2023 Recap

Retrospective

Finding Myself. As 2023 concludes, I feel as if I have arrived. Especially during the latter half of the year, I discovered who I really was, and allowed myself to live that life again. During July, I went through a devastating heartbreak with a girl I had dated for 3 and a half years. I hold no grudge, as I realize looking back that it was for the best. I went through a phase where I felt "lost" in a sense, as this was the first time I had been on my own in the world since before the pandemic of 2020. Thankfully, the sun shines regardless. I was blessed with an amazing group of friends to help me through it, and allowed me to be a little kid again with how much pure fun and joy I have had during these last few months of the year. To them, I say thank you.

Music. Those that know me know I love my music. For starters, I had over 100k minutes on Spotify, albeit it was lower than my 2022 total. Additionally, I was on a trip to Guitar Center with my roommate where I bought a $55 ukelele on a whim. Since then, I've been practicing a decent amount. I can (somewhat) play Somewhere Over the Rainbow, although that's the only song I know. In all honesty, with just a couple B, C, and D chords and the proper strumming patterns, you can make just about anything sound like a "hawaiian" or "tropical" song.

Aviation. This year, I dove head first into my new found love of aviation. At the very beginning of the year, I discovered Digital Combat Simulator, a fighter jet simulation game where you can learn how to fly a 1:1 replica of a fighter jet, albeit within a video game. I was instantly hooked. I bought a HOTAS (hands-on throttle and stick), and began instantly. However, I quickly found out I had bitten off more than I can chew. Funny enough, flying planes is NOT a simple task... Let alone learning how to fly an entire fighter jet! After many hours of watching YouTube and reading Chuck's Guides, I eventually began to get my feet wet in the virtual world. However, it wasn't enough for me. Once school had let out for the summer, I began taking flight school courses when I could. Between surgery, a full-time job, and a college summer baseball league, I only was able to make it to a few classes, but I'm grateful to have a real-world understanding of aviation and avionics under my belt, and I'm extremely excited moving forward.

2024 Goals

Looking forward to 2024, I'd rather not call them "New Years Resolutions", which seem to always be quick bursts of progress, rather than slow continued growth. This list of goals as I'll call it is definitely looking on the brighter side, but I hope to accomplish most of these.

Write more blogs! The creation of my personal website has allowed me to delve into writing to the void, which is one of my guilty pleasures. I was never a fan of long and excruciating research papers, but writing for my own pleasure has always been a secret pastime of mine. I remember during my 8th grade English course, we were asked to write a 3-page short story about something fictional - Make up a story, essentially. I (ridiculously) wrote a 10-page story about a man who had gone off the grid. Unfortunately, this story was lost to time as I had stored it on my high school assigned email account. Although I'm not the most devoted reader, I love a good story. I feel as if I can express that here, although I'm not entirely sure who I'm writing to. Writing to the void almost makes it better for me in a sense, as it allows me to express my truest emotions. If you're reading this, thank you!

Be more kind. As to be expected with a male athlete, I get a lot of slack for coming off as this cocky or arrogant person. Admittedly, I fill that role sometimes, whether it be from locker room talk with my guys, to playfully joking around the dinner table. In 2024, I want to be a kinder person overall. Over social media, I feel as if I fill this role well already, as I'm rarely one to show those negative mannerisms through my phone. I'm fully delved into the "spreading love and positivity" persona, and I want to expand that to my real-world surroundings. Whether it be playful or not intentional, everyone has feelings just the same. That cocky, arrogant, not-a-care-in-the-world college male could be going through the same struggles that you are, and I want to do a better job of being kind to everyone, no holds barred.

Learn R. Ever since I learned Python, it has no doubt been my go-to language for a majority of problems I've had. That being said, I've shoehorned it into pretty much every aspect of my coding adventure that I've needed, other than web development. Although Python is absolutely incredible with its adaptability and general ability to be able to do just about everything, it's time for me to expand my horizons. One of my coding passions is data science and data visualizations, and R was pretty much built for that. For what it's worth, learning R is definitely a priority on not only my technological 'to-do' list, but a priority in my life in general.

Get in the air. As I stated earlier, I began my journey into aviation this year with my flight school courses. This one is pretty self explanatory - I want to get in the air and experience the power of flight with myself behind the yokes. Enough learning about aerodynamics, aviation regulations, and the phonetic alphabet and phraseology - I want to get up there and just do it!

Land an internship. Last summer, I was plagued with an unfortunate surgery that basically shot down any chance I had at an internship or a Co-Op. On May 31, I had my tonsils removed, which put me out of commission for 3 weeks, a time period too long for hiring managers to overlook. This summer, I'm hoping to land my first position, preferably within the data science or software development paths. Although, with any first position within a field, I'll take what I can get.

Looking back at 2023, I'm incredibly grateful for everything this year has brought me, through all of its ups and downs. At the ripe age of 20, I would most definitely call this year a success. Here's to 2024!