2019 Year in Review
In 2019 I got married—twice! (to the same person!) I changed jobs. I ran my first marathon. 2019 was a huge year in my life.
I grew in a lot of ways this year. Wedding planning was a huge undertaking and strengthened our communication and quick decision making skills. Additionally this year I started working with a therapist which has been great—I’m wondering why I never thought of doing that earlier.
I’m going to try to keep this post brief, so here’s a quick rundown of what I was up to this year, organized by the themes I care about.
Reading
I read 27 books in 2019. Here are the best 4.
Running
This was a great year for running. I PR’d my half marathon time and ran my first marathon at CIM. In total I ran 544 miles. Most importantly I finally learned how to sustainably train without injuring myself. I’m looking forward to a lot more injury-free running in 2020!
Races
FebKaiser SF Half Marathon, getting a PR! [race report here]({{ ref “kaiser-sf-half-race-report.md” }}).FebInside Trail Lake Chabot (half marathon)JulSF 2nd Half MarathonAugBridge to Bridge 12kSepJP Morgan Corporate Challenge (3.5mi)OctInside Trail Oakland Hills (half marathon)NovMonterey Half MarathonDecCalifornia Internation Marathon—my first marathon! [Race report here.]({{ ref “cim-race-report.md” }}).
Personal Records
| Β | 1 mile | 5K | 10K | 1/2 Marathon | Marathon |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PR | 5:32 | 18:48 | 41:22 | 1:31:37 | 3:59:44 |
| Year | 2018 | 2018 | 2019 π | 2019 π | 2019 π |
Learning
Chinese δΈζ
I began taking Chinese lessons in Summer 2018. Going to China for our wedding this year I was able to practice and use the basic language skills I had acquired, and during the ceremony I gave my vows in Chinese.
Work
MayHosted an intern for the first time. I wrote about [what I learned here]({{ ref “things-i-learned-first-time-intern-host.md” }}).NovSwitched jobs from the Google Chrome team to Waymo. I wrote about this [here]({{ ref “im-joining-waymo.md” }}).
Throughout the year I also contributed as a 20%er to ByteBoard, a new alternative software engineering interview aimed at increasing equity and accuracy in the interview process.
Travel
This was a big travel year. Here’s where I went:
AprSan Diego – Bachelor partyAprToronto – work tripMayPoint Reyes – “Bach packing” tripJunSoCal – for sister’s graduationAugChengdu and Harbin – for Wedding #2!OctOrlando and Miami – for GHCNovMonterey – for the Monterey HalfDecSacramento – for CIM
I’m currently writing this from our honeymoon. We’re splitting our time between freezing cold (Hokkaido, Japan), and super hot (Singapore, Cambodia, and Thailand).
Health
Fortunately I didn’t face any big health issues this year, aside from self-imposed [running injuries]({{ ref “on-being-injured-again.md” }}).
Mindfulness is an aspect of my life where I really fell off the horse this year. In 2020 I want to slowly re-integrate mindfulness back into my daily life. I did Marie Kondo much of my stuff in 2019, which did help to clear up my life a bit, for which I’m grateful.
Writing
In total I wrote 17 blog posts and 8 newsletters. I failed to hit my original goal of 100,000 words in 2019, however I’m very satisfied with the amount I wrote and hope to keep writing and improving more in 2020. For those of you who even occasionally read what I write: thank you for your endurance.
2019 Goals
- Write and publish >100,000 words
- Total: about ~11,000 words
- (~11% of goal)
- Dedicate 1 hour/week to make tech more equitable
- Accomplished
- Run 1000 miles
- Total 544 miles
- (54% of goal)
I definitely could have set more realistic 2019 goals, but I’m happy with what I achieved. Even though I call them goals, they really are the same thing as New Years resolutions. I’m not creating any resolutions for 2020, so check back in 2021 to see how things went!
Please have a happy new year and a fantastic 2020!