This recap is late, but that about sums up 2022. It was a quiet year for me, and I mostly kept my head down due to lack of energy. 2022 felt more like a slog than previous pandemic years—whether because we’ve settled into this uneasy “let’s just pretend there isn’t a pandemic still happening” funk or what, I’m not sure, but it always feels weird to be one of the only people still masking inside.
Work
With a new job, I’ve had to work a lot on resetting my routines. I have much less time now, and spend a lot of my work day in meetings—much more than I had in the past, which has taken a great deal of time to get used to. I think it’s one of the many things fueling my low-level exhaustion, since I find video meetings especially tiring.
But I have settled, and for all I have too many meetings, I like my new job a lot. I’m working on projects focused on improving public services, and learning a lot from my fantastic coworkers. One of my biggest fears leaving a8c was leaving behind so many amazing colleagues, but my coworkers at 18F are just as kind, hard working, and caring.
I have a strong sense of responsibility for my work that I think was a natural progression from working on a huge open source project, to working on projects that impact huge swaths of America. I haven’t necessarily done anything super impactful yet, but even the small stuff feels like it can make a difference. I’ve always had a strong sense of civic duty, and this has only grown at 18F.
I’m likely going to be wrapping up the project I’ve been on since mid-year in the next few months, which is exciting—hopefully that project will launch later this year, and I can talk about it more. I’m also stoked to work on something new soon.
WordPress
I did such little contributing this year, which was frankly weird. I didn’t receive props for my first release since I started contributing over a decade ago. I miss it a lot, but it’s hard to muster up the energy to contribute after work and on the weekends.
I’d really love to do more work with patterns and block themes. I have some ideas for an updated WordCamp theme using full site editing, I just need to make the effort to sit down and try out some ideas to propose to the community.
I did have a chance to make it to WordCamp Montclair in NJ this summer, and spoke on designing with block patterns:
It was amazing to see community folks in person again, and I’m already excited for the next one this year.
Life Updates
The most exciting thing that happened in 2022: we adopted a new dog! Meet Noodle:
He’s a ~1 year old jindo mix from Korean K9 Rescue and he has been an amazing addition to our family. He’s curious, playful, and gets along with everyone. He’s also been a good influence on our other dog, Lemon, and is helping her come out of her shell a little bit more.
Also in life changes this past year, I finally got an (adult) diagnosis for ADHD, something I was diagnosed with as a kid and never treated for because I could, quote, make eye contact? And didn’t need it? Despite almost failing out of middle school? After 34 goddamn years on this Earth I am finally taking some meds for it, and I’ve noticed an improvement in my overall focus, concentration, and ability to actually start tasks. It’s not drastic by any means, but I’ll take what I can get. Looking forward to seeing how that evolves over the next year and trying not to mourn what could have been.
Hobbies
I’ve been doing some drawing and writing this past year, but mostly I’ve focused on improving my music skills. In addition to my regular music lessons, I participate in a weekly challenges on a music theory discord I’m in, which has been great for keeping me practicing.
Here’s some originals from the past year:
And some rearrangements/remixes:
I’ve also played an ungodly amount of Horizon: Forbidden West. Will that change in 2023? Probably not. (Though I have started playing The Last of Us, thanks to the new show!)
I didn’t do a 2020 recap, and looking back at my 2019 recap, I feel a sense of loss. 2019 was such a great year, and I had no idea what was coming! So hopeful and energized about the future. Let’s call most of 2020 a lost year, and skip straight to the end.
Moving
In my 2019 recap, I mention the possibility of us moving to Philly. The pandemic waylaid those plans. However, after months inside sharing an office, and the realization that we were in it for the long haul, we said “fuck it” and seriously looked at buying a house in Philly. Why Philly? The cheapest property for sale in our Cambridge neighborhood was $850,000 for a studio. Houses were going for $1.2+ million. In contrast, comparable houses in Philly, a similar old-school East Coast city, were $3-500k. While I miss the hell out of the Boston area and would happily live there forever, it’s just not affordable.
We did most of our search remotely via a local realtor, and our Philly friends Tracy and Mia Levesque, who gave us a bunch of neighborhood advice to narrow down our search range and went and scoped out different houses for us. Thank you Tracy and Mia 🙏
After at least one failed bid, we managed put a successful bid on a house, and came down for the inspection. Unfortunately, that house had a serious mold problem. But now we were in Philly in person, so we extended our trip by a day and looked at a bunch of places in person, which was a much more fun experience than doing video walkthroughs.
It took some more bidding attempts, but eventually we were able to land a house. We moved in November 1st.
Owning a house has been an… experience. Since moving, we’ve had to do electrical work, HVAC, roofing, and plumbing. Our basement flooded several times due to the heavy rain this summer, the first time destroying a bunch of stuff (including my drum kit). We still haven’t been able to replace the drywall and fix the basement bathroom because we’re waiting on the city to install backflow valves to prevent future flooding. Until those are in place, we’re pretty much guaranteed to flood the next time a bad storm comes through. Given 2020 and 2021 saw a huge increase in climate fuckery, we’re assuming bad storms are going to be common from now on.
