As the year comes to a close, I’m looking back not just on what the last 12 months brought, but the last 10 years as we stand on the verge of a new decade. These last 10 years have been full of crazy changes, both good and bad. Some I was able to plan for, others that came out of left field and had profound impacts on my life in really unexpected ways.

But before doing the big trip down memory lane, here’s my review of my 2019.

2019’s Theme: A New Chapter

I won’t sugar-coat it, 2019 was not a great year for me. In the early spring, I finally picked up on changes that were happening at GameHouse that would ultimately lead to my being laid off in June. This set off a chain of events that resulted in us having to move back to the US after nearly 6 years in The Netherlands this summer. There’s no two ways about it, we weren’t ready to come back.

Thankfully, a rough transition was made a lot easier by a lot of wonderful support from friends and family

Travel

• Lisbon
  We only managed one proper holiday trip this year before things started to turn, but wow was it an amazing trip. Our first time to Portugal, we spent a long weekend in Lisbon with a day trip by train up to Sintra. The food was fantastic, the scenery beautiful and we loved the city so much we immediately started planning a return trip to see more.  Hopefully we’ll be back again someday!
   
• All Over Hell & Back for Job Interviews
  Most of my time on planes this year was for job interviews.  Almost all of these happened between late March and the end of April.  It was intense.
  • Paris
  • Rotterdam (this one counts given how long the train ride to get there was)
  • Austin, TX (longest, shortest trip of my life)
  • Denmark (almost got a job at LEGO… almost…)
  • Cambridge, UK
     
• The Return to the US & Dallas
  After nearly 6 years overseas, we made the return flight to the US.  First we spent a week in PA with my family getting our US accounts back in order and buying a car.  We then spent two days driving from Central PA back to Dallas, TX for my new job.

Professional

The short version is I was laid off in June of this year, though I saw the changes start around February and started looking for a new job immediately.  This layoff was, without a doubt the hardest I’ve gone through, but it taught me a lot about trust, leadership and communication. Lessons that will serve me well through the rest of my career. And again, being laid off in the Netherlands is a pretty sweet deal compared to the US!

The last few times I’ve done a job hunt, I’ve tracked everything on Trello, to help me keep sense of everything, and it was a damn good thing I did this time!  The stats from this hunt, that largely took place between February and June of 2019 are as follows:

• Total Job Applications: 103
• No Reponses: 41
• Rejections: 58
• I Declined: 3 (one for too low pay, one because it didn’t feel like the right company for me, and another because it was outside of games)
• I Accepted: 1

In the end, keeping with my general history, I landed a job with a former boss, this time back in Dallas, the last place we lived before going overseas. A bit of a boomerang!

For the first time in quite a while, I feel like I have a job with real growth potential, and a future that goes beyond the next few quarters. While nothing is ever certain, especially in games, I have a confidence in my job and company I haven’t felt in a long time.  So with the year starting on a very sour note professionally, it certainly is ending on a strong and hopeful one!

Personal

I started 2018 living in Europe. I ended it back in Texas. It’s been a rough 12 months for both me and my wife but we’ve committed to just making the best we can out of the situation.  Thankfully, I’ve got a good job (see above), we’ve got good friends here supporting us, and we know the area already a bit, so there’s a lot going for us to make this transition better.

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The Last Decade

Let’s see, where was I 10 years ago on January 1, 2010?

• Living in Plymouth, MI
• Working for Stardock on Impulse
• Engaged to be married!
• Had only ever been out of the country twice in my life so far (New Zealand in 2004, England in 2002)

Since then?

• Got married June 2010
• Went to Rome for our Honeymoon
• Moved from MI to TX in 2011 when GameStop acquired Impulse from Stardock. This is where I met Steve & Dan, both of whom would hire me several times in the future
• Went on vacation to visit Liz in The Netherlands in August 2013, while there went on an unexpected job interview. Had a job offer by the time we got back from vacation.
• Move to The Netherlands November 2013
• LIVED ABROAD FOR NEARLY 6 YEARS!
• Worked for three very different game companies in NL that afforded me some really great experiences and allowed me to work with some of my favorite people from my entire career so far.
• Moved back to the US (TX) July 2019

Also in that decade, we traveled the world…

• England (many times)
• Ireland
• Spain (many times)
• Italy
• Denmark
• Czech Republic
• France
• Germany
• Japan
• Iceland
• Portugal
• Belgium
• Netherlands

So in total I’ve had 6 different jobs, moved 5 times (3 states, 2 countries), visited 13 countries, got married and picked up two cats along the way.  There have been some significant ups and downs along the way, and there was absolutely no chance I could have predicted any of this, sitting at my computer in my too-cold apartment in Michigan on January 1, 2010.

So… 2020?

Where do we go from here? There are a few things on my radar for the next year, but they’re big & vague things, and after the tumult of 2019, all I can really say is the goal for the next year is get a bit of stability.

Travel
We’ve been talking about a Disney trip now that we’re back in the US. But beyond that it’s not likely we’ll be doing much traveling in 2020 as we focus in on personal finances a bit more.

Professional
We’ve got some really significant projects on the horizon at work that could be really exciting and would give us a lot more secured runway. Some VR, some game, some “other” stuff all currently being discussed. Could be a very busy & exciting year/few years.

Personally, I want 2020 to be a year focused on solid performance and stability at work.

Personal
Europe was awesome, and the experiences and things I learned were priceless. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a financial net positive overall. While we are still in overall good shape, 2020 is going to be about getting our finances back in solid order. We’ve got a car loan again we need to kill quickly, and I need to replenish both my short-term emergency fund, and get back to building my “F You” fund. Among a few other financial goals that are probably more relevant to 2021/2022.

This will mean less travel and generally being more frugal to get back on the path we want to be on.

I also packed on a fair bit of weight between the stress of the job hunt and then moving back to TX where there’s so much amazing food everywhere. Aiming to get down to 180 by summer!

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So… that’s it. 2019 was a punch to the gut, that started out terribly but is ending on a high note. And a decade that took me places I never could have expected. It’s been a while ride, without a doubt.

Now, for a “boring” year where we focus on setting ourselves up for the future, and achieving a little bit of well-earned stability.