I’m Twenty-Three dude! The first of October fell on a Sunday this year. The personal milestones and events that have occurred certainly make this a year for me to remember. Here’s a few of the main ones to note:

• Completed my Bachelor of Computer Science – five years of hard work has finally(?) paid off
• Started a new job at Shopify – one of the hottest, fastest growing, and prestigious unicorn companies
• Ran my first 10k race during the Ottawa Race Weekend
• Travelled along the California Coast, around the heart of New York, and all over Montreal

The celebrations started with Saturday morning. A bunch of friends and colleagues of mine grabbed breakfast to wish a colleague farewell and best wishes being back at school.

Just like last year, a larger group of us met up at the TD Place for the annual university football Panda Game between Carleton and Ottawa U (Carleton won, of course :P). A lot of time was spent laughing at our once younger selves acting foolish in the crowd. After the win we spent a few hours pigging out at an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant.

To finish the day off we visited the pool and hot tub at a friend’s apartment, and played the card game What do you Meme? Sunday, my actual birthday, has been spent relaxing and writing this post. I’m sure my colleagues will have more festivities planned for next week.

Additionally, this year I got more into road biking – putting just over a thousand kilometres on a new road bike, and visiting a few new locations in the Ottawa-Gatineau area – Cafe British in Alymer, Quebec is worth the trek on a nice sunny day.

Since I’ve been interested in craft beers, this year I received a homebrewing kit as a gift. The process is laborious for a day or two but is quite rewarding at the end. I’ve completed two large batches so far – a wheat beer and an IPA. They’re pretty drinkable, but the quality isn’t high enough for the ingredients I used. I’ll definitely have to make a higher quality batch of beer, or even delve into making wine.

At the end of October last year I travelled with my Aunt and a few of her friends to Manhattan in New York. What a city! The sheer size and bustle of everything going on at all hours of the day is intoxicating. The restaurant scene was tasty, even when eating within a reasonable budget. The attractions and Central Park were fascinating. I would recommend any first-timers to get a City-Pass to get access to the major attractions. It was definitely a memorable week.

For a graduation trip in June I flew over to California with my mom. We spent a solid 10 days rv-ing and camping from north of San Francisco all the way down to San Diego. The climate, scenery, and attractions made it an amazing experience. We stopped by the TWiT studios to see Leo Laporte, a longtime mentor of mine for 11 years. Leo’s podcasts have taught me a staggering amount about technology news and computer security. It was great to have been able to see him in person and watch a live recording of Security Now with Steve Gibson.

During the trip we had to stop by the Computer History museum. Holy cow! That museum is big. I could have spent a few days there reading everything. One particular part of the museum I found memorable was showing my mom a diagram of the history of programming languages, pointing to the ones I knew, and the ones I would soon learn at Shopify. Seeing some of the first Google servers were pretty nostalgic in a way with how scrappy they were to get a lot of computing power for cheap.

Some of the rough goals I have this year are to advance my career, improve on my social skills, become friends with more people, and build up some muscle. I have surprised myself already with the speed and progress that has been made across these goals so far.

Since starting work at Shopify the thought of moving closer to work has really been bugging me. A 20 minute bike ride is great in the summertime, but Winter is Coming – and Ottawa doesn’t fall short with its winters. The social scene with colleagues and all the activities that are had downtown are more attracting factors for moving closer. I’m really liking the idea of moving into a 1-bedroom apartment – gaining more privacy and being able to focus more on myself compared to living with my entertaining and sometimes distracting roommates (in a good way).

I’m not sure how I can top the major events from this past year. Maybe moving into my very own place, attending a conference or two, performing my first conference talk, or even some travelling with friends? I’m down for all of those.