It’s the end of the year. I’m on vacation, celebrating time with family now, but I wanted to write this post. I got a prompt from LinkedIn last week that said this:
I’m going to add this to an editorial and see what people might write next week, but for now, a few wins from me.
Health – Given the state of the world and a pandemic, I think it’s a win that everyone in my family remained healthy in 2021.
Travel – Despite the pandemic, I got to visit a new country, Belgium, and it was an amazing trip. Looking forward to going back.
SQL Saturday – I convinced Andy Warren to run a SQL Saturday in Orlando, and it was the only in-person SQL Saturday in 2021. Easy to be disappointed there weren’t more, but happy there was one.
Volleyball – A successful season, where we persevered and found ways to keep kids occupied. My team finished ahead of where we expected, winning 8 tournaments, getting into the top 30 in 3 national tournaments, and having extremely happy kids that wanted us to coach them again.
Guitar – I felt like I improved a lot of skills here, really all through the pandemic, but as I’ve learned a few things, it was neat to hear my wife or kids recognize a song and sing along, even though I hadn’t told them what it was.
Happy New Year!
Voice of the DBA 
Your question immediately recalled a scene from the Muppets Christmas Carol, involving the Ghost of Christmas Present and Scrooge, played by Michael Caine:
Ghost of Christmas Present: “Have you ever noticed that everything seems wonderful at Christmas?”
Scrooge: “Uh, in all honesty, spirit, no.”
(Note, I am cutting the quotation short, as it involves Christmas, whereas your question involves 2021)
For me, 2021 involved significantly more losses than wins. I had more friends who passed away from COVID or COVID-related illness than in 2020. One of my coworkers is making life working with him a living hell. He re-writes the code I and other colleagues have done, removing all our hard work in favor of his code. This guy has done this more than once before. I’ve brought this to the attention of my boss and HR representative. Neither of them does anything about it so this guy can continue to make our working environment very toxic. There’s a lot more negatives about work and my career now than positives. And the positives seem more like consolation prizes, than wins. Such as in my work environment it is only this one guy who treats others with such disdain and gets away with it.
There are two things I can think of which are real wins for 2021. First, like you Steve, I’m thankful that my family is healthy. Secondly, I was able to pay off my house in 2021.
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