This is the third entry in my year-in-review series that reflects on experiences over the previous 12 months of my career and personal life. If you haven't checked out this blog post on ideas for writing an article similar to this, I highly suggest checking out the Year in Review Checklist by Steve Smith. You can also check out my previous year's post here My 2022 Year In Review.
Personal Milestones
This year was challenging and rewarding for me. My little one is another year older and it's been so amazing to see her grow. My wife has returned to work and we've been adjusting to the new dynamic of being a working family. I've been able to spend a lot of time with my daughter and I'm so grateful for that. I won't go into much detail on the personal side of things but I'm feeling very blessed to have a healthy and happy family. The personal side of things proves yet again to be the most rewarding and fulfilling part of my life and I'm excited to see what the future holds for us.
Exercise
2023 was a year of growth in terms of my physical health. For at least most of the year, while the weather in Ohio was nice, I was been able to get back into running very consistently. Some of my biggest accomplishments were running my first 10k and shaving my single-mile pace down to the fastest time I've had since around the time I graduated from high school. I'm looking forward to warmer weather and being able to continue a regular exercise routine in 2024.
Books I Read 📕
This year's technical reading list was much smaller than years past (again) but the two technical books I did manage to read were very impactful. Both authors are experts in their domains and I always learn something from the content they create. I recommend both to anyone looking to expand their knowledge on modern software development practices as they each have a unique perspective that can trigger some new ideas and insights.
Outside of the technical reading list, I also read the first book in the Dune series by Frank Herbert and I'm excited to continue that journey in 2024. It's a classic in the science fiction genre and I'm excited to see where the story goes beyond the first book.
Full reading list
Professional and Technical Accomplishments
NimblePros
2023 marks the end of my second year at NimblePros and it's continued to be an amazing experience. The team has grown and that's allowed for more collaboration and learning opportunities. I've been able to work on a variety of projects and have been able to contribute to the growth of the company in a variety of ways. We've had an increase in our team's internal training and it's been awesome to participate and grow my skills as a presenter as well as learn technical concepts from others. I'm excited to see what the future holds for NimblePros and I'm looking forward to continuing to grow with the company. There are new challenges and goals I've set for myself and it's great to have a team backing me on those goals.
GitHub Contributions
2023 was my second year in a row of growing my contributions and the biggest year ever in terms of contributions on GitHub as most of my client work has been on private GitHub repositories. Another factor are my contributions to open-source projects including the NimblePros, devBetter, and Ardalis repositories. Having the flexibility and influence to identify bugs or enhancements to Steve's open-source packages and contribute to them as part of my daily work is so rewarding. I've also had significant contributions to repos focused on training exercises for lunch-n-learns and training exercises. I'm looking forward to continuing this trend in 2024 and I'm excited to see where my contributions take me.
Blogs 📝
In 2023, I wrote a total of 4 blog posts which is significantly less than in 2022. While I'm not proud of that decrease, I also know it was because of the time I spent with my family and the time I spent on other projects. I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of things in 2024 and I'm excited to share some awesome content I'm already working on with you all. This will include blogs, videos, and other content that I'm pushing myself to expand into. 2024 should have a lot of new adventures for me and content is one area I'm planning on branching out compared to years past.
You can check out more of my blog posts on all things .NET, design patterns, and any programming practices I use day to day over at the NimblePros blog.
Overall Technical Growth
2023 was one of the biggest years for me in terms of personal and technical growth. I learned a mastery of quite a few new tools that I hadn't used previously and I've been able to apply them to my work in a variety of ways. I've also been able to pick up some new skills in a variety of areas and I still have a lot to learn which keeps me excited about the future. 2023 laid the foundation for me to really flourish over the next few years and I am looking forward to capitalizing on the momentum I've built.
Looking forward to 2024
This past year definitely set me up for success in 2024. As I look ahead, I've learned to plan my goals within reason given my family life while also pushing the boundaries to keep myself challenged. I plan on trying to write more blog posts, create my first set of videos, and contribute to more open-source projects. I'm also trying my hand at giving talks at conferences and going to increase the frequency of speaking at meetups. In summary, I'm looking forward to a year of growth and I'm excited to see where the journey takes me.