New Year, New Goals

Happy New Year!

Man, 2016 was a long year. Not only did a lot happen in the world that was emotionally taxing, but my own personal journey was made all the more difficult last year. Potentially one of the most difficult years to date, I’m not sad to see 2016 come to an end. Granted, there was a lot of good that came out of this time, too. Instead of droning on about how deeply I struggled with depression, loneliness, and career changes, I’m going to focus on the cool stuff I did this year.

Yes, if you’re my friend on Facebook my life probably does look rosy enough already. Truth be told, if I spend any more time reflecting on how much of a hard time I had, I’m concerned I will become consumed by it. Hence why on the surface, anyone really only sees the perfection. For concerned friends, feel free to reach out and we can plan a Skype date. Otherwise, let’s take a moment to admire the positive times of last year to better usher in 2017!

• Started my own company (In need of graphics, a website, web app, or similar?! Shameless plug goes here.)
• Joined the team at Unknown Worlds Entertainment working on Subnautica
• Joined Your Closet (Australian dress-rental company, like the American equivalent Rent the Runway) as a Web Developer
• Visited many friends across the world who I’ve been “meaning to go visit”
  • Dallas, TX
  • Portland, OR (Actually Vancouver, WA)
  • Tokyo & Koga, Japan
  • Orange County, CA
  • New York, NY
• Went to many business-related and/or leisure destinations
  • San Francisco, CA
  • San Diego, CA
  • Boston, MA
  • Melbourne, Australia
  • Lord Howe Island, Australia
  • Orlando, FL
• Met friends from California for a fun trip to Disney
• Saw two of my favorite couples get married: Greg & Jen, Leo & Caitlin (congrats!)
  • Was Best Lady in Greg’s wedding! So cool, we killed gender stereotypes right?!
  • Caitlin’s wedding was Star Wars themed!
• A new family member was added (Yay Camden Griegh, welcome to the world! I’m now a great-aunt, twice over.)
• Learned or leveled up in lots of skills; AWS, SQL (barely), PHP, CSS, Javascript, Graphic Design, After Effects, 1337 Overwatch skillz
• Showed the beauty of Australia to my mom, Grant, and Julie
• Brought my orchid back from the dead
• Lost weight and started Brazilian JiuJitsu again
• Visited a new country – New Zealand! Went to Middle Earth! Maybe I will post about this adventure
• Last but not least MOVED ALL THE WAY TO AUSTRALIA (for now)

Phew, what a long list of wonderful adventures! This year will be even better, I can feel it. No — I’m going to make it better! To top it off, I’ve started using a bullet journal to increase productivity and provide a space to record my successes for later reference. It’s filled with movies I want to see, places I want to go, hobbies I want to pick up (or continue) and stuff I really need to get done. If you’ve never tried this I highly recommend it! Only one week in but I think I’m already sold.

What about the Girl in Translation, you ask? Well, are you in for a treat. Since I pay the Word Press gods lots of dough to keep this sucker alive, I thought it was high time I stopped putting it off and put it to good use! What can you look forward to this year? So far, I can confidently say:

• Traveling adventures! (San Francisco and Orlando already on the books)
• Sydney events and exploration
• The Running Series makes it’s return
• Work-From-Home guides, insight, and ideas
• Articles on tech, design, programming and more
• Video Game reviews (why not)
• Rants & Notes on Translation

Wow, 2017 is going to be amazing.

Until next time.