Another Year In Review / Going into 2024...
Another year, another retrospective!
Damn it, I'm late again aren't I? And this time I even had writing the recap on my radar... My bad. Next year I'll be on time. For sure.
Anyways, what's up gang? It's been a bit, hasn't it? I promise that I haven't forgotten about you all. This year's been both a blur and a slog, and publishing regular posts on the blog has mostly fallen to the wayside.
That's not to say that I haven't been writing; my drafts have nearly doubled and I've even started a new section on the blog specifically for FFXIV guides and content, with 5 whole articles and many more on the way.
Andrew Augustine
I have a lot of new casual posts on the assembly line as well that I've been meaning to get to. I bought a new Garmin smartwatch a few months ago that has been instrumental in keeping my health in check and helping me with my golf game. I have another talking about some of my favorite video game composers that's been in the works for a hot minute. Lots of stuff that's just perpetually been in the works and I'll finish sooner or later.
This year, just like all of the rest, had a bunch of ups and downs. A few notable bullet points:
- I graduated Cum Laude from Florida State University with a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science!
- I did probably some of my best work ever on my capstone project for my degree, which was praised by the professor as being one of the best he had ever seen. Managing that project and helping developing the backend was an absolute blast.
- I became a Dalamud plugin developer with MapGilTracker!
- December was mainly busy dealing with drama in my FFXIV community.
- The software jobs market crashed for entry-level positions. Out of hundreds of applications I was only actually considered for maybe two? It's rough out there.
In last year’s post, I made a point to set a few long-term goals for myself that I could achieve over the course of this past year. As December 31st January 2nd is now here, it’s time for the annual check-up! Let’s see how I did.
Most importantly, I want to keep cultivating my relationship with my long-term partner, Bentley.
Bee and I's relationship is as strong as ever. We spend so much time together and plan on moving in together in the summer. Things are looking up, and I wouldn't trade what we have for the world.
I’d also like to graduate from FSU and land a respectable job, where I’m both happy and able to provide for my friends/family.
We're halfway there. I have graduated, and I'm super proud of the work that I put in towards getting that degree, but the job hunt is still ongoing. Praying that it turns out better this year.
I’d like to continue my friendships with the people I met this year, and maybe make a few more along the way.
This year, Bee and I made a lot of new lifelong friends. Through the FSU Football season and other local events we met a lot of new people that we hang out with regularly, and plan on keeping in touch with them after we all get jobs and move away. This past year really has been a gift in terms of friends, and I'm extremely grateful for everyone.
Casey, Maddie, Trevor, Olivia, Stuart, Gabi, Matt, and Parker: Thank you so much!
Lastly, I’d like to keep picking up new hobbies and developing myself professionally, starting with the continuation of this website and the homelab.
...Ahem. We don't really need to talk about this one. Unless you consider FFXIV a professional hobby. (Then again, involvement in the FFXIV community did lead me to develop MGT, so there's that!)
All in all, we're about 60/40 in terms of goals that I met this past year. There's some room for improvement for sure, and my goal for this next year is to have a better success ratio. As for this year's goals...
First and foremost, I want to land a full-time that allows for me to support myself and my partner. I want to continue to support my family the next year and a half that I'm still here. I'd like to continue the friendships that I made this year, and see if I can make a few more! Lastly, I do want to buckle down and focus more on professional development beyond open-source development, like getting a few certifications under my belt.
I’ll once again take the opportunity to encourage you, the reader, to also set out a few goals for you to meet this year. No, I’m not talking about a new year’s resolution that’ll probably fall to the wayside after a week or two. I’m talking about a few tangible long-term goals that you can write down somewhere, like in a notebook— or in my case, a blog— and check back at year’s end to see how you did. Having these goals may not seem like a lot, but it’s good to look back upon as the year goes on.
Thanks again to everyone for making this past year a good one. Let's make 2024 even better!
- Andrew