2024 was a big year. In some ways it was a tremendously groundbreaking and exciting year for me, and in other ways (particularly on the national scale,) it was a pretty dark year. Here I’m going to focus on the stuff that’s closer to home.
Moving Forward
One of the things I accomplished in 2024 that I’m most excited about: getting over my burnout and starting to write again. It felt great to get back into the swing of things. The stories and creativity that I thought I’d lost turned out to still be there, and that was a massive relief. I have a ton of story ideas waiting to be written, but right now I’m focusing on cleaning up and finishing those that were already in progress. Needless to say, I’d be writing a lot more if I wasn’t also working a traditional job– but that’s the society we live in today.
Adventures
A buddy and I spent a good chunk of the summer cleaning up a distressed property. This place had it all: junked cars, a burned-out structure, mountains of trash, and hoards of used needles. While cleanup and demolition work usually isn’t super fun, we had a good time. This summer I’m looking forward to being part of the construction of a new cabin on the property.
Last year I had the first two weeks of summer vacation I’ve had since 2016, and I did lots of hiking, kayaking, and fishing. There was also a surprise trip to Oregon. It was great to revisit my favorite parts of Portland, and I had a lot of fun exploring the Pacific Northwest on the way there and back. Amtrak is an underrated national treasure, and vastly superior to Alaska Airlines in both comfort and service.
Silver Linings
My work tried to kill me again, with yet another fall and holiday season without adequate staffing. I got exactly 5 days off during the month of December. It was not awesome, but it gave me cause to reflect on the time I spent working month after month of long days at past jobs.
At some point this year, expect a blog post or two about the effects of long hours and exhaustion on people’s ability to plan for the future, exercise higher reasoning, and feel hope that anything will improve. Also, why companies might find it in their best interests to limit that kind of thinking in their workers. (For example, employees who are too exhausted to organize don’t try to form unions.)
While I had a brush with burnout during December, the upside is that I now better recognize the signs of its early onset: the short temper, the impatience, the desire to just do the fastest job possible and go home. The difficulty remembering names and words, and small details of lists and tasks. The rage, the darkness, and the fading ability to see any way the situation could get better.
While it’s nice to be aware of what’s happening, most overtime isn’t optional. Like most employees today, it’s not like I can just say, “This isn’t good for my mental health. I’d like to scale back to a 40 hour work week, please.” But wouldn’t it be nice if we could?
This year I also learned that burnout is temporary and it’s possible to make a complete recovery. I learned how important the 40 hour work week is to mental health, and how much calmer, more patient, and happier I am when I actually have work-life balance. This is something that has been a rare experience in my life.
Going forward, I’m going to be making a big effort to spend less time at the day job, and more time writing and doing other things I enjoy. And yes, I recognize that I’m really lucky to have a job where I have the ability to do that to some extent.
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