That said, buying a house hasn’t been all bad. We each have an office, and I’ve had fun decorating:
After all of our various repairs this year, I also feel like our house is in a better place moving forward. We’re paying less per month than we were renting in Cambridge. And, we can do whatever the hell we want! We’re not beholden to landlords anymore. We are the lords of our own land. I honestly never really expected to own a house, so that alone is one of the biggest accomplishes of my life to date. We’ve settled in pretty well, though we’re only really familiar with our little corner of the city so far, since we’ve been limiting how much we use public transit. We have some new favorite spots, even if we miss our old ones (Bow Market and Lone Star, I’m looking at you).
Health
Despite everything, we’ve remained healthy and have managed to elude COVID (so far). We received our vaccines as soon as we were eligible (and we got lucky, once again thanks to Tracy, who knows everyone in Philly and told us about a popup). Two weeks after our second shot, we took a trip out to Shenandoah National Park, which was a huge mental health boost:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CO8IYrkpYyG/
Now that winter’s setting in (kind of — it was 60* yesterday. Happy New Year!), I’m contemplating a sunny escape, but that’ll depend on COVID, vacation time, and also where to go and how to get there. I don’t think I have it in me to do a plane ride yet, so maybe somewhere warm isn’t feasible this winter. In the meantime, I’ll try to be safe and stay healthy, to the best of my ability.
Hobbies
Plenty of time inside, without access to many of my existing hobbies (I miss Peachfuzz 😢) = time to form new hobbies!
Once I wasn’t able to go to my drum lessons in-person anymore, I pivoted to doing remote lessons on music theory with my instructor instead. I spent much of 2020 building up my knowledge of music composition and production, and a lot of 2021 writing, rearranging, and remixing music.
I also joined the 8-bit Music TheoryDiscord server and have participated in a bunch of weekly challenges. I think I got to something like 20 straight weeks before breaking my streak at the end of the year? It’s been a fun, structured way to practice my music composition skills, and I’ve learned a little about musical notation and score writing because of the challenges as well.
Additionally, I took two classes on Monthly.com this year: Complete Music Production by Andrew Huang and Electronic Music Production by Kygo. Both were fun, informative, and well worth the investment (though IMO Andrew is the better teacher, probably because of his YouTube background). I’m eying Louis Bell’s Hitmaking for Producers next.
You can check out some of my music on my SoundCloud:
https://soundcloud.com/mel-choyce
(Which reminds me, I have a backlog of things I need to post!)
Prior to the pandemic, I took in-person printmaking classes at Mixit in Somerville. During the pandemic, one of my instructors, Jane Goldman (fellow Smith alum!) started doing remote art lessons. I took her watercolor class, then switched over to her drawing class because of scheduling. Her next class starts up this month and I’m still trying to figure out if I can join in despite my new work schedule, so hopefully I’ll be able to take another class with her soon. Mondays with Jane and my fellow classmates has been a highlight of the past two years.
Lastly, I’ve started fermenting! I’ve done a bunch of projects: sauerkraut and kimchi (which have been the most consistently successful), hot sauces and salsas, kombucha, and even my own miso:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CSnHPFfpcaP/
What are your favorite dishes to create with fermented foods? Always looking for new and interesting ways to incorporate my ferments into my regular diet.
Life Changes
In September, we welcomed the first dog into our family: Lemon, an adorable Jindo/Shiba mix we adopted from an international rescue.
I’ve been saying “I want a dog” for years, but the pandemic kicked my biological clock into high gear. We finally felt like we were in a stable place for adoption. I spent a while researching dog ownership and looking through listings. When I saw Lemon, I was like, “this is the dog.” Kelly agreed, and we put in an application, with the understanding that I’d be the primary dog parent.
Surprise! Lemon instantly bonded with Kelly, and is scared of everyone else, including me.
So, it’s been a little bit of a rough couple months — Kelly’s had to take on all of the dog parenting, pretty much — but Lemon is slowly coming around. She still has a tremendous amount of fear and anxiety that I’m sure we’ll spend a lifetime helping her through, but she’s becoming more open and interested in exploring. She likes meeting other dogs in the park nearby, though we haven’t managed to get her into the dog park itself. She still doesn’t know how to play (and is afraid of squeaky toys), but we’ll get there. And she can stand to be on the same couch/bed as me, even if she doesn’t want me to pet her. In the meantime, we’re giving her plenty of patience, and plenty of treats.
