Making my first web app.
This is probably the freshest experience from the year because it happened in December, but it’s been very consequential. I’ve been a software enthusiast as a user and a non-technical employee at software companies for over a decade, but I always dreamed of one day making my own things. I took the plunge by making a relatively simple tool for Bluesky/Atproto that let’s you sort through all of your posts and selectively delete stuff that you no longer want using the KonMari method. I’m even already hard at work developing my second web app which should launch in January!
4. Spending extended time together as a family.
My immediate family hadn’t gone on a family vacation together since us kids became adults, that is until last year when we traveled abroad together for the first time. It seems like we’re now going to try to make some sort of trip a yearly tradition, so we rented a beach house together for a week during the summer. It was very relaxing and fun just to hang out with everyone.
Secondarily, when Hurricane Helene slammed through the southeastern United States we were without power for 3-5 days and I was able to use my electric vehicle to power a large portion of my house, so my immediate family camped out at my place for a lot of the outage. It was a nice excuse to see everyone.
3. Making new friends who are geographically close.
I’ve lived in the same general region for most of my life, and I started to realize that a lot of my geographically close friendships had naturally fizzled out for one reason or another over the years. People move away, life stages change, etc. I started to make a concerted effort to make new connections even though I knew it was going to be an uphill battle. While I didn’t suddenly find myself with a massive new friend group, I did end the year with a handful of special connections that went beyond a few hangouts, and for that I’m very grateful. I may write a longer post about this in the future because I know a lot of people find themselves in a similar predicament and aren’t even sure where to even start.
2. Leaving my job to go on an unpaid sabbatical.
I graduated college in the mid 2010s and worked part-time in school, so I’ve been a “professional” for a decade now without taking enough time off. I’m not a workaholic by any means and have taken a handful of small vacations here and there, but the sustained period of work did take a toll on my overall wellbeing. I’m incredibly privileged to have worked in some relatively high paying jobs (not for my industry necessarily, but for the region and social sphere in which I live), so I’ve been lucky to have enough savings that it makes taking a sabbatical a financially responsible thing to do.
I’d like to give a special shoutout/thanks to Mosh (Michelle Lee) and Robin Berjon for being such nice managers/coworkers in my most recent position at IPFS (and for being so understanding of my need to step away). Mosh and I met on Twitter several years ago and she must have seen something in me that led her to think I would be a good fit for some projects that she was overseeing/advising. That was the second time that being a chronically online poster somehow led to formal employment.
My sabbatical is now coming to a close, so I’ll be beginning to explore what’s next for my career in 2025. I’m refreshed now and excited to enter into the next decade of my career with renewed passion and clarity. If you’d like to work together in 2025 or think I might be a good fit for something in your orbit, feel free to DM me on Bluesky, use my contact page, or send me a text if you the number. My skillset is very diverse.
I’m most interested in technology that enables humans to live healthier and more rewarding lives… stuff like thoughtfully designed software (are.na, iA writer, Bluesky, iOS apps), impactful consumer hardware (Withings home health, Apple Watch, novel computing), and emerging protocols/communities (atproto).
1. Being happy again.
As I said in the introduction, 2023 was probably the hardest year of my life so far. I experienced more difficult emotions than easy ones, and I felt like I was drowning a lot of the time. Thankfully, I was able to persevere with the help of family, friends, better healthcare, and lifestyle changes. All of the hard work I put in meant that a good portion of 2024 turned out to be extremely happy and fulfilling… I came out the other side feeling healthier than ever.
I have a renewed gratitude for life and the good things in it.
Honorable mentions
- Investing time in are.na
- Getting back on social media (Bluesky) after a long break
- Going to the Mythical Tour
- Trip to see snow with my sister
- Picnics with my dog in the park
Here’s to whatever comes my way in 2025! Happy new year!
