2023 Year in Review

This year's review is going to be pretty short. Not much happened which I guess is both good and bad. Good news is no one died. Bad news is I don't have a job either.

First couple months of the year I didn't really look for any jobs and just took a break. Then by March or April I started to look for a job. And continue looking I have. A couple times I've gotten really far in the interview process only to be ghosted. I guess that says something about the company where even when one of only a handful of people left you don't send a basic "we went with someone else" email. Also had a company that I did the initial interview and then they setup the first interview with manager like a week in advance. Then the morning of someone replied that the job required a bachelor's degree and I only had an associate's. Apparently they were more concerned that when I went to college back in 2001 that I stayed an extra two years vs the 22 or so years of experience I've had.

I try and tell this to people whenever I get an opportunity but one of the biggest things that's helped this year is having money saved up. Although I did get unemployment for a while I'm now living completely off my emergency fund and I'm set for probably another year easily before I would access more long term retirement savings. Though that also means not needlessly buying stuff or going out or pretty much anything fun. But having that has made job hunting a lot less stressful since I'm not desperate for a job and can make do for the time being.

Probably related to this I've been looking more at various vacation or trips. Been looking at train trips, both in US and Canada. Also looking at cruises. I really want to take a transatlantic cruise. Currently there's one ocean liner that's purpose built for that, Cunard's Queen Mary 2. It's actually fairly inexpensive on the offseason but the sea is also pretty rough in the winter months, less than $2000 or even $1000 for last minute rooms. During the summer when the water is more calm prices jump up to $3500.

For 2024 goals are to actually get a job again and then maybe start traveling more. It's been one of those things I keep saying I want to do more of and there could come a time where it's a lot more difficult for me to travel. I also may look in to at least doing an exploratory flight for getting a pilot's license. These are short 30-60 minute flights where you go up with an instructor and get a feel for how a smaller plane feels and if it's something I want to do. Also it can get quite expensive so not sure if I'd do that. Exploratory flight is a couple hundred bucks though.