2022 year in review
This took me a million and a half years to write, but finally, here's my 2022 in review!
The good!
I started running again. Yes, I've started running in both 2020 and 2021, but in 2022, I stuck with it and completed Couch to 5k over the summer! I even ran two 5ks this year and I'm happy to be back at it.
I danced in a recital! Yes, my sister and I signed up for adult hip hop classes at my niece's dance studio, and we danced in our first show right before the holidays! I am not the greatest dancer in the world, but it's fun. I can't wait for our big show in June!
I'm finding things to do in western Massachusetts. I've joined a few Meetup groups, one for women in the area, a knitting group, a board game group, and a craft beer group. I've been staying busy with all these groups and I hope to continue attending these groups in 2023!
I traveled! In 2022, I traveled to Palm Springs for the Lullabot retreat, Portland OR for DrupalCon Portland, Charlotte to see my brother, Des Moines for work, Providence to visit friends, Portland ME for an extended weekend solo trip, Rhinebeck with my knitting friends, and New England Drupal Camp. I knocked a new state off the list--Iowa! I'm glad to have started traveling again.
I took care of myself. In 2022 I started getting manicures every two weeks with my family, and that relaxation time helped me a lot. I meditated, did yoga, wrote in my journal, practiced gratitude, and took walks. I spent a lot of time by myself this year, to learn more about who I am and what I want. I'm grateful to have that experience in 2022!
My career grew leaps and bounds. Related to the above item in regards to taking care of myself, I became much more confident at work. In 2022, I started working towards a lead developer role, which means more meetings and less code, but this move feels right to me. I'm still coding day to day, but I'm stepping more into a mentorship role and assisting other developers on the team with tasks. Things finally fell into place career-wise in 2022 and I'm excited to see how I grow professionally in 2023!
Bye, Twitter. Earlier in the year, I created a Mastodon account on my friend Tom's server but didn't use it much until Twitter was bought in late October. Since then, I've not posted or looked at Twitter and I don't see myself going there again. It's too bad because I met many fantastic friends on the site, but Mastodon looks to be a great place to continue meeting even more people. That's what matters to me.
The not good
The hardest thing to happen this year was the end of my long-term relationship. We had gotten back together at the end of 2021 but we both quickly realized that it was over, and we split at the start of 2022. Yeah, the beginning of 2022 wasn't fun at all!
Unfortunately, I got Covid in 2022 after my trip to DrupalCon Portland. Thankfully I didn't feel super horrible and I don't have any long-term effects from it--I'm grateful for that.
I'm gutted about the overturning of Roe v Wade and all the unnecessary mass shootings that happened in this country this year--those are more than 'not good' but they fall in this category.
Speaking and writing elsewhere
I didn't do a lot of speaking or writing in 2022:
- My coworker Adam Varn and I wrote a post on the Lullabot blog called CSS Features We’re Thankful For and CSS Features We Need. I enjoyed working on this post with Adam and I'm glad I finally contributed to my company's blog!
- I was on the Lullabot podcast discussing the Healthy Minds at Work program, which kick-started my meditation habit!
Wrapping up
This post has taken me an eternity to write. I hoped to get this out on the ol' blog before the new year, but here we are, January 12th and I'm finally posting it. I hope everyone's year's going well and I hope to have a post with my 2023 goals up soon.