2022

At some point in our lives, as the story goes, the years start to blur together. As we get more settled in the rhythm of life, as our milestone events recede behind us, the distinction between any two years becomes less and less clear. And one day, we blink, and realize we’ve spent decades on cruise control.

I’m staving off this future as long as I can—and I did so successfully in 2022. Here’s some of my highlights of the year:

Moving to Montana

Last year, Emily and I spent a beautiful summer in Livingston, Montana. It was so wonderful that we moved there this year! We’ve spent a ton of time looking for a place to settle down. Some of our criteria included access to nature, airport availability, relatively mild weather, access to a track, and more. Livingston has all of those in spades.

Most important, though, is the town and community itself. It hasn’t taken long at all to feel at home and like a part of the community. For the first time in my life, I actually know (and like!) my neighbors.

Buying a house

We didn’t just move to Livingston—we bought a house here! We were really lucky to get the property we did at the time we did, before rising interest rates made it unaffordable for us. Of course, now, we’re learning that tracking property value real-time isn’t always great for our mental health.

Homeownership has been an adventure. While the house was basically turnkey, we’ve had a couple plumbing-related scares already. I’m getting to exercise handyman muscles that I’ve never really developed before—painting, trimming bushes, (mis-) diagnosing and (re-) repairing plumbing issues, installing light fixtures, and more. It turns out that for me, this kind of housework scratches the same itch as programming.

Racing against (and losing to) Olympians

I’ve written more about my 2022 track season here, but the biggest highlight of the season was definitely getting to compete against multiple Olympians and other elite sprinters over 100m. I got absolutely dusted, which was both humbling and incredibly motivating.

More broadly, I’m proud of myself for continuing to chip away and get faster—I’ve improved every year since I returned to the sport in 2019, and in 2022, I hit milestones (10.71, 21.55) that I thought were near-impossible when I first started training again.

Adopting a dog

Technically this happened in 2023, but we adopted a 10-month-old puppy, Lucie! Lucie’s my first pet—and she’s been everything I could have hoped for. Our house just feels homier with Lucie in it, and it’s been really rewarding to see her start to get comfortable with us and the house.

2023

2023 is shaping up to be another great year. I’m excited to explore more of Montana, now with a second partner-in-crime. We’ll really get integrated into the Livingston community—in particular, I’ll be helping coach Park High’s sprint group. And the track season has already started with two very promising early results.

There may come a time where each year is just like the one before it. But not this year.