Happy New Year!

I like to start the new year thinking about things I’ve accomplished the previous year and what I want to accomplish in the future.

Looking back, 2011 for me has been very productive. I’ve accomplished quite a bit, some were planned and some were not. These are the ones that stood out:

1. Exceeded my financial goals.

My very first job while in college was working for a startup company. I was assembling computers, doing helpdesk, and performing systems/network administration tasks later on. The main business was re-selling Sun Microsystems (now owned by Oracle) servers. We’ll get used parts from vendors and put them together and sell them to customers.

I worked there for about 4 years. Pretty much since I was a freshman until after graduated from college, when they hired me full time. I saw the company grew from less than 15 people to over 40. While the job didn’t pay that well, I learned a lot from working there and enjoyed most of it. I had a really great boss and met some really great people who I still keep in touch with to this day. The business, unfortunately, went bankrupt (but re-opened again under a new name pretty much around the same time it filed for bankruptcy, I don’t know the legal details).

Weeks before the big announcement, we pretty much knew something was going on as people were getting laid off. I was actually one of the few people that were left, but I left the company shortly after it re-opened. That experience really made me think about job security. There’s really no such thing anymore. I was still living at home at the time, so if I lost my job that time it wasn’t a big deal. But then I thought about my former co-workers, who have families to support and very dependent on that job. That must’ve been really tough for them.

After that experience, I made the decision to save like crazy. I wanted to be able to cover at least 1 year of living expenses. I don’t want to be in a position where I couldn’t sleep at night because I was thinking about how to pay the bills. I also don’t want to be very dependent on my job. If I started really hating my job, I want to have the option to be able quit at any time.

I did reach that goal, but I still kept saving. I also kept looking for ways to cut my spending even when I was making more than twice as much as I did earlier in my career. I set a goal to have x amount of money at age 30, which I exceeded last year at age 26. I’ve been very fortunate financially so far. I managed to save enough to support myself for a few years (note that I don’t have a lot of money, I just don’t have a lot of expenses).

2. Got more comfortable meeting new people.

I’m not the most outgoing person. If you talk to my classmates in high school, they’d all tell you I was very shy and quiet. People voted me in the “most shy” category in the high school yearbook.

I still am usually shy and quiet around people I just met, but not as much as I used to. I started going to meetups on things I that interest me. I went to a lot of tech meetups, hiking, and just hanging out with people doing different things. I’m not comfortable just walking up to strangers and introducing myself, feels like I’m trying to sell them something. But when you go to meetups, you know everyone is there for the same reason which makes it easier to approach someone and start a conversation as you already have a topic to talk about.

I actually enjoy meeting new people and listening to their stories. Computer geeks are not anti-social creatures, and most have other interests outside of technology.

3. Traveled more and tried new things.

Traveling actually helped with #2 above as well. I tried different ways of traveling last year.

I went to Costa Rica for 9 days and joined a group tour. I did a bunch of activities that I’ve never done before while in Costa Rica, such as horseback riding, tarzan swing, whitewater rafting, and mangrove kayaking. Everyone in the group got along well. After that 9 days, it felt like you knew everyone pretty well and felt sad saying goodbyes.

My second vacation was in New Zealand. I did this backpacker style. I learned how to pack very light and stayed in hostels for the first time. Met a lot of other travelers who are traveling long term and got some really good tips from them. Also did my first skydive here which was very scary but I’m glad I did it! I quit my job shortly after I got back from my vacation, I was ready to switch to a backpacker lifestyle.

After I quit my job, I decided to start my career break by doing road trips around the United States. I couldn’t start a long road trip right away because I was waiting for some paperwork in the mail. So I did a short 4-day trip and a long one that lasted over 5 weeks. Again, I did this backpacker style, traveling lightly and staying mostly in budget accommodations. I had a really great time and saw so much, though those 5 weeks weren’t nearly enough to see the country. But at least now I have a better idea on what else is out there and some cities to consider moving to when I get back from my career break.

4. Got better at software development.

I was finally doing mostly software development the past year. My main responsibility before that was managing our support/systems team. I wrote scripts/programs on and off while doing that before I was finally fully transitioned to the software development team.

