Category: Personal

It’s once again time to be thematic. I’m calling 2024 my Year of Opportunity. Characterized by a desire to explore and treat new experiences with more positivity and excitement, I hope to make the most of what could be our final year living in California while also increasing my appreciation for the life I’ve built.

This year my company is officially taking a break starting the weekend before Christmas through New Year’s Day. I haven’t had a break from work this long¹My honeymoon last year was pretty darn close, but there is a big difference when I know I have a huge amount of work piled up to go back to. since graduating college, and I am thrilled by the concept.

Several of my coworkers are nervous about this change—we have customer support teams and we need to ensure our sites don’t suddenly break while everyone is gone—but I plan to revel in it in the intended fashion. I get to enjoy time with family and friends without distraction, without needing to burn additional PTO, and come back refreshed with an eagerness to get work done.

I’m not going to treat this like a miniature sabbatical and plan an ambitious number of projects to fill the time. While I’ll certainly manage to occupy myself with writing, reading, and exploring some ideas I’ve built up over time, the goal is not to prescribe any work in detail. A break should be exactly that, and in the last year I’ve learned to take my time away from daily work more seriously by increasing the divide between the two. I barely check my work email on my phone, and try to keep Slack out of mind once I’m done for the day. Neither of those slight changes has affected my work negatively, but has certainly improved my personal time.

A winter break will increase the dosage of that effect for a week, and I’m ready for it.

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  My honeymoon last year was pretty darn close, but there is a big difference when I know I have a huge amount of work piled up to go back to.

Erin and I spent a weekend north of San Francisco in a small house among the redwood trees. It overlooked a misty valley that offered the perfect balance of seclusion without isolation.¹We were only fifteen minutes from the nearby town with a Safeway, but nobody could see us on the deck’s hot tub, and we couldn’t see anyone else. We set up this small retreat to disconnect, focus on ourselves, and also discuss our yearly themes.

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  We were only fifteen minutes from the nearby town with a Safeway, but nobody could see us on the deck’s hot tub, and we couldn’t see anyone else.

Last night the wedding of Erin’s younger brother and his lovely now-wife. It was fun to participate in the process of wedding preparation from a new perspective—one where we have tangible advice to offer, a calmer presence from experience—only one year after our own.

This took form in a few ways. Erin saw how our coordinator worked through each little detail as we got closer to the date, so she made sure to do the same with the bride who had painstakingly planned venue decoration. I mainly acted as a role model to the groomsmen who, though absolutely great friends and nice guys, still end up a little immature for self-governance.¹My biggest suggestion from the rehearsal: They have the opportunity to give Jeremy a hug or handshake as they approach the front of the ceremony. That’s a great chance that they should capitalize on. This also meant during decorating in the morning and post-reception teardown, I could yield my influence to direct their help.

We could more fully take in their ceremony, focusing on how it reflected their ideals as a couple. We’ve been to weddings as a couple and the ceremonies always make you consider your own relationship, but this time we could do so with the added dimension of having experienced precisely what they were feeling up there: nervous excitement bubbling on top a foundation of certainty.

It was a fantastic day and a raucous reception. I’m so proud of them and happy to have had the opportunity to relive some of the wedding process without the full weight of the pressure behind it.

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  My biggest suggestion from the rehearsal: They have the opportunity to give Jeremy a hug or handshake as they approach the front of the ceremony. That’s a great chance that they should capitalize on.

One year of marriage has sped by. We unintentionally packed it full of travel, hosting visitors, and yet another road trip back to Minnesota. We spent time with friends, watched plenty of movies, found good restaurants, and made excellent meals. Throughout it all was a comfort, security, and joint responsibility of finally being married and working through what that means to us.

I fainted for the first time last week from dehydration. I have the scabs on my left knuckle and forehead to show for it, and the memory of losing a hold on my balance and waking up to the impact of concrete.