Retro: 2021-2023 Goals

2 years ago I made a list of 10 goals for the next two years:

It’s now a few months away from being those two years and I’m so proud to say that I reached all the goals I had made for myself. A lot of them were not in the ways I thought I would, but I have absolutely succeeded. It’s time for a new set, but first let’s look at how I met each of these in the past two years.

1. Job in engineering and/or natural language processing at a company that does AI work

This was probably my biggest goal, and definitely the one that I most definitely succeeded in. I have the absolute best job at Explosion, the makers of spaCy and Prodigy. I work on machine learning and community outreach and cool projects, and I’m learning so much and creating good quality work. My coworkers are the most wonderful people and I feel so grateful and awed to be working with them. I couldn’t be more certain that we are one of the best NLP/ML companies out there.

2. Maintain connection with reading

This one is arguably the one I struggled with the most, and maybe still haven’t reached to the extent that I wanted to. However, I still have read a lot in the past 2 years, and am continually working on making it an integral part of my daily routine. There have been several time stretched when I have done really well, and several where it’s fallen off the radar.

3. Make a very good cup of coffee

I am a somewhat coffee master 👩‍🍳. Well, kind of. I can make a really good pour over IMO, and my French Press is pretty decent too. I’ve learned a lot about what I like in a bean and grind, ratios and all that. I definitely still very very very much love coffee, and I’ve only gone slightly broke because of it.

4. Find peace in small moments of life

I haven’t recently been able to see too many sunsets and sunrises, it’s not as easy as it was in San Diego. But, I do find many quiet moments in the week and have definitely gotten better at sitting still and enjoying a nugget of time. Coffee has helped with that, or sitting and getting a drink at Cosmic Coffee, or even writing or reading.

5. Move out of San Diego

Although Austin was somewhat short lived and I’m back with my parents now, I definitely did this. I’m excited to continue that freedom journey and move officially to Berlin.

6. Meet new people and maintain connections

Stephanie is still incredibly supportive and wonderful, and we call somewhat often. She’s my longest current friend (freshman year of HS).

Katada and Bridget are wonderful as always, and we talk somewhat often as well. Bridget is studying in S. Korea, and Katada is being Katada. I’m so grateful to have met them in college.

Emily drove with me from Austin to Massachusetts, which I am so grateful for and so amazed by her kindness and willingness to help.

I’ve also met Emma and James, Kasey, and Mauricio (Emily’s fiancee), who have all made my Austin experience amazing.

7. Appreciation of the arts and language

Art and language has been a bit on and off experience, as always for me. But I’m learning German now, and doing pretty well with that, and have gone to a few art galleries and just generally appreciating beauty and language.

8. Travel and explore the world

Well, I’m currently living in Berlin for the next month, so that checks that off, but I also took a really nice Europe trip, a few cool road trips, and have plans to visit some other places (Copenhagen 👋) while I’m here.

9. Maintain a healthy body

I’m so proud of the fact that I trained for and succeeded in running my first marathon January of 2022. It was such a long and hard journey, both leading up to and during the race, but I’m so proud of myself for completing it.

I got injured shortly after, which has been a pain, but since the marathon I’ve kept up a pretty good level of fitness with the gym and occasional running. I need to improve still, but I’m very proud of the progress I’ve made.

10. Give up reliance on material or temporary pleasures

Two years ago I was stuck in a bit of a shopping therapy spiral, and buying a lot of things I didn’t really need or even want. I have definitely gotten a lot better with this, I think moving twice with just my car helped a lot.

I still have my things, like everyone does, but I’m no longer really into buying junk. I definitely have a preference towards experiences now.