2021: A Year in Review

This year, along with 2020, have been most of the challenging years I’ve had so far. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a hugely impactful in aspects like my career, hobbies and personal life.

It has also brought self-discovery and appreciation of things that were normally looked down upon as a given. If I can summarize 2021 in one word, it would be: Perspective.

A summary of my 2021:

January

• I was deep in getting permits for my online store, Bit Element. I was surprised of how tedious and long these processes can be. I also bought a good portion of the equipment needed to have everything ready.
• Had a pretty good month of Twitch streams. Unfortunately, this would be one of the last months where I would consistently stream. Upload issues with our ISP keep persisting even after reporting it a bunch of times.
• Wandavision was released on Disney+, Juan and I were hooked. The show became one of our favorites in a long while.
• Was doing a lot of digital drawings using Procreate

February

• Designing and organizing materials for Bit Element to get ready for its launch

March

• Bought mailing equipment for Bit Element, including a label printer. This turned out to be one of the best purchases, it made the packaging process so easy.

April

• Got my first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine

May

• Launched my online shop Bit Element.
• Joined a book club with some friends and started reading a book every month.
• We got an Oculus Quest II VR headset. Ever since then it has become my primary source of exercise.
• Upgraded my iPhone XS Max to the iPhone 12 Pro Max

June

• Added more decor to my home office via a collaboration with Photowall

July

• My niece Amira was born. I can’t describe how excited I feel about becoming an aunt. She is precious and I can’t wait until she’s older so she can spend more time with us.
• Was feeling very burned out and unmotivated, so we stayed at an Airbnb for a weekend in Aguadilla. It was a much needed breather away from all the chaos.

August

• Was promoted to Lead Developer at work. It was something I was working towards and I’m ecstatic it came to fruition. I work very hard, and it’s a great feeling to know that it’s being noticed and appreciated.

September

• Finished Psychonauts 2, this is one of my favorite games of all time. I had such a blast playing it and it was a breath of fresh air in between all the stress from the pandemic.

October

• We were able to buy a Playstation 5. This was a lucky chance for us because we know how hard they are to get. A friend told us Best Buy had some available, we drove for an hour (we weren’t in the area) and got there assuming there were none left. Luckily, there were. About 5 minutes after we got there, they were gone.

November

• I turned 32 years old
• After 14 years, my dog Chispy passed away. My heart is absolutely broken and I miss her every single day.
• Became a mentor for a Codepillars program that helps girls between the ages of 12-16 create projects related to STEM. I am mentoring and helping out with programming concepts.

December

• Juan and I had our 7th wedding anniversary. Time flies. We’re already talking about doing something big for our 10th anniversary. Let’s see how everything is by then.

Question Time

How was your 2021?