As 2021 is coming to an end an I find myself in a reflective mood. This past year has been full and fulfilling both personally and professionally. Since I've committed to writing on a weekly basis, I thought I'd share some of the big things that happened and lay out a few things I'd like to see happen in the coming year.

First, the personal stuff
By far the biggest thing that happened this year was that my wife and I welcomed our daughter into our family. Technically, she was born at the very end of 2020, but all of the parenting happened in 2021. I was originally going to say, "I figured out parenting of two kids," but in reality I've got nothing figured out. I don't have any profound reflections on fatherhood (although I'm sure I could bake some up if I had to), other than the fact that all the corny stuff you hear about loving your kids is true. To me, my children are the best little humans I've ever come across. My wife and I found out a few weeks ago that we're expecting baby number three in mid-2022, and we're very excited and happy about that.

School
This year I went back to school. I always liked the idea of getting a Master's, but I never wanted to do the hard work to actually get it. Not to mention, I had no idea what I wanted to study. But over the last two years or so I finally figured out what I want to do when I grow up. My vision of my career really solidified in the area of analytics. When I came across the Georgia Tech Master's in Analytics program I applied and got in, and just finished my first semester. I've been enjoying it so far and am looking forward to learning stuff that is really relevant to what I do in my day job.

Career
Professionally, things have been great as well. I had my first full year at the director level, completed a number of big and small projects, and built out my team by hiring two interns and a full-time analyst. I've learned a lot about analytics, running a mid-sized business, pricing, inventory, accounts receivable/payable, hiring and mentoring, inter-departmental work and communication, and in general just getting shit done. I feel like I'm just getting started at my job and have spent the past year establishing a solid foundation on which to build out some cool stuff going forward.

Writing
Something that has been resonating with me recently is the importance of writing. I've been doing more long-form writing at work to help me organize my thoughts and I've found it to be a very useful exercise. I've stumbled across enough posts and articles about the benefits of writing recently that it's pushed me over the edge to commit to publishing something once per week. Right now I'm in the very early stages and don't really have a clear idea of what direction I'm going in with this, other than trying to get practice putting stuff out there. If nothing comes out of it other than me writing a few useful reference articles that I can go back to, and learning a few things by writing them out, it'll be worth the effort.

2022 Goals
To wrap up, and to keep myself accountable, I'll share some of the goals I have in mind for 2022. Some of these will be aspirational or "stretch" goals. The hope is that writing them down and sharing them will give me some kind of a roadmap for how to get the most out of the coming year. Life is short, I don't want to waste it.