I can’t thank 2024 enough for being a drama-free year at work. It was really boring at work and if you’ve read a few of my posts about my professional life, boring is good. A few things did happen, so let’s recap.
WORK
Last week made one full calendar year since I started at the company for which I’m currently working. I started off the year with one great manager, and I ended the year with a great manager but he’s my third manager in less than six months. The company is a shit show, an absolute dumpster fire of a company.
BUT!
It doesn’t matter to me because I have had good managers, and it makes all the difference in the world when you’re surrounded by people who try their best to make a bad situation good by treating you and others with respect. So long as my managers do not yell and lose their cool like ill-mannered children and turn a good situation into a Survivor episode, then I see no reason to leave a comfortable position. I’m very lucky because a lot of people have it bad at the company.
The only minor concern I have is that I’m losing an executive, my second manager for 3.5 months, to retirement, which means I could be assigned another executive who crashes my party and sends me running for the hills. For now, however, all I can do is hope for the best and pivot when necessary.
PERSONAL
My mom and I went to Belgium in August. We were there for five days (Aug. 8-13). I visited Bruges, Belgium when I was in Amsterdam in 2017, and I worked a trip to Brussels when I was a flight attendant with Delta in 2023. I told her that she’d like both cities, so we booked the trip 2-3 weeks before the departure date.
We had a lovely time. We visited Brussels, Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp.
We were to supposed to travel to Argentina and Chile at the end of August, but my mom was having second thoughts so we cancelled our trip. American Airlines credited the original price of the tickets, but we both lost the money we spent on the upgrade ($850). That! Fucking! Hurt!
In March of last year, I cut back on baking because I was overspending on groceries. I bade farewell to my mixer and put away my apron, and I picked up my camera to begin my next endeavor. During the spring and summer, I had my camera with me often and took hundreds of photographs in Manhattan and Queens. I woke up at the crack of dawn to get photos of beautiful sunrises and stayed out late to get night shots of NYC. I felt a wave of excitement and confidence that I submitted three of my photographs to a photography contest in NYC.
My photographs were not selected for top honors, but I didn’t care because I was happy with what I produced. I realized, however, that I missed baking cookies. I missed working with my hands and getting a little dirty. I love photography, but I realized that I love working with my hands and creating something physical more.
I started baking again by the end of August, or maybe I restarted in July. I can’t recall when I started again. By late September, I was taking cooking and baking classes at Home Cooking New York. I wanted to get a feel for cooking and baking with real chefs. I even applied to part-time kitchen jobs in Manhattan and Queens.
I got nowhere on the part-time job hunt, but I kept practicing at home. I noticed that my prep time decreased the more I made the same recipe. I also realized that I decreased the amount of washing I did because I learned to use less equipment.
So far, I’ve botched three recipes and one of those creations really mattered to me. We had a low-key holiday celebration at work some time in November or December where we could bring our own baked goods. The best three baked goods would win a prize, so I signed up to make an Olive Cake with Chantilly Cream and Oatmeal Raisin cookies. I wanted the prize, but I really wanted to see the reactions to my baked goodies.
The cookies came out great.
The cake, on the other hand, was completely botched. I didn’t change the oven temperature after my last batch of oatmeal cookies, so my cake went into the oven at the wrong temperature. When the timer went off, I removed the cake from the oven and tested the center and sides with a paring knife. It wasn’t coming out completely clean, so I panicked and returned the cake to the oven for another 5-10 minutes.
I dried that poor sucker out.
At least I thought I dried it out; I was convinced I botched that cake. I didn’t. I won second place in our baked goods contest. More importantly, people enjoyed the cake and the office manager fell in love with the cream.
If at any point after “I dried that poor sucker out” you thought I was going to throw away that cake and make a new one, you were dead wrong. The cake looked fine-ish (I’m probably being really hard on myself), and it was cooked so it was edible.
I think botching a cake and still winning second place sums up 2024: some wins and some hiccups.
2025 OUTLOOK
Trump being elected to the White House lit a fire under me. The situation as a whole made me realize that there are very few people in the United States of America who want to change for the better. Americans would rather worry about what’s in between someone’s legs or how someone identifies or some asshole’s conspiracy theory(ies) or a bad joke than stop gun violence, enact universal healthcare, build affordable housing, eat a healthier diet, etc.
I remember having the same “Oh, yeah, shit’s about to change forever and I have to adapt” feeling after 9/11. I was 18 years old when it happened and my coworkers and I watched the horror unfold from the window of an attorney’s office in Queens. At the time, the attorney’s office had an unobstructed view of downtown.
I was mildly depressed for a year as were many New Yorkers.
When the depression subsided and disappeared, I hit the ground running. There was more to life than working in a small law firm in Queens. I quit my job and worked in retail as a holiday seasonal worker in 2002 until I could find a receptionist/secretarial position in a law firm in Manhattan.
By March of 2003, I was working for a medium-sized real estate law firm one block away from the Charging Bull. I took my first trip abroad in 2004. I picked up my first foreign language when I returned from that trip.
Since then, I’ve been on a quest to always improve, to always adapt, to never allow events outside my control to completely fuck with my life, with my happiness.
Why am I saying all this and what’s the point? I’m typing this because I’ve begun to prepare myself so I can create opportunities later this year. I will not divulge the grand plan because I really want it to come to fruition, and I do not want anyone’s opinion, positive or negative. I also don’t want to risk not having it come true, and then having to explain the outcome to people.
Yes, I understand that goals and plans come crashing down whether you share them or not. But I rather move in silence.
It’ll also help minimize distractions. I need to keep my head down and work if I want to see myself in a different position and industry by the end of the year.
With that in mind, I’m forgoing any goals this year. I would like to write a blog post every two weeks to start making a habit out of it, but even that seems like a goal and I don’t want to feel any pressure.
I created this blog to become a blogger, but I find it difficult to document everything little thing so I can make it public.
Perhaps that sentiment will change in the future. For now, I’m content with the occasional post.
Here’s to all the potential wins and hiccups in 2025. Let’s make shit happen!