End of 2011: A year in review

Speeding along the road of life, you miss the beauty that surronds you.

It’s amazing how time flies. I swear it feels like yesterday was Christmas 2010. I’m not sure why it is that the fall, or the holidays, always seems to be the time of year for reflection but I have been doing my fair share of it lately. Maybe it’s because of the events of this fall have caused me to pause.  It’s been a good, but rough year for me personally and professionally. There’s been some ups and downs, but for the most part it’s been pretty flat.

In the spring, we dealt with a loss of a family member on my wife’s side. I discovered that there is no way to take two graduate level classes and work full time, plus take care of the responsibilities at home. As we rolled into Summer I had to convince my 13 yr old son that school was important, and that the work he put in now would pay off later. I suppose a trip to summer school helped reinforce that one. I took my 12 yr old daughter on a road trip to Denver so I could see an ailing family member that was a major influence on my life. I was not aware that a 12 yr old girl could talk for 4-5 hours non-stop. Crossing Kansas will never be the same.

During this time, my wife lost her grandmother which sent us to north Wisconsin in September. We spent a week up there helping my mother-in-law and cleaning grandma’s house….the wife’s house. Ya….she inherited grandma’s house in the woods. A whole new challenge to contend with. 4 days into that trip my mother calls to tell me that my father had a heart attack. So I pretty much camp out near the phone getting updates from my mother and trying to get homework done.

I forgot to mention that on April 8th, 2010 I smoked my last cigarette after smoking a pack a day since 1993. So at this point, I’m stressed.

The end of that week in Wisconsin found us packing up to go to Denver as my father had a quintuple bypass. We spent a week there helping my mom deal with my dad and making sure my dad went home ok. After a week of helping  my mom, we went home. In two weeks, we drove 3000 miles, across 8 states, with a total drive time of 48 hours. I refer to this insanity as the Great Midwest tour of 2011.

As I was leaving for Wisconsin, one of the guys I work with found a new job. Good for him, sucks for me because of the added work load…oh well right. So upon my return to Tulsa, drama at work ensued…changes were made, now this same person was bumped to our manager. That’s good for him, however I’m less than content with the other changes that were made to accommodate everyone in the department.

Given that my dad had an “episode” this fall, I decided to go home for Thanksgiving. It’s the first time I’ve been home for the Holidays since 2004. We had a good time, the Packers won….. 11-0… and I went to a hockey game with the old man. I forgot what it was like to have a good time. I forgot what it was like to laugh, we seem to have spent a long time laughing.

Upon my return, the work responsibilities changed again. This has resulted in me being the support contact for the student system…resetting passwords, troubleshooting broken reports, and other first level issues. Ok…really not that big of a deal….but it takes me off the finance transistion as I won’t have time to do both. I have some deep feelings regarding this change…..some I still haven’t sorted out yet.

So over the past year, lots of things have occurred that have me pausing for reflection this year. These have been the major events in my life this year….and I have come to a few conclusions/resolutions, such as:

• I need to spend more time laughing and enjoying life rather than working all the time.
• I’m proud of myself for quitting smoking, but the weight gain has got to go.
• I’m no longer happy working for my present employer, with that being said I believe it’s time to make a change
• As I struggle to finish out this class (workload and a touch of burnout), I have decided that a Masters degree is enough. I have been in school since 2004…time to find a new hobby.
• My wife is my best friend…..and without her, I’d be locked up in a pysch ward drooling on myself.

So with all that said, I have decided to take the following steps to change the things in my life that have caused me stress.

Doesn't get much simplier

1. I will focus on loosing the weight and getting healthy again. I plan on following this guy’s plan www.fit2fat2fit.com . In addition to following this plan, I want to focus on running a half, or maybe a full, marathon next year with friends that ran the Route 66 marathon this year. They are an inspiration.
2. The wife and I will spend more time laughing, and doing the things we enjoy. I believe we have earned it.
3. I’m focusing on completing the Masters degree, but while doing the best you can is important….if I was perfect at everything I learned in my classes, why spend the money? In other words, I’m going to stop worrying as much about my GPA and just focusing on learning.
4. It’s time to change jobs. Why? Well mostly because I’m not happy, but to be closer to the truth…there isn’t anywhere for me to go here. The only challenges here are political. Seeing as I don’t care for being involved in those politics, there are no technical challenges that are compelling enough for me to stay, it’s time to move on.

Being productive in life is important, but enjoying the accomplishments and being able to relax are just as important. Yes, I know resolutions come in January….but this isn’t a frivolous pursuit either. These are things that have been on my mind a lot lately. Over the summer, my wife and I turned 35 which caused me to stop and look around, almost literally. I asked myself….then I asked her, is this where we want to be? How do we get where we want to be?

A few of the things that came out of that conversation is that we are both tired of living around people. Some people prefer the city, we definitely prefer country life. Probably because we are both from rural areas and we both feel the calling of returning to that slower pace of life. Which brings up my next observation….we have been running around with our hair on fire (told you I was from the country) trying to accomplish as much as we could as fast as we could. Something clicked this year….and that something was the realization that there isn’t a race and we are missing out because we won’t slow down, or stop, to enjoy the journey. Some where in there I got that idea that 40 was old. I look at my Dad, who is almost 70…..and he acts like he’s 50 something. Even with heart surgery, he still goes. That’s an inspiration to me.

In 2012, I am dedicating my focus to where we, the wife and I, want to be. Along the way, I hope to have some laughs and find a way to enjoy the ride again. Not everything demands such serious consideration. I’m debating on tracking these goals on this website. Part of me says yes….part of me says no, it’s not really the focus of the site. But then again, the focus has been on work and school, maybe I should put some focus on life. What would you do? Should a personal blog be about a single subject….or the person as a whole? Technically this site is dedicated to development…..but I never said it was solely about software development…..