2023 in Review

Amongst the endless amounts of reflective year-in-review content, I add another such post. This comes in the form of my first blog post of 2024.

Anita Max Wynn

• Drake

2023 was an eventful year for me, filled with twists and turns, ups and downs and everything in between. Leading into 2023, 2022 was a tough year with mixed success. I succeeded on a professional front but on an emotional and personal level, it was a year filled with immense loss, anger and struggle. 2023 began with me carrying over those feelings. However, as the year went on I wouldn’t say those feelings went away or diminished but rather they were abstracted away. Location played a big part in that.

Travelling

I started the year off in Korea and Japan. An experience I will truly never forget and never likely experience again. Not because I wouldn't go back (For example I went back to Japan for a second time later on in the year), it’s because I went when the borders had just opened up. Because of that, there were barely any tourists let alone locals out and about in either of those countries. If there was one thing I would want back from the pandemic it would be for the whole world to be that quiet again. That being said I did heaps of travel in 2023:

• Japan x2
• Korea
• Canada
• Australia x2
• New Zealand (Travelling to Auckland as I'm based in Wellington) x2

I have been fortunate enough to visit some incredible cities, my favourites that I visited were Melbourne, Yokohama, Tokyo, and Toronto. Each of these cities had an amazing vibe, and I would love to go back and visit them again. For me, travelling is not just an escape, but it's also a way to recharge my energy and get inspired. Every time I come back from a trip, I feel more motivated to just get some shit done. I look forward to travelling some more in 2024 and exploring more of this beautiful world. I think life is too short to not do so. Another cool tidbit is that I managed to fly business class for the first time as well.

Growth

I have undergone tremendous personal growth over the past year. However, not all of the changes I have experienced can be easily expressed, and I am still in the process of understanding them myself. Nevertheless, I can confidently say that I am not the same person I was at the beginning of 2023. Of course, I am not perfect, and there is still a lot I need to work on, but that's just a part of life.

I'M THE ELDEST BOY

• Kendall Roy

Goals

I am not one to declare my goals in public. I'm a build-in silence rather than in public kinda guy. Or to be more honest I just have a deep-seated fear of putting my goals out there and being laughed at. I find it challenging to deal with the added pressure of someone else knowing what I am working towards, especially on top of my already lofty and ambitious goals. Therefore, I deeply admire those who confidently put their goals out in the open and pursue them despite the noise. I hope to reach that level of confidence someday, but I am not there yet.

The few things that I feel confident enough to talk about are on the professional front. I achieved my goal of being promoted going from an Associate Engineer to a Software Engineer at Xero. I was able to pass my AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate exam and I was able to buddy and mentor a grad for the course of their rotation in my team.

On a fitness front, I had a mixed bag as my year started well and I felt dialed in. However, halfway through the year multiple issues compounded at once. I had some other personal issues come up, Xero was going through layoffs. And during that same period, I tore my meniscus playing football. I can vividly remember going to the physio to get my diagnosis and as I was waiting, my slack was blowing up. I was waiting in anticipation for both my diagnosis as well as an email that would indicate whether my time at the company was up. That was not a pleasant day, to say the least. I’ve been able to recover and make decent progress on my fitness-related goals but I wouldn’t say I accomplished them.

Consumerism

There were a few things that added to my life this year and that I enjoyed “wasting” my hard-earned dollars and doing my part to keep the capitalistic locomotive thriving:

• Whoop
• AirPods Max
• Asics Novablast 3
• Uniqlo socks and underwear
• LIFX smart light
• Arcteryx Granville 25 backpack
• More Chrome Heart rings
• Travelling

Lastly, I finally purchased a new laptop! The base model Intel 2017 Macbook I had that was by my side all this time. Which got me through university and through the door for multiple internships, and which helped eventually get me my gig at Xero was on its last legs. So I decided to finally join the M series of chips. I ended up picking a pretty beefy (and very expensive) M3 pro. I really should’ve done this sooner as it has made a world of difference.

The year ahead:

I feel quite deeply about this but for me at least 2023 was kinda of a filler year, a warmup, a precursor, however, you want to phrase it. I made some deep inroads and great progress, however, it still felt like I didn't really do anything and I just middling or meandering around. In a way it feels like 2023 was Avengers: Infinity War. A movie that had its' ups and downs but it was more so a movie to build suspense and set up a grand finale. That's how 2024 feels for me at least it's going to be my EndGame in a lot of ways. I'm excited though to see what happens.

Naveen