Year in Review '24

December is coming to an end, and with it so is 2024. It was a year full of change, challenges and adventures. I managed to tick off quite a few items from my impossible list, achieve fluency in Dutch, and start a new job. All of this things, combined, made it a positively challenging year.

Similar to last year, it’s now time to look back at 2024, look at the goals or plans I had set, and see how it’s going. In addition, I will set, perhaps too vague and not quantifiable enough, goals for next year. And no, I did not go through with the exercise of reviewing my goals every month, as I mentioned last year.

✍️ Website

Following the trend of the last year of two, my website has not changed a lot in 2024 when it comes to appearance. Throughout the year, I made a few updates here and there, and mentioned them in my monthly updates. However, they were nothing out of the ordinary.

In addition, 2024 marked the 10th anniversary 🥂 of this website. That was, on itself, a milestone reached. During the year, I introduced gallery views 🖼️ for my photos pages, a digital shoebox which I’m now considering to remove, and a spam-prevention 🤖 mechanism for the guestbook.

When it comes to actually writing, I reached 61 posts, including this one. That’s 18 more than last year. By reaching 61, I surpassed the goal I had set last year of 50, but I had forgotten about it anyways. Nice to see it has been reached. What I did not accomplish was to be more involved in the IndieWeb community.

In 2025, I plan on keeping writing on a schedule for the “Recently” posts. Maybe move them to be on a weekly fashion, just like some people I follow do. I think the issue with monthly is that I easily forgot what has happened, and do not give enough focus to the small things.

🍄 Life

This year, I ticked a few more things off my impossible list. In February, I reached the milestone of having visited 15 countries by visiting Austria. At the time, we also visited Slovakia. So that’s already counting towards the 20 milestone. This trip also allowed me to tick the night train item. Nevertheless, I ended up not traveling as much as I hoped. Or, not as far as I hoped. In a similar subject, I also rode the historical trams in Amsterdam.

Looking back at last year’s post, I wrote the following:

I am also hoping that by the end of 2024, I am able to have regular conversations in Dutch with people without major problems. I think this will be a great challenge, and I definitely need to get more basic vocabulary.

Well, I think that’s been a success. Not only did I complete my B1- and B1 courses, but I also passed both the Inburgeringsexamen* and the Staatsexamen B2 during 2024. I had planned them to the end of 2024, but I’m very happy that I decided to do them before summer: I was clearly more than ready for them.

Since June, I have even been working in Dutch. So… when it comes to the Dutch language, it’s been a very successful year. Of course there’s still things I don’t know or that I don’t feel extremely comfortable about, but, in general, it’s more than enough.

In 2025, I’m actually hoping that I will travel further away and see a bit of Asia or the Americas. I do also hoop my Dutch will keep evolving and becoming better and better, knowing more and more words, making less and less mistakes.

💪 Health

This past year, I managed to workout at least twice a week the whole year, mostly three times a week. I also did start a new sport, kickboxing, which I did for two months. Unfortunately, due to my wrist injury, I still can’t go back, and I have no idea how long it’ll take. I’ve planned an appointment to talk again to the doctor.

I had much less complaints of my Achilles during this year. If I do too much in a day, or a few days in a row, I do feel it a bit the day after, and I think that now that it’s cold that I’ve felt it a bit more often. So I’ll keep working on this to keep strengthening the Achilles to avoid further issues. All in all, a very positive year for my Achilles.

In 2025, I plan on doing more cardio, maybe running. I tried running one time this year and I didn’t like it that much, but I think that was just because the shoes were not adequate. I think that if I can run frequently without pain, than my Achilles is good enough. And it also sounds fun. The trick is to never overdo it and learn to better listen to my body. One more goal for next year is to reduce the fat percentage of my body, so let’s see how that goes.

💼 Work

During 2024, I transitioned from a fully remote work, to a completely on-site work. In the meanwhile, we’ve managed to negotiate work from home, as well as some flexibility in terms of work time, so that’s nice. Just like anything else in life, the new job has better things and worse things in comparison to my previous job. I want to highlight that thanks to this job I’ve now been more exposed to other technologies and working in a completely different area, so that’s nice.

In 2025, I hope to stay motivated and feel challenged at my work, and that my work allows me to keep growing and learning. I feel like 2025 will be quite an important year when it comes to digital identity, so let’s see how that impacts what I do.

With this post, I close this year on this website. I wish you a fantastic 2025, that it brings luck and success. And in a more general note, I think I speak for many and hope that the current worldwide events sort of calm down.

Happy New Year 2025 🎆!