New year thoughts

Life has been quite the blur since 2020. In 2022, I left academia for industry, joined Fortanix, broke my ankle while teaching in Alaska, and my partner and I worked to figure out the new directions in our lives.

In 2023, I learned a lot about security and cryptography through my work, and got promoted to Sr. Software Engineer.

I’ve never moved so much in a year before; we spent a chunk of the winter in Maine, and then moved to an apartment in Worcester in the Spring, sold our house in VT, and then bought a house in Worcester, and begin some fairly extensive renovations on it. I sincerely hope to never pack all of our stuff and move again.

I have become a person who is terrible at checking, keeping track of, and answering my personal email, which has been kind of a shock to my self-identity; I’m usually so organized, but a lot of that energy has gone to our personal projects, moving, and work.

The dog has determined that we live to serve him. He’s taken to sitting down in the living room in the evenings, and pointing his nose towards the mantle above the fireplace, where we used to keep some of his treats. He’ll make eye contact with you if you take too long or say no, and then point at the mantle, as though we’re just too stupid to understand what he wants, and not telling him that he’s objectively still overweight and he doesn’t need any more treats.

I don’t normally set out goals for the year, and haven’t really been one for new year resolutions, but I’m hoping that 2024 can be a better year for those I know, and for the world.