2022 lookback

Another year has ended. This one was rough on me. I have experienced some serious life challenges, as well as work-related ones.

Professional life

For most of 2022, I have been fully employed. I was working as a website developer, and I have been part of a promising marketing team. We worked on the company website and launched it to a whole new level. I was planning to stay fully employed, but the company changed its vision, and the majority of my team has been let go. After my one-year contract expired, I expected to prolong it, but it didn’t happen.

So, I started to look for a new job. I was hoping to find a CSS developer role since CSS is my strongest skill (in my humble opinion). My search was unsuccessful, and I wrote about my findings in September.

After that, I tried another job search, this time for the UI developer role. Unfortunately, this search was unsuccessful, too, and I wrote another article about my findings about challenges of a job search back in November.

Private life

In 2022, I was trying to finish building our new house. We started with the construction in the summer of 2021. As the construction went to its end, it drained more and more of my energy and nerves (and money). Sometimes during November, I started to feel real down. I was beginning to experience depression, and my behavior changed. Luckily, my wife stepped in and took care of me and the project overall. Also, my friends were there for me wherever I needed them.

The main problem was that I wanted to move to our new house by the end of the year. I tried to organize everything, but it was impossible to predict all the issues that arose during the house build. I think that was the main reason why I was feeling so bad. I felt helpless, and my desired deadline seemed impossible. It wasn’t anything like the web development projects I used to work on where I was in complete control. This was a whole new situation for me where I was just some investor, and I had to sit and wait until others resolved all the issues.

This period overlapped with the job search, which made it worse. For a few weeks, I thought that this awful feeling would go away, but it didn’t. I only felt worse. Nobody knew it until I announced it. Everyone was shocked to learn that I felt that bad since I am a very social person and I always like having fun. I learned that letting others know I have issues is okay. I guess I am lucky to have family and friends willing to listen and help. Otherwise, I would have to go to a professional with these issues. Thank God it didn’t go there.

Conclusion

We moved last week, and I am over the moon now. I learned that my mental health is not worth any materialistic thing in this world. All that it matters is not non-materialist anyway: my daughters, my wife, my friends, my health, and our happiness.

P.S. I am still looking for a job. If you want me on your team, feel free to contact me.