Thirtieth: My best year (so far)
Have you ever had a year so full of changes, adventures, and development, that the obvious outcome was to write about it? I’m not sure I had, until this year. Initially I even thought of writing some sort of wise “30 lessons learned at 30”, but I don’t consider myself wise (and those kinds of posts are a dime a dozen anyway), so instead I settled for “30 photos from my 30 (with accompanying thoughts)”.
Consider this a sort of retrospective over the past twelve months. Enjoy!
Land of the rising sun
It was October 19, 2024. I woke up on the day of my 30th birthday from the comfort of my own bed– Except… Wait a minute, this isn’t my bed! In fact this isn’t even Canada! That’s right. I had decided that the best place to wake up for my special three-decades celebration would be in a cool and windy autumn-adorned Sapporo, Japan. And what a great decision that was!
Japan is a place I had wanted to visit since middle school. In high school a few friends and I made a pact that we’d all visit together post-graduation. Like you’d expect from a high school pact, that never panned out. Then, we tried planning again with a smaller group of people and officially set the date: October 2020 will be it! But it wasn’t, for what would quickly become very obvious reason*.
Third time’s the charm, right? What initially sparked as an idea for a 2012 trip, which then became a 2020 trip, finally materialised itself at the tail end of 2024! I want to talk in much more detail about my trip to Japan so I won’t spend too much time here, but I had a wonderful three weeks there. Half of it solo, half of it with friends, and all of it still in my heart a year later.
For the curious, I spent the day of my 30th birthday hiking up Mount Moiwa (藻岩山) just outside of Sapporo (札幌市) with my two high school best friends, both of whom also happened to be 30 at the time (we have a very short overlapping timeframe of about 6 weeks where the three of us are the same age). I even got a birthday cake topped with the iconic Japanese white strawberries.
*If you’re somehow unsure what this is referencing, try looking up SARS-CoV-2.
We tried (and sort of succeeded) in spelling out “30!”
Views atop Mount Moiwa outside Sapporo, which I hiked on my birthday.
The Tokyo entertainment district Kabukichō at night.
New and old friends at the Nintendo Museum in Kyoto.
Hermes watches over me
What a packed twelve months this was for travels! 23 flights (and frankly too many trains and buses to remember) bringing me to 20 different cities over the course of 11 trips. I’d been an avid traveller since about 2015, but had taken a break due to the global pandemic. In fact, I did not really go anywhere for the three years starting in 2020.
Last October, I finally flew internationally for the first time since 2019, but I think I talked plenty about it in the previous section, so let’s focus on the rest!
The following month, Salt Lake City requested my presence for the KubeCon NA conference. It was my first time there, and I did have a bit of free time, so outside of the conference I spent my free time mostly wandering (not that Salt Lake City is much of a walkable city). I even had a fun chance encounter with one of the Linux Foundation organisers and had dinner together.
Towards the end of December, I drove to Quebec with my brother to visit our family and spent Christmas and New Year there. Now that both of our parents live in la belle province (albeit in different cities) it makes it much easier to plan winter holidays. Unfortunately, winter was late to arrive and we did not have a white Christmas.
2025 showed itself, but it wasn’t until March that I’d travel again, this time to Chicago. I was there for a full week for a customer engagement with work. Between collaborating with our customer, the dinners and fun-looking drinks, and wandering on my own, I had an awesome time. I was surprised how much of a similar vibe it had to Toronto (at least from my limited week-long experience).
In April, I went down to Las Vegas for the Google Cloud Next conference. Again a full week, and again for work. I certainly had a fun (but exhausting) time exploring a new environment, and some of the gimmicks of Vegas are quite intriguing for a first-timer, but I’m not sure I’d bring myself to go again if it wasn’t because of a conference or some other work-related event. Everything was big to a fault (it took literally 45 minutes to walk across a mere 3 hotels). The experiences (as in the paid experiences) there are very worth seeing though (I spent many hours inside of Omega Mart). Just like all of the other Google Cloud Next conferences I attended, it was lovely seeing so many of my coworkers in person again.
