Looking Back At 2024, Looking Forward To 2025

Happy New Year!

I don’t know about you, I am happy to bid goodbye to 2024, and say hello to 2025.

Before I consider resolutions (or plans) for 2025, I would like to review some of the highlights of 2024.

The year wasn’t all bad, and I find it is healthier for me to pay attention to things that have gone well, rather than always pointing out what needs to improve.

Professional highlights

I worked pretty hard this year.

I dealt with two specialty boards (studied for and passed both!), ran a mentoring program (with 3 new hires), and supervised a CME series.

In addition to all that, I saw patients and wrote approximately 1 million notes.

I think next year is a time to cut back. Or at least stop studying for specialty boards.

Financial highlights

I don’t feel like we did much in 2024, mostly just chugged along.

I worked, we put away money for retirement and in my secret savings account (which doesn’t pay much interest–I need to move the money somewhere better soon).

Of course, late in the year, we have been dealing with Mr. PiN’s dad’s estate. There will eventually be some money coming to Mr. PiN, but that won’t happen until later in 2025. He has a lot to settle with the lawyers and the government before that happens.

After feeling a little bad about my charitable giving, and also seeing a huge run up in stock prices, I did make a significant donation to the donor advised fund in December.

Oh, yes, the stock market made a huge run this year, and our retirement savings hit a big number. I’m waiting until I finish my January reviews to see if we’ve hit “our number,” but I think we probably have.

To be honest, we hit a big number this summer. Even we are not FI, I have been feeling like we are for several months. It’s an interesting feeling to have while considering what I want my work load to look like in the coming year(s).

Family and Travel

This year was pretty much all about Mr. PiN’s dad.

Right before WCICON, my father in law came down ill with COVID (his first time). Mr. PiN spent time in the hospital with him until COVID was diagnosed. While his dad was in isolation, he was able to accompany me to Florida for a few days, but then left again, leaving me to enjoy the meeting on my own. I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t quite the same.

My mom turned 80 this year, and my siblings and I threw a party for her. I was able to go, but Mr. PiN didn’t feel he could leave town, so I went alone.

We did leave town for 1 night to see the total solar eclipse. That was cool.

After that, there were no overnight trips for months (we canceled a vacation, instead taking one quick day trip, bookended by morning and evening hospital visits).

We were, finally, able to take a trip at the end of the year, to London. We were exhausted, but managed to have a fulfilling vacation. If by fulfilling, you mean we got a change of venue and didn’t have to think about business. Also, we got to see Hamilton, which was fun.

On the whole, I am hoping for a much less busy year next year as far as sick relatives. Also, a little more traveling with less exhaustion.

Blog highlights

Strangely enough, with everything else going on in my life, I didn’t do nearly as much blogging as in prior years.

If I leave out my fitness logs and monthly round up posts, I managed 22 posts. That’s better than I had thought–nearly 2 per month. Still a far cry from my starting days, when I managed 3 posts a week.

Many thanks to my readers who stuck with me, and even posted to let me know I am not shouting into the void.

I am hoping to do better this year, probably with shorter posts. I do realize some of my posts are quite long.

Personal highlights

This perhaps hasn’t been my best year.

Between studies and my father in law’s final illness, I am exhausted.

Making things worse, nearly all my energy has gone to getting my work done. I’ve done few of the things that I know “fill my bucket” since about April (maybe February). No knitting, not much blogging, not much walking due to a bum foot. Clearly, I need to address this.

I have, at least, kept up with my friends via Zoom.

I did hold a send off for my friend who finally retired, after working One More Year.

Despite the past few weeks of low activity, I have mostly kept up with my efforts to exercise.

This marks my 3rd year of tennis lessons, and I did attend a free clinic, playing doubles (badly) for the first time.

I also continued with my personal trainer, except for a 2 month period when I was working in the hospital, and then she was moving and dealing with the death of a parent. (Yes, it’s been that sort of year.)

I also made it another year without any missed days on Duolingo; my streak is impressive, though I say so myself.

I keep a list of books read, and I see that I read 28 books that were new to me (I reread quite a few too). No “classics,” but they did refresh the soul.

Looking forward

2025 needs to be the year I get myself back together.

I am looking forward to some time off (originally planned to allow for a trip to Australia; now I’m planning for a shorter trip). I think some rest and relaxation would do me a world of good.

At the same time, I also need to map out what I want work to look like going forward. If I am not fully FI (or FatFI), I am awfully close. It’s time to make a push to lighten my workload some more.

What will I do with that time? I think getting a full night’s sleep and a weekend off will need to be priorities. It is also time to look again at my goals for Future Me, as I keeping dropping them when work gets tough. Inspired by Michelle’s post at Wise and Shine, I think it’s time to revisit my Curious List, and then work on trying to follow some of my interests.

How about you? Did you have a good 2024? Do you still have unfinished goals? Are you ready for 2025?