End of the year celebrations

I’m rounding out the year by taking a step back from consumption and instead focusing on the ways I’ve grown in 2023. Overall, 2023 has felt a little strange to me. If you were charting the emotional flow of my 2023 it would probably look a little like a roller coaster: starting high, gaining a few bumps for speed, then leveling out at the end.

I started the year super stressed, had a big job change midway through the year, started destressing from that, and then jumped immediately into the stressful act of getting a dog. Now I’m sort of just coasting to the end of 2023 after having more-or-less leveled out.

Anyway, here’s what I’m proud of this year/celebrating this year. I’ll probably do a 2024 goals post later too and maybe, if I get bored enough over my break, a wrapup of the best things I’ve consumed this year.

Turning 30

I don’t know if I can consider turning 30 an accomplishment unless I want to get into a reallyyyy dark post about my childhood anxieties and I’ve consumed far too much caffeine today to do that. But, I can celebrate turning 30 and what it’s meant to me.

When you’re gay 30 can feel either really young or impossibly old1. For the record: I think 30 is young not old, though I do admit being surrounded by 20-somethings at my last job made me feel impossibly old. But my 20s were filled with a lot of good and bad, as anyone’s 20s should be. Now, at 30 I feel a lot more stable financially, physically, and emotionally. This year in particular I’ve tried to focus on re-establishing what I want out of life, my friendships, and my romantic partnerships (a big ask!). Ultimately, it hasn’t been as scary as I thought.

Getting a new job.

I started 2023 in a job that I absolutely hated. I’m not going to get into that because I’ve already talked wayyyyy too much about it here and everywhere else. I was desperate for a new place and was lucky enough2 to find a remote job with Upland Software in April/May, working as a content marketing specialist. It’s been about 7 months since I started and so far things have been pretty great.

My impact here is a lot different than it was at other jobs I’ve had in the past. At my last job, I was doing less content marketing and more copywriting, which isn’t really what I want to be doing long-term. At my first job out of college, I was sort of doing everything, trying to build my marketing skills without knowing exactly what I wanted to do long term. Here though, my scope is smaller and more corporate, but the work I do at least feels appreciated. My boss is great and being part of an actual content team feels gratifying.

It’s also a remote job, and despite having a headquarters in Austin, it doesn’t seem likely to turn into an in-person job anytime soon. My boss and other team members work in completely different states than me anyway so not sure what I’d do if I did go into an office. Remote work has completely changed my attitude to work too, giving me a lot more of a healthy work-life balance and giving me plenty of time to adopt a dog (Cookie!) which has totally changed my mood.

This job just fits too. I’ve done a lot of different types of content work and have kinda figured out that I like informational content marketing a bit more than editorial or lifestyle writing. It’s great to come up with a bunch of catchy phrases or quick lines of copy but what’s nice is clearly articulating to an audience the pros and cons of a software/offering. Anyway, I’ve got to work on landing page copy and design, licensed partner content, email content, and some larger strategic thinking things around content calendars, SEO, and content strategy (which is where I want to grow career-wise).

A bonus is that I’m now starting 2024 as a communications chair for our Pride ERG which should be fun because I really do want to get more background as a queer person in the workplace lol3

Hitting a salary milestone.

Leaving my last job I was expecting to take a pay cut just to get out of there, but surprisingly got more than I was previously making. Years ago, when graduating from college I wasn’t certain if I’d ever hit salary goals because I was sort of just stumbling into different roles. I made a goal with myself to at least get to 75k by the time I was 30, which I hit this year.

Realistically, with inflation, I probably should be making 90k to make it a comparable salary adjustment, but quitting jobs and taking new jobs has highlighted to me that a higher salary is not only possible but like, expected. I think I’ll hit my next salary goal eventually, but for now, I’m comfortable. With Zach and I living together, me having paid off all my student loans, and being on track to finish off my car loan by the end of 2024, I’ll likely end 2024 debt-free. I’ve also devoted a lot of energy into maximizing what I put into my retirement and savings and have got a pretty astonishing net worth that I will NOT be sharing with anyone lol.

Writing again.

If you’re regularly reading this4 you know I started this to just write more. Not for any particular reason, just because. I value writing and think more people should do it as their form of creative expression. I don’t have any unrealistic expectations about blowing up as a cultural or lifestyle writer, that’s not really what this is all about. However, I am glad that it’s got me back into writing. Whether that’s random rants or ramblings about things I’m consuming, or badly written short stories, it’s kinda helped me reclaim a part of myself I let go of a while back.

Reading again.

Being terminally online wrecks your brain and makes reading anything feel Sisyphean. This year I challenged myself to read at least a book a month and am ending 2023 with 17 books read, surpassing my original goal.

I also set out to be pretty intentional about expanding the times of books I read. For the longest time, I had a pretty narrow idea of what types of books are worth reading and I wanted to quash that narrow-minded idea. So I’ve experimented with reading high fantasy and science fiction and poetry books and it’s helped me reorient reading as a fun hobby not a necessary evil.

Cookie

It’s cliche to say having a dog changes your life, but it did. I was terrified when we decided to adopt Cookie. I thought I’d hurt him or not be able to provide for him or make him happy. I had a lot of dog anxiety, mostly from the one-two-punch of having to say goodbye to a dog I cared for after my last breakup and having a bad experience adopting a dog a few years after that.

Cookie was (is) hard too. He broke his leg and that took a lot of work to nurse him through that. We found out he had diabetes insipidus early on as well, so I’m having to give him a pill three times a day. It also took some adjustment to go from having endless personal space to having a furry little guy who lays on me any chance he gets.

But, I’m so grateful for it and we’ve started to develop a routine that works for us. He’s getting better on walks and can now successfully use the ramp to get up on our bed at night5. He’s taught me a lot about being calmer and patient. He’s also just so cute and funny and such a little goofy guy that I can’t imagine not having in my life.

3 years with Zach

Zach and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary in the summer. It feels like we’ve been together for a lot longer than that though. Probably because we’ve gone through so many different things together: a pandemic, the end of a pandemic, his certification course, my almost job loss, my bad job, my new job, getting a dog together, moving in together.

I’m grateful for what Zach brings to my life. He has the ability to really light up any room he’s in, even if he’s not the most extroverted person. He’s taught me a lot about Montessori, but also a lot about how to be a calmer, nicer, kinder person to myself and others. In another year this will also be the longest relationship I’ve ever been in, which is also wild.

My mullet

nothing serious, but i just think it really fits me better than any other hairstyle I’ve had lol.