I then decided I needed a bit of (well-deserved) vacation, so I took two weeks of vacation in May and spent it in Western Canada. One week was spent in British Columbia (a few days each in Vancouver and Squamish), and one week was spent in Alberta (a few days each in Edmonton and Calgary). It was beautiful and sunny the entire time and I could not have asked for better weather! On top of that, I managed to see a handful of friends I hadn’t seen in a while, which made the vacation all the better; I hung out with ten friends across the 14 days, as well as met a few new faces.
In June I took yet another week of vacation, this time in New York City. It was my second time there, but I don’t quite count the first time since that was for work. This time around, I made sure to spend a lot of time doing things I missed out on the first time, like wandering in Brooklyn, as well as seeing my first official Broadway musical (Sunset Boulevard – it was excellent).
Finally, over the following handful of months I’d go on to do four different trips for work, covering Montreal (July), Atlanta (September), New York City and Boston (also September), and Washington DC (October). These were mostly very quick trips (fly in, workshop, fly out), but I did try to pad them a little bit. For example, I had an extra day in both Atlanta and Washington DC to leisurely visit as I had never been to either.
We’ll see what this new year brings in terms of travels, but so far it’s looking like it might be just as packed!
An izakaya just outside of Tokyo.
The streets of Old Montreal at night.
The New York City skyline never cease to amaze me.
Area 15, that’s the aliens thing right?
Joy in nature’s embrace
Alright I’ll come clean, I mostly added this section to have an excuse for the photos. Will you forgive me?
Despite doing a lot of urban travelling (most of it for work) I made it a point to spend time in nature where I could over the past year. During my trip to Japan I hiked two different mountains in Hokkaido (北海道), did similarly when I visited Squamish (Mount Habrich was stunning), walked through many forests (with friends and by myself), and wandered through four dreamy botanical gardens (Montreal, Vancouver, Burlington, and Atlanta).
Though I mostly rock climb indoors (mostly for convenience and access reasons), I had the opportunity to spend some time climbing with friends in Squamish (the climbing capital of Canada). I did a bit of bouldering (without much success – bouldering in Squamish is built different!), tried my luck with crack climbing (ouch my hands), led a climb for the first time, and did a stunning multi-pitch (about 300 feet of elevation) directly above a river.
But that’s not to say that I haven’t also spent a great chunk of my year climbing indoors. Most weeks I climbed at least two days, and I’m at a point where 5.9s are easy warm-ups, I can climb most 5.10s thrown at me with enough perseverence, and I’m just slightly starting to climb 5.11s. And I am so proud of myself to see that amount of progress over the years!
“You may be wondering how I put myself in this situation.”
It’s all fun and games until you look down.
If you’re the strongest climber in the room, you’re in the wrong room.
Views atop Mount Hakodate at night.
Spent time in the mountains of Squamish.
Live music and other acts*
This year was a great year for music. Between some of my favorite acts releasing new albums and seeing them play live, as well as the very recent news of my all-time favorite act (Rush) announcing one last tour after 10 years of retirement, it seemed like every month had something fun happening!
At the end of October last year, I saw The Dear Hunter for the first time. I’d been wanting to see them for a long time but they had not been to Canada in many years (the last time they were in Toronto was in 2016). They’ve been in my list of top 5 bands for quite some time now (since early university) and I’ve gone through all of their records back to front so many times that I’m now almost religiously recommending them to everyone I meet (sorry-not-sorry). I got to meet the whole band and chat with them and they were such kind individuals (do meet your heroes!)
In April while I was attending Google Cloud Next, I saw The Killers. This is not my current genre of choice, but it’s a band I listened to a lot in late middle school and high school so I do have a bit of nostalgia for it. They definitely still put on a good energetic show!
