2024… the end of another year. If I was to choose one word to sum up this year, it would be “recovery”. I started twenty twenty-four beaten down, sad, and disenchanted. 

Losing my dog and best friend, Michael, at the end of 2023 hit me hard. My days were thrown into chaos, and my identity was seemingly ripped from my very being. Life felt like it was in a daze, and, in many ways, I was just going through the motions, through the process of everything else I had going on in my life: work, my creative projects, and my triathlon training. 

Yes, at least I had my triathlon training. I signed up for three in 2024 to keep myself busy — to avoid addressing the grief. But… even as I tried to find solace in my training, 2024 had another twist. 

It happened during a really busy week at work, as many things do, and I felt kind of stressed that day while heading to the office. I crashed my bike. Just a silly mistake that sent me over the handlebars, but I ended up injuring my right arm. Suddenly all the determined progress that I wanted to make in my training evaporated. All the goals I had going into my second race of the year were gone. I was left to re-strategize to reset my expectations. I was left to recover, to return to the ground floor and work my way back up again. 

Yes, work became unpredictable, and then one day it ended. Suddenly I found myself like so many other tech workers, laid off. It seems like 2024 was trying to teach me something. It was trying to tell me that anything that I took for granted. My best friend, my physical body, my mental well-being, my employment, my creative motivation, all of that could be taken away in a way that was out of my control. These things don’t last forever. 

I pushed myself to get through all of these struggles. I focused on chipping away at my creative work. The big novel I keep talking about. The drawings I committed to. This very YouTube channel has been the foundation for my creative production. Not long after I did find a new gig.

This year, although I found myself back on the start line, I wasn’t without tools, experiences, and support. Climbing back up, I realized that, although the voices in my head were telling me what a failure I was and how everyone disliked me, I consistently found evidence, however big or small, to prove them wrong, and that was assuring. 

Recovery. It’s not without its setbacks. As you start to improve, it’s tempting to push yourself—test your limits, move faster, do what you used to be able to do. But then, you overdo it and repeat the same mistakes. You feel foolish, even frustrated. That inner critic? It suddenly gets louder.

Creativity, like fitness, like work, like relationships ebbs and flows. Success is followed by a hangover. Hard work needs to follow rest. Failure leads to lessons. 

As twenty-twenty-four ends, I find myself back on the steps, heading back up to where I intended to be. I’m rebuilding my life, I’m getting stronger, I’m getting better. 

But in many ways, the person I am has stayed the same. I realize what I still want to do. I still want to create. I still want to write and make videos, draw, and race my triathlons a few times a year. Most importantly, I want to have a dog. As far as all ambitions go, having a dog and raising a dog that shows me that I can be the type of person it sees in me, has been the thing that I have been the most proud of. 

It’s been 1 year since my boy Michael passed away. On his one-year death day, we were scheduled to meet with a little rescue dog by the name of Peter “Petey” Pickles. My wife and I fell in love with him immediately. We have just adopted him into our home, his forever home. And we really look forward to having him in our lives. And as all ambitions go… this is the one that I’m prioritizing. 

2025 is going to be crazy! We have so much to look forward to. So much left to accomplish. And we have recovered enough to attack this new year, one day at a time.

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