My second big life change this year was leaving Automattic and joining 18F. I’ve already said a lot about Automattic (I miss y’all!), but I just started at 18F in December. So far it’s been mostly orientation and training, and getting to know my new coworkers. The biggest point of impact so far is seeing how important and serious the work is, and the potential for improving the lives of fellow Americans. All of my coworkers have been so nice and welcoming, and I’m excited to start on my first project. There’s a lot to get used to — working for the federal government is much more structured and organized than working for a tech company — but I expect I’ll settle in soon.
As the year draws to a close, I want to reflect on some of my accomplishments this year. My coach sent over a couple questions to help frame my thoughts.
What caused me to grow?
Of all the questions in this post, this is the one I’ve found hardest. It’s the first question, yet I’ve answered it last. I worry that I didn’t grow enough this year. My brain feels… slower. It’s frustrating.
Overall, I’d say the two skills I grew the most this year are writing, and decision making. I’ve been doing a lot of copyediting of posts at work, and trying to write as often as I have something to say. I’ve gotten more confident about making decisions, and stepping back and see the entire picture to help move something forward, instead of having a snap reaction.
What am I most proud of?
I proposed last summer during my sabbatical, and spent this year planning my wedding. My (now) spouse is generally the planner, but I took on a lot of responsibilities when it came to moving items forward, and y’know what? Our wedding freaking rocked. It was super fun, our friends and family were there to celebrate, the good was great, my band played… And I got married! Probably the most important part of the wedding!
Photos by Tim Correira Photography
I also painted like, 35 little watercolors for guests in the two weeks proceeding, and not only did I bust ’em out, but they looked really nice. I was really worried I’d taken on too much and I’d flake out and fail, but I pushed through and got them all done. Good job me!
Where did I make progress?
I spent a lot of time on music this year, continuing to learn drums, and picking up bass at the beginning of the year. I played both at this year’s Automattic Grand Meetup, which felt super badass.
I’ve also been working with a trainer, and this year we went really hard into weightlifting, which I’ve been loving the hell out of. Picking things up and putting them back down again is very satisfying. Hoping I can get up to 200lbs+ next year.
I also made some pretty good art this year:
What was missing from my life?
Time! This year went by so quickly, and with both wedding planning and work travel, I feel like I lost a couple months.
I’d also say “focus,” but let’s be honest — that’s always missing.
Whom did I help?
Like last year, I volunteered at GRCB this summer. I spent the morning teaching drums to kids, then did “site crew” in the afternoon, which mostly meant setting up, and being available during, the workshops we run throughout camp. Watching a bunch of kids learn how to play drums, and then perform on stage, all in one week? Priceless.
I’ve also continued to volunteer for Ragtag and Tech for Campaigns, where I worked on several websites and ad campaigns throughout the year. Most recently, I worked on helpfloridaregister.org, which uses the new Twenty Twenty theme, Gutenberg, and WPML!
What am I most grateful for?
Um, obviously my fantastic spouse, Kelly. She’s my partner in all things, and is always there for me. She brings stability and structure to my life.
Additionally, as someone who grew up poor, financial stability is always at the top of my mind. Because we started saving for the wedding a couple years ago, it didn’t put us as far back as I’d worried it would. Despite paying a lot of money for a Big Thing, we’re still in a good place. And, I have enough extra money to pay for activities that increase my mental and physical health, like drum lessons and a trainer. I’m incredibly thankful for my salary and benefits that keep me financial, and less worried about healthcare than many fellow Americans.
I also live in a great city, where I have easy access to fresh, nutritious food. We have tons of farmers markets where I can pick up produce from local farms, and I usually have the time to cook for us as well. I ate a lot of Hamburger Helper growing up. Like, a lot. Being able to acquire and cook fresh food is a luxury I appreciate the hell out of.
What was the most fun?
I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring up my wedding again. The ceremony, the reception, it was all perfect. Afterwards, Kelly and I went out with a bunch of friends and continued having a blast, then got to go home together and crash for a couple days to recuperate before heading to WordCamp US the next week.
One of the most consistent sources of fun in my life has been my band, Peachfuzz. We played three gigs this year at the Midway, Union Tavern, and Warehouse XI (for my wedding!), and practiced as often as we could, sometimes as often as every week. We had some bandmates cycle in and out, but the love remained.
Playing in a band and practicing with people regularly has made me a much better drummer. I can’t wait for us to start recording our first album early next year.
Thank you Georgia, Nadya, Carolyn, Jenny, Darby, Peat, and all of our Peachfriends!
What advice would I give myself for 2020?
I’ve gotten pretty comfortable — I think I need to push myself more out of my comfort zone and try new things. We might move to Philly next year, which is going to be a very uncomfortable experience, since I’ve lived in Massachusetts for over a decade. Moving out of state is a huge change. I need to lean into that discomfort and fear of change, and let it motivate me.
Routine and habit building must continue to be a priority for me, one step at a time. I need to hold myself accountable for this, especially if we move, because I’ll need to start building new habits based on new locations.