In September, I saw Between the Buried and Me for the second time. This time with a VIP pass. BTBAM is an interesting one for me, because I hadn’t really paid attention to them until about 2 years ago, and now suddenly they’re in my top 10 bands and I can’t get enough! They released a new album a few days before their show and it’s just as good (better, even?) than the rest of their discography. The evolution of their sound is unparalleled to me and unlike anything else out there.
A mere 4 days later, I saw Steven Wilson at the same venue. I had seen him play under the Porcupine Tree banner, but not as a solo act. It was such a great show. 3 hours of beautiful music with an intermission in the middle (you know it’s the real deal when a musical act has an intermission!)
The rest of the year was sprinkled by other shows like Hail the Sun, The Reign of Kindo, and a Stardew Valley soundtrack symphony.
On the “other acts” front, I saw my first ever Broadway show while in New York City (Sunset Boulevard), which I enjoyed quite a bit. It’s in a way a bit of an odd choice for a first Broadway show since Sunset Boulevard’s design choices mean they don’t really have a set, and all the cast wear strictly black. But the music was just the right amount of catchy, and of course the intrigue of the story is super fun.
Towards the end of summer, I also managed to catch Back to the Future: The Musical while it was touring in Toronto, which was quite the polar opposite in terms of set and costume design. They had so many sets on stage (as well as a real DeLorean!) and the special effects were incredibly impressive. I’m hoping to see more musicals and theatrical plays over the next year!
*There’s 3 layers of puns in that title. Find them all?
This photo was entirely my idea, so I’m basically part of the band now!
Tommy being so serious is so out-of-place given how funny he is in person.
Is it even a good music show if you’re not at the gate?
Now if only they’d produce the sequels as musicals as well.
Finale spectacle of The Killers show.
On the road for work
I’m realising as I’m writing these words that there’s quite a bit of overlap between the sections of this blog post, but it’s my birthday so I’m allowed, right? The past year brought quite a bit of change to what I do for work.
Let’s start from the start… What is my job? I’m part of the developer relations (DevRel) team at Google, for Google Cloud, and have been there for just about 5 years now. But what my role looks like evolved quite a bit during that time. Initially when I joined I did not do much advocacy work, focusing primarily on authoring code samples and API libraries. Shortly afterwards, I inherited a few sample applications that I’d become technical lead of.
Then about a year ago, two things changed at about the same time: our role evolved to become much more advocacy-focused (less libraries and APIs, more educational content), and travel restrictions put in place around 2020 eased up quite a bit. This meant much more time spent on the road, which I hadn’t really done since joining.
In Salt Lake City, I went to my very first KubeCon, the first time running a booth and representing the company at a third party conference. I enjoyed the experience (although running that booth was not quite as fun as running booths at Google Cloud Next), and I even had some free time to attend some talks and panels which were enlightening given my field of specialty is Kubernetes and runtimes.
Then in Chicago, I attended my first customer engagement. I was definitely nervous leading up to it, since the expectations are high (we’re the “experts” in that setting, and there’s lots of assumptions that we know everything there is to know about Google Cloud, which is a very tall order). In the end, it was a lot of fun, I learned a lot, and (without getting into boring details) I managed to help our customer with multiple technical problems they were having with their product and it felt great to see how happy they were!
The following month in Las Vegas, I went to my second Google Cloud Next. This conference is always a great (thought physically and mentally exhausting) time on multiple fronts: Running booths and demos involve a lot of non-stop talking (I was starting to lose my voice by the last day) but they’re very engaging, wandering the show floor is quite an experience (so much effort is put into every single booth), and it’s the one opportunity of the year to see just about 100 coworkers and get to chat with them in person for once.
Finally, I ended up either presenting at or assisting with 11 different workshops in 6 different cities (Toronto, Montreal, New York City, Boston, Atlanta, and Washington DC). Those workshops are a lot of fun for me, because they remind me a lot of my time being a TA for Computer Science courses and labs in university. We spend a few hours with over a hundred local developers teaching material in a hands-on, do-it-on-your-own-machine setting. These workshops are also a great opportunity to talk with users of Google Cloud and get first-hand feedback and insights on usage.
