A lookback at 2021

⌗A year in flux

I was so nervous, I did not know what I was doing, but all I knew was that I wanted to be with Janet for the rest of my life. Getting engaged was huge for my 2021, and is going to be a big turning part of my life. That being said there was also some lows this year and I wanted to reflect on that. I also planned to write 4 blog posts for 2021, and this will be the 4th one.

2021 started off strong, and I felt really hopeful for 2021. We had a new president, vaccines were coming out and I had a handful of goals I was ready to dive into. One of them being vegan for 30 days or for Januarary. These good vibes took a bit of a detour when the captial building was stormed on the 6th of this year.

⌗Capital thoughts

I find that after it sank in what had happened and what the implications of what had happened on the January 6th of this year, my mind raced with many thoughts. One of the biggest is how fragile democracy is in this experiment we call the US. This was not exactly how I envisioned the first of the year for me, but sometimes we are forced to think about these things. Especially when thinking about starting a family, and having a business in the US.

⌗Soaring with Toucan

Though all the turmoil, I feel like work and the drive to make a better product for my company Toucan has been a solid foundation for me. During 2021 things have changed with Toucan, and I really am kinda getting used to the full-remote work environment, but overall this has to be one of the more comfortable asspects of 2021 for me. It is also fufilling to see how much Toucan has grown over the year.

⌗Nuevo hogar y nueva promesa

I actually lived 4 months of 2021 in a differnt country. This was a huge step forward for my spanish, and for my life. My long distance girlfriend, Janet and I moved into an AirBnb for around 3 months this year. I had planned in 2020 to purpose to Janet and when I was there for 3 months I decided it was time to pop the question, and one sunny day in September I purposed at a park in Mexico City. She said yes, and I was on top of the world. This filled my heart with joy, and made me feel like life was progressing forward not just for me but for the both of us.

After getting engaged this trip consisted of meeting a lot of family, and also planning the wedding which is going to be in 2022! When I think of 2021 this time is usually what I think about. I feel at home in Mexico,cin the US, and TBH anywhere with Janet.

⌗Another year of Covid 19

There was a lot of hope this year, and TBH I feel its was not a very bad year for me with Covid, luckily. First off, got my vaccine before my 3 month trip to Mexico. This was a goal of mine and luckily I was able to make it happen, even if that meant I needed a one shot JnJ to be able to complete that goal. This was a turning point for me mentally, it did not make me less cautious, but less tense about Covid. I talk about with my therpist the early days of covid, as a fog of uncertainty, and not knowing the direction that the pandimic would go. Getting a vaccine did a few things for me to clear that fog of uncertainty. 1. It gave me control over my life in the pandimic. 2. It made me feel more safe to travel to Mexico. 3. It gave me hope that our science was here to fight covid 19.

Another big step in the pandimic for me was California lifting the mask mandate when outside. This was huge for me because I was a cautious person that wore a mask when running, and walking around my neighboorhood. This allowed me to see others faces again, and to be know things were getting better. It felt like a natural progression in the pandemic, and not just a neglegent removal of a mandate because people did not like it.

Lastly, omicron, I was dreading it, and still do not want to get it. But I have to say I think this is an interesting turn in this pandimic. It feels like its a variant that helps covid 19 live longer, but also, with recent studies as of writting this, seems like its not as bad for humans as before. I am hopeful that this will not force us to go backwards, even though I still think we are going to be getting boosters for a while.

⌗Goals

2021 was a decent year for goals, I can not say I excelled at some of my harder goals but stayed focused and completed quite a few goals.

First what I did not achieve:

• Triathlon, this has carried over multiple years, and I think its time to retire this goal in favor of more running goals.

• 2 day fast. I was not into fasting in general this year, and a 2 day fast is not something I would like to just jump into. I think this will carry over to the next year.

All my other goals were completed, some I want to highlight are:

• 4, 30 day challenges. This one was nice, it was a fun format, but I did kinda finish some of these challenges last minute. 2022 Im going to do more 30 day challenges, but I am going to be defining the challenges before 2022 starts.

• Read 15 books, feel like I read quite a few new authors this year. Neil Gaiman: I loved the creativity of his books, and the peak under the hood creation of his books. Yuval Noah Harari: Sapiens has been on reading list for a while, and have to say I loved it. I am a bit of a science buff and his books scratch that itch. James S. A. Corey: I read The Expance and that was a great science fiction made me think about the future. Next year I actually reduced my reading goal to only 10 books. This is because I want to finish up some larger books like Don Quixote.

• Selfie each month. I thought I failed this, but found that I did complete this and it was a lot of fun to revisit the memories. Here is the selfies.