Introduction
Just because I thought it was fun, here are some other contenders for the DALL-E generated blog post image (the first one is the actual thumbnail for this post):
DALL-E Generated ArtWork - prompt: “the text “2022” spelled out in stars over a city in a van gogh style”
DALL-E Generated ArtWork - prompt: “the text “2022” spelled out in stars over a city in a van gogh style”
DALL-E Generated ArtWork - prompt: ““the text “2022” in a van gogh style over a city””
Quick Note
This was a big year for tech in general. Not really reflected well in the market, but things like Dall-E and ChatGPT took the tech world by storm. Perhaps it’s a bit of recency bias, but I think the advances are far beyond what people would have dreamed about by 2023.
As usual, there’s a lot I could talk about here. The year started off with a Bengals Superbowl run, me moving to SF, and other way way more important and larger events, like the war in Ukraine, the market tanking given growing Fed concerns over inflation, covid still rearing its head again. However, I’m going to take a smaller look and just focus on my year and try to have some self reflection as I kick off the year.
Thoughts on 2022
Yeah so where to begin.
2022 I moved to San Francisco. I got to live with two of my best friends in an incredible city filled with outdoors and nature. I biked, I ran, I surfed some (and saw two whales playing maybe 100 or 200 feet from us). I met new people, made new friends, went on good dates, went on bad dates, and generally tried to soak in the West Coast lifestyle. You can read more about it on my [Leaving SF][leaving-sf ] post.
All of that being said, I definitely did struggle some. Mentally - mostly. Probably some of the darkest days I’ve had in a looooong time in the middle of my SF tenure.
I realize that for a public blog post - perhaps that is too personal, but I feel it’s good to air some of this out. I journal daily, and talk through some of these things, but I think publicly stating insecurities like this is empowering and helpful.
Physically, 2022 was a good year for me. I got to run my first ever trail run - Dances with Dirt Devil’s Lake - in Steinke Basin in the Wisconsin Dells. I was biking and running a ton and felt good. SF is a feeder for great outdoor athletic bonding.
And the big news on my 2022 radar is that I moved out of SF. Basically one year later, and I moved to NYC. For a plethora of reasons but a leading factor is that many of my friends were moving and I wanted to live in the city at least for some time before not really being able to / not wanting to.
I’ve been here now for about 4 weeks and I shit you not - those 4 weeks have been some of the most fun of my life. I think the city might kill me but I literally could not be having more fun and be more appreciative of the city. It feels like my life is a sitcom at the moment. Incredible work friends, incredible college friends, great roommates, old flames, and new ones. I’m very excited for 2023.
Going into 2023
Re specifically for NY goals… Perhaps it’s in my nature to oscillate, or perhaps it’s the New York City air and vibe, but I’m going to go back to trying an Excel / Google sheets driven approach to keeping track of my New Years Resolutions. Once again, I’m divvying up my resolutions between daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly.
I’m pretty proud of the work I put into the template. And I left some example resolutions as to how it might work.
Check out my New Years Resolution Google Sheets template here → here .
Screenshots are attached as well:
Conclusion
I’m not sure really if I have a strong conclusion for 2022. I think it was probably one of my toughest years mentally yet. I seriously would not have gotten through it if it wasn’t for my friends and my family. I am beyond lucky and appreciative of my sister, mom, and dad. My aunt and my cousins also mean more than to me than just about anything. And I think I should operate and give them more of my mental energy and capacity than I currently do on a day to day basis. And my friends? I mean where to begin. Henry and Rhian were literal godsends this year. Will has, and always will be one as well. Katherine played a huge role in my year - and taught me a ton. Nick and I got closer which I’m so excited about. Thomas - my absolute best friend from college - was there for me when I needed him most (and I couldn’t be more excited to be in the same city as him).
Anyway! Signing off, but very excited for 2023. Looking forward to it being the best year yet.