This is a treat.
My invitation to write for the Listserve comes at a time in my life I have much to talk about. 2016. This is really a sharing of joy.
2016 has been a year focused on family building and foundation building. For the past 3 years, since I quit my last job to pursue software development, my path has been on a trajectory that I've set for myself rather than being a passenger in the general flow of time.
I wanted to get into software development for a number of reasons. It's fun to build something. It's a career that I might eventually be able to do remotely, giving me locational freedom. It's full of rich and complex problems, as well as more straightforward problems that give your brain a break but still seem like magic at times.
2013, March, I quit my job and do a 9 week bootcamp.
2013, June, I find my new place, at TWG in Toronto. (Good fortune and good friends brought me to the place, and I've continued to find good fortune and good friends here as well.)
2015, March, I proposed to my girlfriend. She said yes.
2015, July, we decided to try for our first child instead of waiting for our marriage which we set for 2016. (The mind was willing to wait, but our bodies were starting to feel the quiet anxiety of the passage of time and wanted to have at least 2 children if we could. Or give ourselves the best chance at it with as few complications.)
2016, March, our son is born into the world 2 weeks early. Eager to explore.
2016, August - September, I took parental leave in order to spend some time with my developing child. An amazing 2 months of my life, rounded off with our wedding in September. An amazing day spent with an amazing woman and child. And family. And friends.
2016, October, I talk with my company about working remotely and they said there's no problem doing so.
We're planning, now, to move out of the city a ways so we can have a home in which to raise our budding family. We could do so in Toronto, but not in the same way.
I'm just happy and want to share that happiness. 2016 has been a good year. They won't all be like this, but with the family forming around me as my wife and I work towards that future, we'll keep striving for stability and joy, exploration and happiness. We'll try. We'll see where the chips fall and how the dice lands. We'll see what our efforts produce, too.
I hope, as 2016 rounds out for all of you, that you have some good stories in 2016 yourselves.
I wasn't sure what to share on here, but the joy I'm feeling felt like a good thing to try and share.
Shane Fera
Toronto
[email protected]