2022 Year in Review

Happy New Year! 🥂

I love the annual slowdown after Christmas to detach from work, reflect on my progress, and summarize my life and work. I spent the break finally revamping my website—something I’ve been putting off for years—and intend to update it more often now that it’s current again.

2022 feels like a turning point out of a COVID-era funk. Whether it be social isolation and new cultural expectations, the stress of home projects and parenting young kids, confusion about career direction, or unmet goals, the past couple of years have been hard (see my prior year reviews).

That said, a couple of new passions are giving me life.

📷 My camera encourages me to slow down (and get out of the house) more to find beauty in new places. I was the unofficial “second” on a photo shoot for Anna’s upcoming full-length album. I filmed and edited two music videos and have rounded out my gear to shoot plenty more.

🥁 I recorded drums again, which is humbling and intimidating, but contributing to the song creation process and hearing the final product brought a satisfaction I haven’t experienced since my pop-punk band in high school.

🏋 2022 was also my first full year of regular gym workouts in adulthood. It feels great to be consistent and prove I can push through difficulty. Now I want to take this habit outdoors to new hikes and adventures.

Despite my ongoing struggle to be satisfied (I feel you, Angelica), it was a well-balanced year with family time, an exciting work project, art and music, new experiences, and travel. Below are my 2022 highlights and goals for 2023.

⭐️ Favorites

• Movie: The Batman (don’t miss Patrick Tomasso’s review)
• Video: My Father’s Son by Eric Floberg
• Book: Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman
• Album: A Pillar of Salt by Noah Gundersen

👨‍💻 Work & Career

• July–August: took paid work leave for parents during the pandemic
• 8/30: attended CascadiaJS at Sunriver, OR
• September–end: started a journey to rewrite our design system using web components
  — Prototyped components with FAST
  — Created a new playground with Storybook v7
  — Automated changelog and library versioning with Beachball
• December: rebuilt my personal website…