2023 - Letter to Omar

Hi Omar! You might be the only one reading this, or you might not. If you aren't me and you are reading this, then welcome. I thought I would write a reflection on how my year went. In a similar fashion to how Bill Gates or Warren Buffet writes annual shareholder letters, I'd like to also write a letter. But since I have no shareholders, I've decided to write a letter to myself. So here goes!

If I could summarize this year in one word, it would be the word change. The changes in my life that Omar in 2022 could have never imagined. Starting out in 2023, I was still completing my courses for my masters at Simon Fraser University. I had just gotten back from my co-op in Ottawa, and I was just phoning it in for the last semester. For the first time in my life, I learned how to snowboard! It was an amazing experience with my then-girlfriend J - and I can proudly call myself a beginner snowboarder now! During that last semester, all my friends around me were looking for jobs. In this current high-interest-rate job market, most of them managed to find a job right out of graduation! I think they are amazing!

Once school ended, I then travelled to Japan with J. It was also so much fun! Looking back at those stories and goofy photos we took brings a smile to my face. I guess little did I know, it would be the last time we held each other so closely.

In the middle of the year, J and I broke up. Another big change for me, as we were together for one and a half years. This might not seem like a long time, but to me, it was the biggest change in my life this year. From those daily phone calls to always having someone on your side, it was like a large part of myself had disappeared. As this was also my longest relationship, it took a lot of time to heal from. Just after the breakup, I graduated. I had to move to another city (Ottawa) and start a new life and a new job there completely alone. It was during this time that I think I hit my lowest point of the year. Loneliness, stress from starting out work, and navigating a new place were all new for me. 

Post-breakup was also when I learned to make some music! Although it sounds very rudimentary and basic, I learned to use Ableton and FL Studio to make some songs that I'm quite proud of. The songs that I wrote helped me recover and were a small outlet for my feelings that I couldn't express. It was then that I realized why so many songs are about breakups and love - it's because these feelings can't just be expressed by words. Around this time, I also re-learned the guitar! The guitar that I've put off since elementary school! Making music is now a small creative outlet that I can explore as a hobby :)

Towards Autumn, my sister joined me in Ottawa and we started living together. This was like how we normally live together at home, so it was a small change. Work started to pick up from the summer lows, and I got the opportunity to go to a conference in San Diego! This was the first time I travelled for work rather than to re-locate, and I got to meet some really awesome people. October rolled around and my Masters professor and I decided we wanted to finish up that project I had started in my first year of the Master's program. We decided that we could gun for a November deadline, so given basically 1.5 months, we managed to submit the paper within the timeframe. I'm quite proud of that! Working 8 hours a week and then right after work writing the paper until 2am for 1 month straight is not an easy task!

November rolls around, and it starts snowing in Ottawa. I do my regular 9-5, and at home I'm working on a course for cloud security. I still learn a lot every day at work, and at night I'm also working on learing chinese and more security related topics. I also found a pen pal that I can write to back in Taiwan!

And of course, now I'm writing this at the end of 2023. I'm back in Vancouver for the holidays, and I reminisce of times when I was still in Vancouver. All the people I've met here, the old streets I used to play in, my old elementary, high school, UBC, SFU, and the shopping malls I used to frequent. Everything in Vancouver has changed so much!

This year, has been a year of so so so much change. The drastic ups and downs, and the growth as a person that I feel - makes it all worth it. All in all, I'd say this year turned out to be pretty great. Looking back, a lot of it sucked. Honestly, interpersonal relationships are more complicated than ever. Growing up, nobody ever told me it was such a big part of life! Nobody ever told me that a working your job is actually a nice break from personal challenges! Anyhow, that's all for this year. Next year, I hope to learn lots more, experience lots more, and accomplish lots more! Here's to 2024 - the year of the dragon!

- Omar T.

List of places visited this year:

- Vancouver

- Ottawa

- Tokyo

- Osaka

- Kyoto

- Dubai

- Abu Dhabi

- Taiwan

- San Diego

- Hawaii

At the summit of Haleakalā National Park in Hawaii

Kiyomizu-dera

Burj Khalifa

Canadian Parliament

San Diego Pier