1. 2011 in Review

    I’ve done something like this here before, but a more compact version is probably needed - inspired by James Rutherfords year in review a little, I thought I’d do the same and summarise everything up to the start of this year in one post, and keep it short!

    Work

    2011 marked a change for me in work as for the past few years I’d been working part-time for GreenMetropolis and was happy with that and doing my own thing the other days, some coding or getting out and about but otherwise a short week. I’d been going to SuperMondays a lot and at one I caught up with Paul Rawlings from ScreenReach, a company I’d remembered from a previous event when it was part of the Difference Engine and was interested in it back then and was a chance to see the progress they had made.

    I was talking about my Windows Phone apps in the pub afterwards and he mentioned they were interested in taking on a developer so I said I would come in for a meeting the next day and they said they were interested and if I could come in from the following week, so I did at that point I was working full time again for the first time in a few years so was tricky to get used to again but enjoyed the challenge and the team was growing so seemed a good time to join!

    After a few months I started working there more from three days a week to four days a week, until at the end of the year I said I would be going full time in 2012 for ScreenReach - was a tough decision to make as is a small team at GreenMetropolis who I got to know well, but this was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down - had been asked a few times before.

    Events

    At the start of the year I’d been going to the same events as always such as SuperMondays and NEBytes with a couple extra now and then like DIBI conference - however around the time I started working for ScreenReach I started to get out more and more, and also took an interest in the Ignite100 programme which was similar to what ScreenReach had gone through and also went to more things like new groups like DesignInterests and also eventually joined Codeworks and attended a couple of their events including The PUD and also went to a few other things like the Windows Phone Camp in Edinburgh.

    In the latter months I was going to more and more things and at one point, which I’ve mentioned went to four events in one week from ScreenReach Christmas Party, to ShareMyPlayLists Party and a few others - that was an epic week for me event wise but found these events really enjoyable and events had really been the only thing I had been going to, so from one or two events per month, to going to one or two a week it was a changable year for me!

    Personal

    The past few years have been pretty much the same except for the number of events I’ve been attending has steadily increased, I found myself wanting to get out more and more and felt my whole outlook on life was starting to change around September time I really started to notice this that I was thinking about a lot of things and also had a new job so was really in an odd place really, but it was around October/November things went wrong for me, I’d not had any major issues in my life and any I had were resolved after a short amount of time and even a relationship breakup I’d had didn’t seem to rule my life for long - but something happened and things really got to me in a way that had never happened before, this is the mistake I made that I’ve made numerous references to, and didn’t deal with a situation in the right way that never should have occured but it started to dominate me over the latter weeks and months of the year and was becoming more and more of a problem.

    I’d let all the things I hadn’t deal with come back to the present and started to get really lost in the situation I was in and needed some help, I’d started Tweeting and posting on Facebook which raised some concerns from people who knew me and know I’m not normally that open, even though the issue itself was never stated and was glad to have the messages of support, the problem also made me focus on myself and got even more down and depressed about things but talking about it really helped but at the end of the year I was in a really dark place, which in retrospect seems difficult to believe I’d let things get that far.

    Looking Ahead

    Even though this is a review of 2011 it seems only prudent to look ahead to this year - I’m going to be at ScreenReach full time, I’ve been able to put the problems and mistakes I’ve made behind me and now I’ve dealt with many things I’d avoided facing I feel really optimistic about this year and some of the blog posts and Facebook posts I’d done before don’t really reflect how I feel now but will keep them around as a reminder that I can’t let that happen again - I know there’s people I can depend on and I know I can resolve things a lot better.

    I’m more confident than I’ve ever been, this year so far I’ve already got out more than previous weeks and really making some big changes in my life and also realise there are things that were missing from my life that I hadn’t realised before so this year I’m hoping to change things for myself in a big way.

    The thing I think will most benefit my life is being more positive and content at the moment and spending time with others more often.

    I feel positive generally and I’m willing to put the work in and put my focus into my work and personal life this year and by having a positive experience in both I think I’ll be a lot happier.