And although plans for 2026 are not quite done yet, I have the suspicion that travelling for work is going to continue being the norm for our team. Already, I have 4 more workshops in 4 cities to look forward to over the next few weeks (Austin, Sunnyvale, Seattle, and Vancouver). Overall, it’s clear to say that I’ve been enjoying this slight role change!
A group photo full of software rockstars.
Our booth at KubeCon NA in Salt Lake City.
Collecting Google Cloud wristbands like they’re Infinity Stones.
Growth loves discomfort
The past year brought on a lot of change and growth.
Probably the most impactful has been relocating again (from Waterloo to Toronto), but this time on my own. This is the first time I’ve been living by myself since 2013. From 2014 onwards I’d always lived with some subset of friends, roommates, and family members. To save money, but also because although I’m introverted I love feeling presence around me. I adapted surprisingly well to the move, and I’m starting to explore my new city and quickly making new friends!
I’ve talked about the changes at work already, but that involved a lot of adaptation and growth as well. For example, I’m volunteering for more public speaking involvement, which has never been my strong suit. But I want to get better at it, so if the opportunity exists, I might as well take it!
Last year was also when I decided to completely redesign my personal website and start blogging. That’s what you’re reading now! I had an initial goal of having one new blog post every month, and while I didn’t quite meet that, I’ve still managed 8 over the past 11 months, which is close enough. I’m continuing this into next year as well.
After my three weeks in Japan, I decided to pick up Japanese learning yet again. Grammar is still a work in progress (ugh), but I can recognise almost 400 kanji as well as hundreds of words. I’m planning on taking the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) later this year. Feeling a bit nervous about it!
And lastly, the past year brought on a lot of opportunities for introspective, journaling, and deep thinking for many reasons (most of them deeply personal, so I will abstain from sharing here). Some of this involved very uncomfortable internal conversations about what I want to achieve in life, and what steps I need to undertake to get there. I’m currently brainstorming ideas on how best to eventually share all of this!
And I’m of course looking forward to what learning and growth the next year brings me.
My new town, Toronto.
My two furballs seem to be liking their new environment.
Presenting a workshop on agentic development.
Life’s greatest treasure
Friendship. The answer is friendship. And do I ever feel grateful for it!
According to my personal tracker I’ve hung out with 111 different people over the past year. Most of them were one-offs, but there’s still a good 34 people with whom I hung out more than 5 times over these twelve months. In general I increased the amount of socialising I generally do, and I’m incredibly happy with the results. Friends feel closer, and I’m even more appreciative of how lovingly unique individuals are.
Over the past year, I’ve also met (or gotten much closer to, in one instance) three* lovely, intelligent, and inquisitive people and I feel so lucky to get to call them close friends! Thank you for being a part of this journey. I appreciate you all so much.
I’ve also started saying yes to more social events (especially since moving to Toronto) to great outcomes. I’m also appreciative of people that help introduce others to you, since it generally has a higher success rate than through random encounters (I’m part of a really fun chain where I’m on the verge of meeting a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend and that’s very amusing to me).
This is a short section, but I mostly really wanted to include photos of many of the people I hold dear, so here you go!
*If this is about you, you should know who you are. But if in doubt, the initials are with JL, MP, and NK!
Soft-launch of my apartment with an Acadian Day gathering.
What a lovely crew of people!
Friends wear matching bracelets?
Reunion of my university’s CS department.
Had a great time wandering inside Omega Mart.
Goodbye 30, hello 31!
Twelve months later, today is my birthday once again. Not in Japan this time*, but instead from my new home in Toronto. I continue to be grateful for what life has to offer me, and looking forward to another twelve months full of new adventures and lovely people.
As always, if you want to chat about anything I’ve mentioned or want to catch up, don’t hesitate to let me know!
*But my 32nd birthday sounds like a great opportunity to have a re-run of that experience, don’t you think? :)
Pre-birthday hike near Milton to close the year.