2024 Year in Review

Professional

2024, by all accounts, was a banner year for me, professionally speaking. I am extraordinarily grateful for all of the opportunities I had this year and am proud of what I accomplished.

I spoke at three Laracons:

India, US, and Australia.

As a bonus, I had the privilege of speaking during the Laracon US keynote.

I created a Laracasts course.

I started PHP × NYC, a local meetup that I adore.

I got hired at Laravel, an absolute dream job.

I was promoted to Engineering Manager of the Open Source team.

During my first six months at Laravel, I released two big-ticket items:

Inertia 2.0 and the official VS Code extension.

I appeared on six podcasts + I started my own podcast, Side Project.

Most importantly, I finally have a beautiful community of people that I love in my field, many of whom I've been lucky enough to meet in person. This was virtually non-existent last year, and for that alone, I feel immensely fortunate.

Personal

By contrast, this was, at times, a particularly tough year for me in a personal sense. I have been working hard for a long time now, and this year it ramped up exponentially.

I felt the traction hitting so I just roared on, adding more and more to my plate. It was all the things: exciting, exhilarating, and exhausting. Nobody was putting this on me, I was putting it on myself.

My mental, physical, and emotional health took a backseat this year while my career was thriving, and I ignored it until I couldn't, particularly in the latter half of the year. I cried a bit more than I usually do. I felt like a zombie much of the time. I gained weight. I often didn't feel very present.

I dismissed repeated signs from my mind and body to just stop and slow down, even momentarily, but I refused to flip the switch off, and now it's time to pay the piper.

I'm taking the next two weeks off and (hopefully) not looking at a computer at all, just hitting the reset button and hanging with family and friends. I'm very thankful to have the opportunity to do so.

I am not a unique story in our industry, particularly with social media in the mix, you can feel like you always need to be doing something. Burnout is omnipresent, but it doesn't have to be.

Takeaways

I am nothing but grateful for everything that happened this year. But success does not have to come at the cost of not feeling great and not being fully present with the people you love. I would like to both continue my current trajectory and not be on the computer as much. Entirely doable.

So.

Heading into 2025, my primary mantra is: People and experiences over code. I love coding, I genuinely do. I enjoy the craft, I love experimenting. But at the end of the day, I would rather get outside with my family and hit the park. Go out to dinner. Get out of town. Bit more of that in 2025.

Wishing y'all a wonderful end of 2024 and a joyous start to 2025.