2022 was, for me, the year that never ends. I started the year on the high of 2021; amazing opportunities, getting to work at two fantastic companies, and making great strides in my personal and professional lives. This year, I end on a low that was altogether unexpected. There was certainly good in this year, which I’ll get to, but this year stands out as bitter compared to most.
Past Expectations
At the start of 2022, this is what I wrote:
Looking forward into 2022, I’m very excited for what is to come in the future. I plan on continuing to blog and podcast about the tech that’s interesting to me, and take care of myself and my family as we continue to navigate the pandemic. I wish you all the best, and that you are all able to stay safe and be well. Here’s to 2022!
I was able to continue blogging and do some podcasting, as well as streams and conferences. I’ve had a lot of fun appearing on streams such as Some Antics and at ViteConf 2022, both as a presenter and a moderator. I was able to end the year recording an episode of PodRocket, which released at the start of January. Podcasting and appearing in public streams is something that I really enjoy, and I hope to continue doing more of that.
The family note is more painful, and I will explain that as best I can as I talk about more specifics to the year.
Major Events
Transition Progress
I started HRT in 2021, and so this was the first full year of HRT. The emotional and physical changes have been amazing, and I have felt so much more comfortable in my body that previous years. I started my transitioning journey socially in 2018, and while it helped a lot to be addressed by the gender that I am, the ability to tap into my emotions more has been phenomenal, and my body feels much more comfortable to be in.
Transportation Woes
In January, I was in a car crash. A driver ran a red light as I was turning, and rammed into the front of my car. Thankfully my only injury was a concussion, but recovery was still unpleasant. Using screens and devices was nausea inducing, and there was a very frustrating brain fog that made it hard to remember some words. It took a couple weeks to recover to where I had been. Thankfully as well, I was the only one in the car, and the other driver was relatively fine as well.
This was not my only accident on the road this year unfortunately. We decided not to replace the car, and instead embrace biking. I live in Portland, Oregon, and it’s a pretty bike friendly city. I bought a wonderful folding bike, the Vika+ Flex folding bike by Blix. It’s been wonderful, although it took a bit of getting used to. In August, after about a month of riding around, my bike went out from under me and I crashed to the ground. This gave me concussion #2 for the year, and very painful scrapes and some bruised ribs. The concussion healed much faster, but the other injuries took much longer to heal properly.
The third accident took place in downtown Portland in October, when my bike tire got stuck in the Max tracks. This led to scraping up the other side of my body, but thankfully no concussion this time, and the bike itself was perfectly fine! I’ll take the small wins when they come.
Conferences, Streams, and Podcasts
I got to participate in a number of different events this year, which was a blast as always. I returned to Vue Global Summit, and was able to participate in ViteConf as both a presenter and moderator. I also presented at The Tech Academy for the second time, which was a fun event with newer developers. It was a lot of fun to participate in those events. I also got to be on Some Antics, JavaScript Jabber, FSJam, and Software Unscripted.
2022 was the year I stepped away from Views on Vue. There were multiple reasons for this, but the big one for me was the added stress of watching and discussing the Vue ecosystem while my job had me learning and investing in the Elm ecosystem. This felt like too much of a mental burden at the time, and so I made the decision to step away. I really love podcasting, and hope this year to start a new podcast that I can participate on with some regularity.
Travel & Adventures
I got to travel a lot more in 2022. In March, I got to go out to Hood River, Oregon, and while there went with some friends to hike around at Catherine Creek, Washington. It’s so beautiful there, I highly recommend anyone visit who can.
In April, my company held a retreat in San Antonio, Texas. This was my first time flying since the pandemic began, and it was also right as airlines were allowing travel without a mask. There were two large stress moments in that trip. First, leaving Portland was very rough. I had set my alarm for 3, but I woke up at 2 from anxiety. Then, while double checking my bags, one of them broke, and I had to quickly repack everything. Then, my Lyft ride was 30 minutes late due to construction on the highway. After all that, I made it onto my flight from PDX to Denver with 5 minutes to spare.
The rest of the trip to Texas went without issue, and after arriving a few of us gathered and had an off script lunch. It was a really fun experience. After getting to the retreat, we received our rooms, and some rapid tests for COVID. The plan was to test prior to attending dinner, and then testing every day to be safe. While my test came up negative, someone I had contact with tested positive, and so I was required to quarantine. This was obviously not what I had hoped for out of this trip, but the travel was nice.
In May, I got to go camping with my sister in law. We did a roadtrip around Mt. Hood, went up to Catherine Creek (I had loved it so much the first time I had to go back), and then camped at Oxbow Park. It was the first time I had camped in years, and it was so much fun to get to do that again.
Star Commander
I have been working on a long running side project to make a board/card game for over a decade, titled Star Commander. This year I made tremendous progress, getting to do a lot of testing and refining with friends and acquaintances. At the end of the year, I printed a fresh copy of the game, using AI generated art for the cards. It’s not done yet, and things aren’t perfect, but it feels so good to play a game that feels real in a way the prototypes couldn’t. Excited to see what comes of this in the coming year!
Family Issues
I’m really uncomfortable writing this section, but in short my marriage ended. 2022 ended with my moving out on my own. I’m still processing this turn of events. There is a lot of grief and loss here that I will need to work through.
I wrote a poem titled Between Home as I was processing my feelings and emotions.
Looking Forward
At the end of 2021, I was hopeful to continue podcasting and participating in other events. I plan to continue to do that, and have already started by recording an episode of PodRocket. I also hope to dive more into music, as I enjoy singing and haven’t really done anything with a group since before the pandemic. Finally, I plan to find peace and healing, as this past year’s events have really taken their toll on me and it’s time to rest.
Part of why this is being written midway through January is that 2023 has started with a case of COVID that knocked me out for a couple weeks, so hopefully there is some time for that rest in the near future.
Here’s to a healthful 2023.
I am a programmer, writer, and mother. I work as a Senior Software Engineer at Mangomint. I write and talk about Elm, Vue, Vite, and other tools that I enjoy learning about and using.