I am 37 today. I’ve spent the last week or so hacking on this blog and reviewing old content since I turned 21. I thought I’d wrap up my nostalgia trip with a check in on what life is like in 2022.

The last couple years have been full of big changes professionally and personally. Oh, and there was a pandemic, too.

2020 was a bit nuts, frankly. It started with an awesome trip to Disney World with my fiancé and my parents on January 15th.

One night in our hotel, I happened to see an article trending on Wikipedia about a virus outbreak in China. I had previously seen an article on either Reddit or Hacker News about a dozens of cases of “mysterious flu” in China. I followed the Wikipedia article for a few days during the trip, and even commented to my family that it could be a big deal if it started to spread. When we got home I promptly forgot about it for another month or so.

I got a pretty bad cold/flu on January 19th at Disney World but recovered after about 48 hours. Given how early into the pandemic it was, and how quickly I recovered, I doubt I got COVID-19 — but there’s a tiny part of me that will always wonder.

In February 2020 I stepped out of full time software development and into a leadership role. It’s been the biggest challenge of my career shifting gears and learning the people side of things. I’m thankful to have an amazing group of leaders to share their insights and experiences as I’m learning the ropes — and I’m even more thankful to have the opportunity to lead such an incredible team of developers.

Most of the rest of 2020 was a whirlwind of adjusting to a new career and life amidst a pandemic (i.e. First: Do I need to start wearing a mask? Followed by: OMG I forgot my mask! Then: Fuck, there’s no toilet paper or masks in stores?! And finally: Masks are now political let’s all argue about them!)

On September 17th, 2020, I got engaged to my girlfriend Chrys, and we’ll be married on November 11th! I know the next several months are going to be stressful for us coordinating everything, so I’ll remind myself now: it’ll all be worth it to see your bride walk in to the room and to have an awesome time with your closest family and friends.

2021 was somehow busy yet mostly uneventful, at least for me. COVID never actually going away put a damper on any travel plans and hanging out with friends. We did get to see our longtime friends Mary and Derrek get married – for the 2nd time, the first one was in July 2020 in their backyard due to COVID — and had a blast partying with friends for a night.

In 2021 Chrys changed jobs after a long stint with a company. The job wasn’t the right fit though, so she tried another after a couple months. And then another. Thankfully, the place she ended up at is one she really loves. She’s working remotely full time, and I love being able to see her every day. We’re one of those weird couples who actually likes seeing each other. It’s fun to hear her kicking ass on her calls with clients and coworkers. Mostly, I’m glad to see her happy working on a great team again.

We also started shopping for houses in 2021 — which has been an exercise in frustration so far. Luckily, we aren’t in a huge rush to get out of our current apartment, but it sure would be great to have a place to call our own soon.

For 2022 and Josh-at-37, the next year looks like:

  • a trip to Universal, Florida on February 11th
  • finding and buying a house
  • moving into that house
  • hopefully not being frustrated about wait times on furniture and appliances For that house
  • helping Chrys organize our wedding (to the extent a mere man is allowed)
  • a Vegas bachelor party? (no strippers, please)
  • getting married
  • honeymoon in Hawaii
  • possibly 2 or 3 business trips to Ann Arbor, MI
  • my dad’s 60th birthday
  • more blogging
  • more open source
  • an metric fuckton expensive bills and purchases

I hope that Josh-at-40-something, perusing this blog and it’s content on another nostalgia trip, can say all those things were done in 2022 and kicked ass (well, definitely not the expensive part). For now, I hope 37 is my best year yet!