Happy holidays, winding down 2022, and what’s in store next

As I write this, it’s the day after Christmas, 2022. Hopefully, those of you who are reading this had a wonderful holiday season. I hope you had a great Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, or whatever your holiday celebration of choice is! For me, personally, Santa didn’t leave me much, but honestly, the older I get, the less important tangible Christmas gifts get. I got to spend quality time with my wife and my (now-13-year-old — !!!) niece, and that was the best Christmas present I could’ve asked for.

Now that 2022 is almost over, a lot of people spend time reflecting upon the past year, and trying to figure out what the new year will bring. I am no different, and I have to say that it has been a very eventful 2022.

I won’t get too much into it, as I try to avoid writing about things that are too personal in my very public ‘blog, but I will mention that 2022 was a very trying year. I had to deal with family issues this past August, which included one parent’s death and the other parent facing twilight years of life. (As I write this, the latter is still an issue and is ongoing.) Around the same time, we also dealt with the deaths of one of our beloved pets and a couple of friends of mine from college. To say that this made 2022 a very trying year is probably an understatement. All I could think about is a quote from the fourth Indiana Jones movie: “We seem to have reached the age where life stops giving us things and starts taking them away.” Professionally, I lost a job, got another one, and nearly lost the second one (disclosure: I managed to pull myself out, and am still employed there as I write this). I will not get into any details about the second one, except to say that I discovered something very personal about myself, and although it wasn’t directly related to the other personal issues that I just wrote about, those issues did nothing to help my situation.

What I will mention is that my personal issue was the fodder behind the article I wrote about taking care of yourself.

But enough about the crap that I had to deal with in 2022. Let’s talk about the good things that happened.

I did experience a lot of good things this year. Let’s start with my speaking schedule. Although things are still picking up after the pandemic, I did make it to speak at four in-person events this year, including a new one that had nothing to do with PASS, and my fourth consecutive time speaking at PASS Data Community Summit (or its equivalent).

I still shake my head that I’ve spoken at four straight PASS Summits. I don’t consider myself a SQL expert; as I often say, although I do have SQL experience, my knowledge of SQL falls under the category of “knows enough to be dangerous.” But I’ve been picked to speak there four times, so I must be doing something right!

I think the sentiment of speaking at events like these was best summed up by this tweet from a first-time speaker during PASS Summit.

I sat down at this table and thought, "no way I belong at this table". Within an hour, not only did I feel like I belong, I was on a mission to tell everyone they do too. @SqlrUs @SQLEspresso @mrdenny @jqmtweets @sqldbawithbeard @cathrinew @spaghettidba @PianoRayK #sqlfamily pic.twitter.com/3xBf2wP32S

— Josh @gt1gt1@dataplatform.social (@gt1gt1) November 20, 2022

Not all my 2022 successes were professional. I got to play several gigs with my rock band. I spent some time accompanying a local musical. My alma mater’s football team went 7-5 and is heading to a bowl game. And I got to attend countless events that allowed me to connect (or, in some cases, reconnect) with friends and family. While I did deal with a lot of issues in 2022, I’m happy to say that I’m definitely on the upswing.

That brings me to what’s next moving forward. I’ve received word that I’ve been invited to speak at two more events: another WE Local conference, and at STC Summit! I’m especially excited about the latter, because I’ve been a member of STC for a little while, and speaking at STC Summit has been a bucket list item for me. I also saw save-the-date entries for SQL Saturday as well (including one in NYC that my friend, Thomas Grohser told me about when I was in Seattle last month), so there will likely be more opportunities for me to speak as well. There are also numerous opportunities that are crossing my path. I won’t write about them all now, partially because none of them are in stone, but mostly because there are a lot of them, and I don’t remember them all! So I have a lot to look forward to in 2023 and beyond.

So, that pretty much sums up my reflections. I hope to be doing more as my issues are farther in my rearview mirror, and my upswing continues! Stay tuned for my exploits in 2023, and I hope all of you are on a similar track!

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‘Tis the season

I was looking at my calendar, and realized that Christmas is in less than two weeks. Dates in calendar are closer than they appear.

I was thinking about the holiday season this year and about what I’m doing. Alas, it appears that my Christmas will be somewhat subdued this year. This is the first Christmas since I was married that my father-in-law will not be around. My wife informed me that she will likely be working on Christmas day (such is life when you work for a newspaper). And I’ve told some people not to go nuts in terms of getting me presents. I’m at the age where I can pretty much buy whatever I want or need on my own, and asking for holiday gifts isn’t as meaningful as it was as when I was a kid. (That said, I do intend to get gifts for my siblings and my wife — not sure what, yet — and I also intend to spoil my niece and nephews.) In terms of a Christmas “gift” for myself, I told my wife that I’d like a vacation for both of us — where and when are to be determined. I have no shortage of places that I’d like to go. And it will likely not happen around Christmas. It might not happen until the summer.

This isn’t to say I’m doing nothing to recognize the holidays. I’m currently music-directing and accompanying a holiday community theater musical. My symphonic band performed their holiday concert earlier this week. I made a reservation for next week for a holiday happy-hour get-together for my work group. And speaking of work, my office will close (as it typically does) for a week around Christmas. It seems that my gift to myself is that my schedule will quiet down for about the next month. I’ve had quite the busy year, and I can certainly use the downtime.

So however you spend your holiday — whatever holiday it may be, whether it’s Christmas, Hannukah, Festivus, Kwanzaa, Ramadan, or whatever — I hope it’s enjoyable.