The Happy Ever After
We lived, we loved, and we laughed.
As I opened my mind and my computer to write this year’s review, I couldn’t help but think about a song that I would personally chose to express how I felt about myself, my life, and everyone around me. It didn’t take me long to remember the words of a former wise man ( as quoted on Twitter) “I left dem post on my Instagram ( & Facebook), so you can see there was a turning point…shebi you know where I was coming from? Now look at me, I’ve gone far.” The wise man dropped a few more lines, such as “Na everybody get him own story” and “And I no really get another choice (than to succeed)”. Thus my theme song for this year is “Gone Far” by Zinoleesky. Unlike the catastrophe that Apple Music replay suggested as my most played song, “Ma Pariwo” by none other than Zinoleesky.
As my review for 2022 suggested, I wanted to spend the year 2023 enjoying myself. For those who haven’t read the build up to this, here is the review of 2022. I said I wanted to enjoy 2023, and yes I did. Moving to Dallas was perhaps the best decision I made in 2022 to influence the quality of my life in 2023. This year’s review will be short because I did only one thing: enjoy myself in whatever way or form that I could think of.
I did NOT write any articles, build any side projects, go to any hackathons, or practice any algorithms. It was the first year that all I did was focus on work, doing my best there while using all of my free time for leisure and relaxation. For some context, I took a few days before returning to this review because I had events to attend and a trip to plan. I am attempting to complete this review while on said trip so let’s dig right in to it.
Work
I love it. I think I do really great and impactful work, and that I am well appreciated. It is the reason I can enjoy myself.
Life
This year, I truly understood the meaning of work life balance. At some point this year, I had life work balance. I had to remind myself that work sponsors the lifestyle. This is all new because for the last 6 years, all I did was hustle. I woke up every day and hauled ass, chasing the lifestyle that I now have today. So I have been living it up.
Every one that I love (not sure if they all love me back though) is still around so I am very happy about that. It sucks to lose people. I am also grateful for all the new friends and acquaintances that I made this year. They say it is hard to make friends as adults but we’ve all been trying.
Thus, life is good. I am very happy with how the year went. In terms of life, this has been the best year yet.
Learnings/Thoughts
This year, I spent a lot of time reimagining the meaning of success and why people chase it. Why is being successful important and who decides who has led a successful life? I think the constant pursuit of “success” is the easiest path towards wasting whatever little time we have on earth. I think everyone should decide what a successful life is for them as early as possible and stick to it. You can’t win the rag race. For me, there are two options: (1) pick a spot and stop running at that point or (2) run slower so you can breath and enjoy life. I am leaning towards (now) running slower and having the opportunity to explore other aspects of life.
I think my general philosophy about life is now “You don’t have to be number 1 to succeed at life, but if you want to be number 1, LET’S FUCKING GO!!!
As in other years, my mortality and my purpose were still things that I pondered about. No definitive answer on this yet. As regards mortality, I think this year prepared me for it. I am happy with the life I have lived till this moment, hence, until my next big life decision, I am ready for it.
2024
I haven’t really had time to think about 2024 but I do know one thing for sure, I am going to take my life a little more seriously and achieve some new personal goals. Why? Just because. As humans, we have an empty canvas and each day we get to paint on it. I want to make my life and canvas as colorful and interesting as it can be. For this purpose, I will be picking up a random skill and trying to learn it. While not promising, I will also try to do a bit more community work.
One thing I certainly need to do next year is complete my memoir. It has been paused for three years but I think now is the time to get back to it. I can now conclude the memoir because this is essentially the happy ever after.
See you in 2024.
