2019 -- A Year in Brief

When I look back on the past year, I feel like although I didn’t do giant major things, I was able to do a few simple things that I had wanted to do for a while. I feel like although I didn’t meet all of my goals, because I kept trying, I made some good progress that I wouldn’t have had I not made the goal in the first place. I also feel like I was a bit more honest in my feelings. Anyway, let’s see what I did--

• I ran Ragnar Del Sol, which is near Phoenix Arizona.
• I got filmed for an ad at work. I understand it was nothing too fancy, but I was sick when they finally showed it later in the year, I should probably find out if I could get a copy.
• I was also photographed for a news story, but that didn’t make that article.
• I went to Crystal Hot Springs for the first time.
• I threw a “culture party” as an activity to help with two of my goals this year-- do more cooking, and plan more non-game night activities.
• I went on a lot of fun dates with beautiful women.
• I went dancing several times this year, and I had fun learning and practicing new moves.
• I got kicked out of a bar -- Well, okay, we were going to dance where in a place that happened to be a bar, but my driver’s licence had expired without me realizing, so they wouldn’t let me in. Oops!
• I saw the Spiral Jetty for the first time.
• I played a lot of Ultimate Frisbee.
• I went for a long run through a part of Ogden I hadn’t been before.
• I finally got around to fixing up my bike and I went on a couple bike rides this year.
• Our local boardgame convention, SaltCON, for the first time had 3 conventions in one year. Of course, I went to all of them.
• For the first time, I set up my own event at the convention.
• At church, I was released from being building cleaning chairperson, and called as the Elders Quorum secretary in the Presidency.
• I played Machi Koro Legacy, which is the second Legacy game I’ve played, the first I’ve actually finished.
• For the first time, I planned my own camping trip. I got a group of friends together and we went up to Yellowstone.
• I went backpacking into the Palisades.
• Went on an overnight camp with the Singles Ward.
• I did a no-sugar, no-fast-food diet challenge for two weeks.
• My phone hit its two-year mark, and then started giving me a lot of troubles. I managed to get it working again, but I’ll have to plan on replacing it before I go on another vacation.
• My oven died, so I bought a new oven.
• I bought a new couch.
• I got sick for a week, but a a couple kind friends came over and brought me some food on a couple different days. That’s never happened to me before, and I really appreciated it.
• At work, we moved down the hall to an open office environment.
• We also started work on some nice new advancements to our software product.
• The team I’m over at work got large enough to split. We lost the person that was going to be the second team lead, but we split the team anyway, so now I’m over two teams.
• I went on a business trip with work up to Idaho.
• Work cancelled our fitness leave program.
• I finished reading Saints, Volume 1: The Standard of Truth.
• I finished reading Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part 1: 1 Nephi - 2 Nephi 10.
• I also finished reading the New Testament.
• New boardgames I got this year: The Quest for El Dorado, and Spirit Island. I also got some promo boards/cards for 7 Wonders, and the Colonies and Turmoil expansions for Terraforming Mars.
• Movies I saw in theaters this year: Mob Psycho 100: Season 2 Premiere, Captain Marvel, Volcanoes 3D, Avengers: Endgame, Detective Pikachu, Dora and the Lost City of Gold, Men in Black: International, Ad Astra, One Piece: Stampede, Jumanji: The Next Level, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
• I also watched a stage play musical for A Christmas Carol.

For the next year, I feel like some of the things I was working on, I want to continue to do. I was working on learning to cook, but when my oven gave out, I got frustrated, even though it was just the oven part, not the stove-top part. But my sister who is good at cooking gave each of us a bunch of recipes of things we have eaten together, so I would like to keep this goal up.

One of my other goals last year was to do more running, and I did well with that until work cancelled fitness leave, and I’ve been sporadic ever since. This next year, I want to rededicate myself to going to the gym regularly.

For spiritual goals, I managed to finish reading the New Testament. Next year will be the Book of Mormon, and I want to keep up with my personal study. Last year as part of the move to 2-hour church, I had a goal to be more honest in my feelings. And not just religiously, either, but also to be more open socially and in general. I want to keep that up, too.

Thinking about new goals I might want to do this year, I feel like I never have time to do creative-type things, and I think I want to decide how to make time for that this year.

Looking back on the year, not everything turned out the way I wanted, but even though that made me frustrated, I was able to deal with problems like a mature adult. And then there were other things that I had imagined doing for some time, so actually having it happen gave me a lot of joy.

I feel like I am doing a lot better socially, and when it comes to thoughts about relationships, I am more optimistic about my future than I have been in a very long time. It’s too easy to lie to myself and get discouraged over minor things, and I feel like I keep doing better finding positives.

Thanks everyone who took part with me in one or more of my adventures this year, I really appreciate you being there for me. And I know it’s cliché to say, but I feel like I’m ready to make this year “my year!”