Reflection

Last Year of my Life

Its easy to fall into the habit of focusing on the bad, the crap, and the down-right ugly.  Its much harder to stay focused on the positive, the just, and the good. 

I just had my birthday.  And in spite of all the crap going on in the world, this past year was one of the best years of my life.  I did not just lie down and accept that life during a pandemic is horrible.  I did not let the politics of the world stop me from living.  Here’s the list of some of the things that I celebrated about this past year:

• Everyone in my family was healthy (except for a few broken bones)
• Set a new over-40 PR running a 5k 
• Built a patio and pergola in the backyard, my new favorite place
• Came to a major career decision to vigorously pursue promotion to Full Professor
• Had 6 articles published or accepted for publication (the highest 1 year total in my life)
• Started a podcast
• Adopted a kitten
• Selected as an Adobe CC Faculty Leader where I learned about Adobe Premier Rush, Audition, XD, inDesign, and other great tools in Adobe’s Creative Cloud suite
• Redesigned my courses to use Adobe Dreamweaver
• Taught over 200 students in 11 class sections
• Started mentoring my first PhD student
• Hosted a visit from our good friend Alex
• Hosted a visit from our good friends the Crawfords
• Visited the Crawfords in Auburn, Alabama
• Visited our friend, Alex, in Chattanooga
• Traveled to Jamaica with the family
• Went snorkeling for the first time
• Went white water rafting (5th time)
• Climbed a waterfall
• Went skinny dipping
• Celebrated as my son’s team won the state’s FRC robotics competition
• Celebrated with my other son as he completed elementary school
• Realized that our family net worth topped $1 million for the first time

Not perfect, but still great

Certainly we had our bumps, like the car crash that totaled our Armada, knocked me unconscious, broke my daughter’s collar bone, and left my mother-in-law in the hospital for several days.  Or the car problems we had with our second Armada, that left it in the shop for nearly 3 months straight. Or the morning my son fell out of his loft and broke his arm. Or the rigors of adjusting school schedules due to changing “social distancing” requirements.  Or the constant annoyance of wearing a mask.  But we bounced back each time.  

When I reflect on the past year, it really was a great year for me and my family – financially, socially, health-wise, and career-wise.  My wife’s business is booming, my career is rocking, our marriage is loving, our friendships are strengthening, my kids are thriving, and we are all moving in the right direction.  

So take that, you stupid pandemic.