2023, a Year in Review

Reflections, Shifts, mostly Gratitude

As the dawn of a new year approaches, I like to reflect on the past year’s happenings. In the past, my reflections produced lists of books, travel destinations, songs, tools, and such. I’ll leave a couple of those topics to essays I have cooking. Instead, I’ll highlight the most significant shifts I’ve experienced this year.

DALL-E: A NYE celebration in a fictional city that combines Boston, Austin, Taipei, and Kuala Lumpur

---

In 2023, I made some of the deepest commitments and investments of my life.

I couldn’t have predicted this year’s happenings in my wildest dreams. Ironically, the year’s unexpected directions and oscillating emotions makes it feel like the realest, most alive year I’ve lived yet. I pray that most of the years to come feel the same.

It’s impossible to tell what the events and decisions of this year really mean – the resonances are going to be felt for a long time. I’ll be living and processing them for a while. All I know is that this time has been significant. It’s been hard, easy, loving, and expansive. I cannot be more grateful.

Writing

This year, I committed to writing in a big way. Specifically, this space on Substack has welcomed the flood of my words. Writing has always felt like a sacred vehicle of expression. But this year, I’ve proven to myself that writing is both an exercise in becoming who I want to be and a craft I can take seriously.

Taking Write of Passage in April was the catalyst that took this commitment to another level. It transformed dormant desire into action and a publishing cadence. The course gave my inner-creative permission to take the wheel. It helped me discover incredible people (and new friends) who are on similar journeys.

If you’ve been following my journey (or read even one of my essays), I’m honored that you’d spend a few moments with my words.

In 2024, The Spoonful isn’t going anywhere. In fact, it’ll be evolving in some interesting ways. More on that in the Season 5 Recap coming next week.

Love

Marriage is a surreal experience. Practically, it’s felt like Jackie and I have been married for a while (our spiritual marriage, the nikkah, happened over a year ago). So nothing felt tangibly different in our relationship after the wedding. But being able to dance, sing, cry, and laugh with our friends and family was one of the happiest events of my life. It still doesn’t feel like it actually happened.

I could go on, but I’ll hold off on riffing about love… for now.

Language

This year has been one where I’ve found solace and inspiration in the restless pages of books, and found energy and intellect in the pixels of software.

I experienced moments of deep love for the skill of reading and the magic of building for our interconnected machines.

Learning Chinese has been a fun challenge. I dug into history books, pondered poems, and adventured into fantasy novels full of captivating language.

I built with Ruby, dabbled with JavaScript, and recognized when code feels expressive (or not).

I explored multiple ways to capture my thoughts, and built my own thinking nook.

I realized that translations are approximations, and found greater appreciation in the natural sounds of a language – whether I can understand it or not.

Sabbatical

I bet on myself this year by quitting my job and wandering into the unknown. Asia was calling both Jackie and I, and we knew we wanted to spend some extended time here. A large part of our quest is to find ourselves, ask questions, and lean into our gifts as we head into a new chapter.

The sabbatical was the most surprising thing that happened this year. In December 2022, it was merely a wish, but I had no expectation of it materializing in 2023.

I’m still calling the mode I’m in “sabbatical,” although the aspect of sabbatical being a “break from work” feels like it could be changing.

Writers who set off on their own quests helped to inspire the jump and sustain its trajectory. Their words supplied important questions and perspectives for navigating the roads ahead. I’m lucky to have met some of them in person, on zoom, through tweets, and in comments.

If any of you end up reading this, know that your words have influenced me, and particularly the journey I’m on now. Thank you!

🙏🏽

Paul Millerd

, David Perell,

Venkatesh Rao

,

David Whyte

, Derek Sivers,

Matt Yao

,

Michelle Elisabeth Varghese

,

Louie Bacaj

,

Tommy Dixon

,

Tobi Ogunnaike

,

Cissy Hu

,

Steven Foster

,

Karena

2024 - a year of bold experimentation

Beyond 2023, I’ve reflected a bit on the arc of my journey in the past few years.

2019 - learned to be an effective employee, glad to be part of the workforce
2020 - pandemic, found love, leaned into building software
2021 - started programming professionally, moved from Boston to Austin
2022 - built and crafted software
2023 - wrote, got married, started sabbatical, moved out of Austin

2023 laid fresh ground needed to build a life from scratch. As I sit and write this, I’m grateful, motivated, and energized.

2024’s beginning will be full of travel. I’ll keep drinking from the firehose of experiences, untangling and recording as I go.

As the pace slows and we prioritize stillness and focus, there are a few themes that might emerge:

• Publishing poetry (more about that next week)

• Continuing to build with technology, and digging into data, programming, and protocols

• Cultivating of spiritual knowledge and habits

• Writing regularly to expand my thinking and find my people

• Documenting my way to a sustainable stream of income

Growing up as a reader, dreamer, and with a name that means “traveler,” I see life as a grand journey. The daypack’s ready for the hike ahead.

Have you written a year in review? I want to read it! Hit reply and let that link fly, or better yet, add it to the comments below!