Whenever someone asks how my year has been, I typically use the term “roller coaster” to refer to all the ups and downs. But it is such an underwhelming description of how 2024 went for me.

Early in the year, my family found out that my father had cancer. Everything pointed to it being treatable and my dad facing good odds. And he was fighting it every step of the way just as he fought every day of his life. There were not many moments where I actually thought that we’d lose him. He was the toughest man I’d ever known. It was just too soon. It always is.

I still have stories to share about the man my father was, but I’m not quite ready to share them yet.

The day before he passed away, I was offered the position of Team Lead at work. All I wanted to do was talk it over with him, but I never got the opportunity. I did say yes to the role a couple of weeks later, which has been a rewarding experience with a steep learning curve. I look forward to becoming an even more well-rounded leader in 2025.

A little over a month later, I lost my maternal grandfather to cancer too. It was a tough loss, but I also felt like I had gotten the chance to say my goodbyes. My family had also gotten its second chance with Papa after he had beat cancer years earlier. We were given those extra years, but it’s never easy.

While we’re at it, I might as well get the last sad news out of the way. I also lost my eldest cat, Smeagol, in August. We had nearly 21 years together, growing up and growing old. But it was his time. He lived a long life for a cat, and I’m glad to have gotten to spend all those years with him. I couldn’t have asked for a more annoying best friend. It’s still quiet around the house without his meows.

The year wasn’t all doom and gloom. There were some major highlights and big wins throughout the year. Let me just jump straight into some of them.

Travel

Nothing overseas this year, but there were quite a few adventures along the way. In total, I traveled five times and to several locations within some of those trips. I’m just going to roll through these quickly and mostly drop some photos in remembrance.

Montréal, Canada

I kicked off my travel this year on a team work trip to Montréal. It’s always great to have face-to-face time with the team. Hat tip: check out the AURA Experience at Notre-Dame Basilica if you get the chance. It’s well worth the experience.

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Alabama Road/Hiking Trip

For my summer vacation, I took some time to explore various public and private parks in my home state of Alabama. Majestic Caverns, Noccalula Falls, and Fort Payne were among the places that I visited.

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Miami

In November, my team and I met for the second and final time of 2024 in Miami, Florida. Overall, it was a solid trip where we regrouped after the loss of some beloved colleagues. And we did our usual food and walking tour. This time: Little Havana.

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Salt Lake City and Dragonsteel Nexus

My sister, Amy, and I traveled to Salt Lake City to attend Brandon Sanderson’s Dragonsteel Nexus 2024 convention. It was the first fan convention that either of us had ever attended. We also took a tour out to the Bonneville Salt Flats, the Great Salt Lake, and just over the border into Nevada.

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New York

Immediately after my Salt Lake City trip, I flew into New York for Automattic leadership training. It was an intense few days, and I didn’t snap a lot of pics. But here are a few that I liked:

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Niceville

For the first weekend of my Christmas holiday, I drove down to Niceville, Florida to visit my stepmom and stepsister. On the final day, we took a trip out to the beach in Destin. It was my last trip of the year.

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Did I Hit 2024’s Goals?

As usual, I like to look over the past year and see if I hit the goals that I laid out for myself on January 1. Overall, despite the ups and downs, I believe I fared reasonably well.

Health and Fitness

I had some very specific health and fitness plans and managed to do very well with them:

• ✅ Get below 210 lbs. (I was 200 in October at my last checkup).
• ✅ Keep my blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol in normal ranges.
• ✅ Move down to an XL t-shirt size.
• ✅ Reduce meds (off one, more to go).
• 🤷 Boost my fitness regimen. I didn’t really take this far enough, but I do consistently walk every day.

Reading

I had a challenge to read 50 books this year. I knew it would be a stretch, especially because I tend to read epic fantasy quite a bit. I think it’s only fair to count anything with 1,000+ pages as at least three books, right? Right?

The final tally? I read 33. Not too shabby.

Creative Pursuits

I didn’t really set any specific goals for the year, so I’m not sure if 2024 was a success or failure. All in all, it wasn’t a particularly creative year for me outside of work. I still have multiple projects pending that I want to see to completion. Maybe I’ll make more specific plans for 2025.

Learning Spanish

I am now on a 380-day streak on Duolingo. My goal was to do at least one lesson each day for the entire year. It’s safe to say that I rocked this goal!

Personal Finance

I pretty much accomplished everything that I set out to do this year with finances:

• ✅ Max out my 401K, HSA, and IRA.
• ✅ Pay off the remaining ~$10K of my student loans.
• ✅ Continue to pay down my other debts monthly: mortgage and lawn mower.
• ✅ Save 1% of my property’s value for future repairs.
• ✅ Build up a few remaining savings goals.
• ✅ Don’t fall prey to lifestyle creep (with the caveat that I splurged a bit in December).

I had a stretch goal to hit a specific net worth, but I fell just short. Mostly, that’s just due to what the stock market looks like in December, which is out of my control.

Garden and Food Forest

For the garden, I planted my greens, peas, tomatoes, and more. At times, I took on too much. But I also slowed down late in the year. But I did plant the things that I had planned to.

In the food forest, I planted quite a few new trees. At the moment, I have over 30 fruit trees, seven blueberry bushes, four pecan trees, and a few muscadine vines. More to come in 2025!

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Previous years: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2008, 2007