Recap 2024
Another eventful year comes to an end. As it has become tradition, here's my recap of 2024.
Personal #
I deviate from my previous recaps and want to share some personal thoughts.
2024 was a whirlwind of a year.
It started with an amazing two-week vacation with my gym buddies on a remote island and a trip to Amsterdam for my first-ever conference, which was Laracon EU.
I met so many internet friends there and had a blast. Can't wait until next February to see many friends again. (If you see me at Laracon, please come by and say "Hi!".)
In March, I also started working for Trenda. Thanks to attending the Laravel Switzerland meetups, I met Sascha – one of the founders – and got this amazing opportunity to work for them. It was only for one day a week, but it was a breath of fresh air to work in a small team again. Not many meetings. Shipping features and improvements fast to customers.
However, I handed in my resignation and ended the work relationship by the end of this December – for now. Working for two companies got the better of me. As Sascha and Sandro regularly go to the Laravel Switzerland meetups (more on this later), I will stay in contact with them.
Sports-wise, I've fallen a bit into a slump. I'm still going to my local gym seven days a week, but didn't make much progress this year. I had to pause training due to injuries or sickness a couple of times this year.
Next year I'm going to change this. Over this holiday break, I want to change my fitness routine and create a better training plan. I also would like to incorporate cardio more into my training. My goal is to run a local race in December 2025.
Summer and autumn were great, though. I met friends and family for hikes, bike rides, dinners, or evenings at the cinema. In general, I was way more open and adventurous this year. I said Yes! to more things and didn't regret it a bit.
I've always been quite introverted, and making new friendships or connections was brutally hard all my life. But since I turned 30, started taking the gym routine more seriously, and attending those Laravel meetups in Switzerland, I've changed. Talking to strangers got easier. I enjoy most of the conversations I have and almost always learn something new or get a fresh perspective on things.
Speaking of meetups, Ruslan reached out to me and some other regulars to ask if we could help take over the meetup from him, as he is traveling the world by the end of the year.
So together with Jan, Philipp, Sandro, and Sascha, I've founded the Swiss Laravel Association. Together we will organize the Laravel meetups going forward. (The next one on January 30th will be awesome.)
Rambling on here, my social media usage declined further this year. Removing all social media apps from my phone and blocking the URLs in my local network using my Pi-Hole and Little Snitch brought some much-needed calmness to my life.
I still miss the olden days of Twitter. Discovering new programming projects or fun developers and like-minded people gave me a lot of joy. I felt less alone in this world.
Mastodon and now Bluesky filled this void a bit, but the fragmentation and general vibe online make me believe that the era of social media is now truly over.
I now fill my free time by reading or listening to books or catching up in my RSS reader.
Work #
Work was a whirlwind as well. As mentioned, I worked for Trenda a bit, which was really, really great. It gave me a glimpse into another company and development culture.
At 2media/CLARK, I was involved in many projects, most of them hidden behind the veil of "internal access only." My role at this company has also morphed over the last few years from "developer" to "general problem solver." I like solving problems – big and small – but I don't necessarily enjoy creating business reports for managers who constantly change the requirements.
Losing my developer colleague of 12 years from the team by the end of this year was also quite the blow. The next few weeks and months will be challenging, but I'm sure I can find a good solution with my managers/team leader.
And if not, I'm sure I will find a great team I could join that values my abilities and experience.
Open Source #
On the open-source side of my work, I mostly did the regular maintenance work: adding support for new Laravel, PHP, and Node versions and the odd new feature release.
I wish I would have more energy to work on open-source projects again. My todo list and Obsidian vault are filled with project ideas I would like to explore. Most of them don't necessarily have to turn into open-source projects but are still problems I would like to find solutions for.
Next year, I want to carve out at least one evening per week dedicated to personal coding. Be it working on specific open-source projects or just tinkering with new technology or a new tool. (Watching Ryan's Rust For PHP course is very high on my to-do list, for example.)
Epilogue #
2025 looks bright. I think I never had such a positive outlook in my life. At the beginning of the year, I struggled with burnout and depression. I felt alone, unsure what my purpose in life should be.
These thoughts are all gone now. Starting my first romantic relationship later this year was probably the biggest force that pushed these thoughts away.
My calendar is already sprinkled with lots of events with friends and family or dedicated alone time for concerts or hikes.
I can't wait to see what 2025 will bring to me.
Special thanks to Lu and Ivan for spending time with me this year. Your presence made an enormous impact on my life.
If you enjoy reading these recap posts, here are a few from my internet friends you might enjoy as well: