34.

For a year that felt like time was dragging on forever, this certainly arrived a lot more quickly than I thought. I turned 34. Crazy. XD

Like I joked with a lot of my buddies on the day, I feel like I want a do-over for being 33. I want my money back. XD

All jokes aside, this year was an absolutely surreal event. If I told myself this time last year what would be happening now, I absolutely would not have believed it.

At this point, everything I had planned back in January 2020 has fallen through. I left Tokyo and got stuck out of Japan, Google Tokyo rescinded my job offer, and in the chaos, all my side project plans fell to the wayside while I had to figure out what I was going to do for 2021.

But while on a purely professional year, 2020 “failed to meet expectations”, I’m extremely thankful that myself and my friends and family in the world have weathered this crazy time (relatively) unscathed. And for all that, while I will always be disappointed about the year, I also thoroughly appreciate that none of this stuff even matters in the end.

On the plus side, something I very much appreciated this year was how well everyone kept in touch, despite the circumstances. Even though I’ve been stuck indoors all year, with all of the virtual conferences and meetups this year, it definitely didn’t feel isolating at all. I had the honour of being invited to MC or present at a lot of events this year, and I am so profoundly grateful for the opportunity, as well as to help contribute some positivity into the world.

I actually hope that moving forward, we can potentially keep meetups and conferences as online as we did this year, as it certainly makes them accessible to a huge range of people who might not be able to afford to fly out to these things.

And on a personal note, it’s been lovely being back in Perth this year. I’d certainly felt quite detached from friends and family with my working hours over in Japan, and getting this “reset” this year was something I didn’t even realise I noticed.

Anyway, normally at this point, I try and lay out some goals for myself in the next year. In 2019, I was super excited at quitting my job at Mercari and starting a new decade fresh. But given the circumstances, moving forward for now, I’m going to operate with extremely conservative optimism.

Honestly. If everything just stays the way it is now, I will be extremely happy with that. That is all I need.

Here’s hoping things will be looking up for everyone soon. It was not the best of years, but I’m confident we’re nearing the end, and brighter days are on the horizon.

Thanks for reading. Stay safe! And here’s to next year!