2024 year in review
2024 did not go according to plan. Almost comically so.
I was hoping I would have emerged with some sort of well-packaged wisdom — something to teach others.
You’d think by now, I’d know better than to expect such things.
Maybe next year.
A lot happened in 2024. And I think I might have even learned a few things.
But as a disclaimer, anything below that might seem like a “life lesson” is only meant to be a reminder to my future self, not advice for anyone else.
Ironically, the more I learn, the less I feel I have to teach.
When the year began, I had no intention of traveling to five continents, riding a dogsled on a glacier, solo traveling in Japan, performing at a standup comedy show, driving from NYC to Phoenix, paddle boarding through the canals of Copenhagen, or writing this essay from Florianopolis.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning.
Last December, I started a new job at a three-person startup. I was really excited about it.
My plan was to spend the year living and working in NYC.
Narrator: “Things did not go according to plan.”
On February 1st we decided to wind down the company. I spent that night applying for new jobs, feeling bad for myself, and wondering what I was going to tell my parents (roughly in that order).
On February 2nd I put my job search on hold, stopped feeling bad for myself, and booked a one-way flight to Tokyo (leaving two days later). I figured my parents would understand.
Narrator: “They did not understand.”
I spent the next week exploring Japan solo. It was my first time traveling alone and Japan had been at the top of my list for a while. Needless to say, it was awesome.
At this point, my parents had also gotten on board. Things were going quite well. Apparently too well.
The universe felt the need to humble me.
I arrived at the Osaka airport, Vietnam bound…or so I thought.
Remember when I said I learned a few things this year? Well here are most of them:
You can’t enter Vietnam as an American without a Visa.
February 8th to February 14th is a week-long government holiday in Vietnam called Tết.
Vietnam doesn’t issue Visas during government holidays.
The lady at the airport check-in counter asked me for my Visa. When I told her I didn’t have one, she (politely) told me that I had 17 minutes to decide if I wanted to board my flight to Hanoi at which point I would be re-routed to Bangkok.
She also told me that if I didn’t do that, I’d forfeit my entire airfare. I didn’t particularly want to go to Bangkok. But 17 minutes isn’t a lot of time.
I arrived in Bangkok nine hours later. I had planned on immediately flying to a less wretched corner of the earth (Bangkok’s reputation preceded it).
But there weren’t any flights leaving until the next morning. So I booked a 10:00am flight to Indonesia and spent the night at a cheap hotel nearby (with surprisingly amazing pad thai).
I arrived in Bali 36 hours after I left Japan (it’s an eight-hour direct flight for those who plan better).
I proceeded to have one of the greatest weeks of my life with my friend Brendan (who lives in Bali).
Brendan and I were quite close in college despite him being a few years older. We hadn’t seen each other in eight years.
We spent a lot of time catching up, consuming blended fruit, playing games (golf, liar’s dice, wavelength, padel), subjecting our bodies to extreme heat and cold (some people call it a spa), and lots of other things.
I was sad to leave, but Australia beckoned.
I split my week “down under” across Byron Bay and Sydney.
I made some new friends and met a lot of my parents’ old friends.
I consumed yet more blended fruit, led my first group meditation session (on a mountain top after a sunrise hike with two people I met at a hostel the night before), played golf at the 64th best course in the world, went on lots of sunset walks, and (most importantly) realized Australia isn’t that much better than California (if at all).
I also accepted a job offer at a digital health startup called Certify.
I spent March in Phoenix recovering from my jetlag, celebrating some milestone birthdays (my dad’s 60th and my grandpa’s 90th), almost winning a golf tournament with my dad, and hitting a ping pong ball into a cup with a golf club to raise money for charity.
I went to Duke for my five-year reunion. It still doesn’t fully compute that I graduated college five years ago. But so it goes.
I did my first (and potentially last) standup comedy performance. Don’t read into “potentially last.” It actually went quite well. I just want to give the other folks a chance.
At this point it was May and my lease in NYC was set to expire at the end of the month. I decided I wasn’t going to look for a new apartment. My Asia travels inspired me to try out a more nomadic style of living.
I had already booked a flight from NYC to Phoenix for the end of May, but then my friend Jordan called me and asked if I wanted to drive with him instead. It didn’t make much sense to spend 43x the time and 10x the money driving to Arizona instead of flying.
But in case it’s not clear, 2024 wasn’t about doing things that made sense.
I canceled my flight.
Jordan and I spent nine days driving through Pittsburg, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver, and Santa Fe. We did a lot of freestyle rapping, talking, coming up with ideas, and eating (below-average) food.
It was great.
Among other things, that week prepared me to write and record my debut (British) rap song. Don’t ask.
June through August were my domestic adventure months.
I went to Jackson Hole with a bunch of my friends from high school.
I got a (future) brother (in-law) in Denver. They let me be the photographer.
I played golf in Monterey (for my friend Sam’s Bachelor party).
I showed my friend Tyler what Arizona people mean when they say “it’s a dry heat.”
I spent some time in Flagstaff golfing with my aunt and uncle. There wasn’t much to do at night, so I made a list of things that are surprising but true.
I cheered my dad and sister on in the Napa half-marathon.
I spent a week in Seattle with some of my cousins (as is tradition).
I spent a week in Santa Barbara with my friend Andrew and his parents. I ended up being there for my birthday. We all watched Goodwill Hunting (as is also tradition).
I spent a few days in Alaska with my friends Jordan and Jacob.
The trip got off to a shaky start.
My taxi got rear-ended during the four-minute ride from the airport to the hotel. It was (thankfully) very low impact, but the driver insisted that I wait on the scene to give a statement to the police (as the only witness).