I had a great boss who’s also a good friend of mine. He was actually my boss at my very first job as well. I was the youngest and most junior member of the development team, I think everyone else in the team had over a decade of experience as a professional developer. It was a really good opportunity for me to learn from them.

My boss was very technical and very open to suggestions. It was easy to explain technical things to him. I’d argue with him and our lead developer over design from time to time, and they’d often prove me wrong. But doing that allowed me to learn faster. I learned how certain things should be done and, more importantly, what not to do. You want to work with people smarter than you to get better at what you do. In most other big companies I probably wouldn’t even get a chance to argue with people more senior than I am. I only wished we had more interesting problems to solve. But we worked in the financial industry.

5. Decluttered.

I’ve gotten pretty good at decluttering. If I see something now that I know I really won’t be using, I try to get rid of it right away. There is this quote from the movie Fight Club where someone said,

You buy furniture. You tell yourself this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple of years you’re satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you’ve got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Thenyou’re trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you.

It feels great not owning too much stuff. It allows me to focus my energy more on things that actually matter to me. Last year, I’ve gotten rid of most of my clothes, books, DVDs, video games, and just stuff lying around in my apartment that I almost never use. I’ve sold and traded in my stuff on Amazon, gave them away, or just threw them in the garbage. I’m moving out of my apartment next week, and thanks to all the decluttering I’ve been doing, I’m expecting it to be very easy.

Now here are some of the things I’m hoping to accomplish in the future:

1. Get better at writing.

I suck at writing. It takes me forever to write something and I always mess up on my grammar. The only C I’ve ever gotten in college was in my Creating Writing class. But to get better at anything it takes practice. So I’m gonna try to write blog posts more often. Even if I think no one would care about it. Like this one I’m writing right now, as it’s mostly about me.

I used to really hate writing. I remember in college I would research to see if there are alternative classes I could take to avoid the Creative Writing classes. But now I’m actually starting to like it. I think the reason I hated it when I was in school was because of all the rules the teachers set. For example, you’ll get an assignment to write an essay with a minimum number of words. So you end up padding it with things that just aren’t interesting or change the wordings to make it longer. If it’s by the number of pages, you play around with the different fonts, sizes, and alignment (justify works best) to make it look longer than it really is. I’ve had teachers who would tell the class we shouldn’t start sentences with and or but. But (ha!) I’ve read books by best-selling authors who do this. Guess who I would listen to?

2. Slow down.

I’m the type who just have to always be doing something. I think I developed the habit at work, when I get constantly interrupted while trying to get things done. So I end up rushing and multitasking which probably doesn’t really add to my productivity, I’m just using up more energy. I feel like I’m wasting time if I’m idle. For example, at work, while I’m waiting for my code to compile or waiting for tests to complete, I’d try to get something else done then switch back to the main task.

Rushing all the time just doesn’t seem healthy so I’m gonna slow down. Even when I travel I’m always on the move. I really should relax more, do things slowly, and just enjoy the moment.

3. Eat healthier.

I’m really gonna try this time!

4. Have more patience.

I actually think I’m pretty patient compared to most people. But once in a while I lose it, usually when I’m driving and behind someone who’s going really slowly. Even if I don’t really need to be in a hurry. I guess this is related to #2 above.

5. Be conversational in Spanish.

I’m planning on taking Spanish lessons when in Guatemala this year. I’m really gonna try to immerse myself and practice it as I travel all the way to South America. I want to be able to interact more with the locals and learn more about them. I think we miss out on a lot of things when we travel to foreign lands if we don’t speak their language. And aren’t you curious, while you’re waiting in line somewhere, if the people behind you talking in another language is making fun of you?

6. Try and learn more new things.

There are so many things I want to try. The very first one is to learn how to swim. I feel like I’m missing out on a lot of fun water activities because I can’t swim. I want to try out surfing and scuba diving. I also want to try out snowboarding or skiing.

I’m also pretty picky about food. I’m going to be more open this year and try out different kinds of food. I’ve never even tried sushi.

This post was longer than I thought it would be. I just missed my deadline on publishing it on January 1.