I describe the ending to my 2019 as a bumpy landing. While everything ended well if even on some high notes, the last few months were stressful for me. Things started to turn around in December, though.

Here’s a review of my 2019:

The good

• I grew my relationship and writing footprint with TechTarget when I started to write more for SearchITOperations.com and started as a contributor to SearchCloudComputing.com.
• I watched my day job get eliminated through a RIF but found a new opportunity focused on the cloud (right where I want to be!)
• I took a vacation to Miami Beach again in August and enjoyed myself.
• It was the year I came to embrace my dyslexia. I read about Richard Branson’s efforts with Made by Dyslexia. Dona Sarkar of Microsoft also spoke about her dyslexia.  Friends and some close co-workers have known about my disability. 
• I started taking part as a contributor to opensource.com on the team behind their DevOps content.

The bad

• I had some things on the personal and professional fronts that should have been easy to accomplish made more complicated for various reasons like people who didn’t want to do their jobs or others who wanted to prove their relevance.
• The pharmaceutical industrial establishment changed the formulation of my thyroid medication, which was no fun. I had to ride out some side effects at some of the most inconvenient times during an already stressful job hunt.
• I spent way too much time dealing with the home remodeling industry as I tried to get some work done on my house. Never in my life have I had the money to do the work but had to deal with such a flaky industry.
• It was hard to get to the gym in the final few months of 2019, which I plan to make up for in the new year.

Despite it all, I’m looking at 2020 with optimism on personal, health, and professional fronts.

How did 2019 treat you?