The collision happened a little after 11:00pm.
The police arrived a little after 2:00am.
When they showed up, they didn’t ask me for a statement. Instead, they pointed at the traffic camera directly across the street and said that it had captured the whole thing.
The trip was (thankfully) uphill from there.
We rode a dogsled on a glacier, played Monopoly, and caught some fish.
I saw my friend Sam get married in Wisconsin.
I spent a weekend playing ping-pong and cribbage with my friend Noah in Minnesota.
I made my grand return to NYC after three and a half months away. Everyone told me they missed me (only after I asked).
My grand return wasn’t actually that grand. It was more of a pitstop on the way to London.
Me and my friends Andrew, Matt, and Adam went to visit our friend Jordan in London. He had moved there at the beginning of June.
We went to two soccer games. Both were 1-0 home losses.
We all went to Copenhagen in search of better fortune.
It was a very enjoyable couple of days filled with lots of bread and cheese. Andrew and I paddle-boarded through the Copenhagen canals on the last day which was a lot of fun.
I returned to NYC (for real this time) and finished out a one-month sublease in Williamsburg with my friend Jacob.
On October 1st, I went to the East Village for another one-month sublease. This one, notably, was solo.
I had never lived alone before.
The first night was strange, but it did not take long for me to realize that living alone is really great.
Living arrangements aside, it was good to be back in NYC. I got to catch up with a bunch of friends who I hadn’t seen in many months.
I made a quick trip to Denver to see Still Woozy at Red Rocks with my sister (Megan) and her fiancé (Gabe).
After that, I stopped in Phoenix for a few days to celebrate my mom’s 60th birthday.
I returned to NYC and did another solo sublease (in Williamsburg) starting November 1st.
Then I went to Miami for my friend Tyler’s bachelor party. It was very fun (I’m a bit biased since I planned it).
Everything went great until 9:00pm the night before we left when I realized I hadn’t gotten a flight check-in email. After some investigation, it became clear that between booking a hibachi chef to come make onion volcanoes on our roof and making 17-person brunch reservations, I had forgotten to book a return flight for myself.
I managed to make it back to Phoenix for Thanksgiving, intent on spending the last four weeks of the year laying a bit lower than I had in the preceding 48.
Then my friend Jordan asked me if I had any interest in spending the last three and a half weeks of the year working and traveling across Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil.
I said yes.
I made a quick four-day pitstop in NYC to surprise my friend David for his birthday, hang out with my friend Bradley (who graciously hosted me), and try to find an apartment.
I signed a 16-month lease on the very first apartment I saw (which will start on January 1st).
I was very excited to officially be moving back to NYC (Williamsburg) full-time.
I was (apparently) so excited that I missed my flight to Mexico City the next morning (by seven minutes).
Obviously.
I’ll spare you the details on that one, but it was the first flight I’ve ever missed. And it was only kind of my fault.
I eventually made it to Mexico City, where Jordan and I spent the week working, eating amazing food, and watching animated movies. I had the best pad thai of my life (twice) at a restaurant called Galanga.
I also watched Zootopia and Wreck It Ralph for the first time. They were both fantastic.
We spent the next week in Buenos Aires. I met a bunch of great people there. I also went to the same cafe for lunch every day (and ordered the same thing — an omelet and an acai bowl).
On our last day, I recorded a video interview about my year with a company called Legacy. All the major streaming services are fighting over the rights to it.
I think I might just keep it for myself.
After the camera crews left, we flew to Florianopolis (Brazil). Don’t worry, I hadn’t heard of it either until a few days ago. It’s a charming beach town south of Rio de Janeiro.
That’s where I am now. Our Airbnb has a regulation ping pong table. I’ve decided that no matter what life has in store for me, I will have a ping-pong table in my house one day. Non-negotiable.
I’ve gone to the same cafe for lunch every day here too (and have ordered the same thing — an omelet and an acai bowl).
We’re flying to Rio in a few hours to finish off the year. We watched Fast Five last night to prepare.
After Rio, we’ll head our separate ways. And that will be the end of 2024.
At the risk of stating the obvious, I traveled a lot this year.
I spent at least one night in 32 different cities. But I don’t take a lot of pride in that number.
For me, this year wasn’t about where I traveled. It wasn’t about how I traveled or why I traveled either.
This year actually wasn’t about traveling at all.
I used to spend a lot of my time obsessing over where I wanted to end up in life.
I never spent much time thinking about how I wanted to get there.
But the thing is, there are a lot of different ways to get to the same place.
For example, you could fly from NYC to PHX, alone.
Or you could drive with your friend Jordan.
David Whyte says that we do not find our essence through fulfillment or eventual arrival but by staying close to the way we like to travel, to the way we hold the conversation between the ground on which we stand and the horizon to which we go.
This year, I realized I’d been going about things all wrong.
Instead of spending my energy sizing up destinations, I should have been figuring out how I like to travel (live). And then spending more time traveling (living) that way.
I like to think I made progress on this in 2024. Sure, I wish I’d started earlier.
But the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today.
I know what you’re probably thinking. Me realizing that life is about the journey and not the destination is profoundly unprofound.
I used to think that as I got older (and potentially also wiser) I would have lots of original and profound realizations about life.
Now I think that life is just the process of slowly understanding how true most clichês actually are.
Younger me might have been disappointed by that.
Current me doesn’t mind so much.
I’m excited for 2025.
I hope to spend my time in fewer cities.
But more importantly, I hope to spend my time well.
As for which bumper sticker clichês I’ll come to understand more deeply?
Ask me next December.
🎯
stupendous