2023 — a year in review
A few years ago I wrote a medium article reflecting on 2020 when I quit corporate life to start a company. Now that 2023 has come to a close, I figured it’d be a great time to reflect on the year and write some thoughts.
2023 has been a whirlwind personally and professionally. I turned 32, my hairline is receding, I grew a beard (kind-of), and welcomed a son into the world.
Louis Andrew Sutton is now 2 months old, ~13lbs and healthy. His name is special to us — Louis is named after my grandma Mary Lou who I was very close with growing up. And Andrew is after Kristie’s brother and my dad. It’s been a crazy couple of months with two kids under two — but we’re happy that we’ve made it through the 2–3 hour sleep windows and now he’s giving us 4–5 hours at night and smiling, which makes it all worth it. Some say that when it comes to kids 1 + 1 = 3 and others say 1 + 1 = 11; all I can say is that they are right.
Lana turned two on New Year Eve, and I’m having a lot of fun with her at this age. We threw her a birthday party with a petting zoo, and she had a blast with her friends and neighbors. Lana started daycare this summer at a Korean school, and it’s amazing to hear her speak Korean to Grace (Kristie’s mom) and Kristie, but know to speak English with me.
Since we bought our house in 2021 it’s been under construction, finally this past year we’ve made a lot of progress. The ADU and garage office was completed this summer and my mother-in-law moved in. Not only does this free up space in our house (with my office and mother-in-law moving out), but it keeps everybody in a close proximity which is super convenient. To hear Lana say “halmeoni chibicaga” and walk the 30ft to knock on her door is amazing. Having two kids with two parents invested in their careers is nearly impossible without help, and having Grace right there is the glue that makes this life possible.
As for my golf game, my handicap is lower than the last article I wrote. One of my hobby projects this past year was building a golf simulator in my garage office, which has helped with consistency just getting a few extra swings in. Still a ways to go to improve on putting and iron accuracy, but I have a lifetime to get better and hope I get plenty of practice at CordeValle.
It’s been 18 months since Elevate / Summit Advisory Team was acquired by Easypost and up until recently we have primarily operated as a separate entity entirely. For Elevate, this last year we focused on building our partnership with Google and Manhattan, going live with multiple customers ontop of Manhattan’s Active offerings and completely rebuilt our architecture so that the data lives within a customer owned Google Cloud project. Just recently we went live with our Warehouse Ops and OmniChannel Ops offerings in the Google Marketplace, and I’m excited to see how we can help more customers with this solution next year. Elevate is being rebranded as EasyPost Analytics and my team and I are moving into the EasyPost Engineering org.
As life gets more busy, my personal health always tends to take a backseat. However this past year I have been fairly consistent staying active. I made a pledge a couple years back to only walk while playing golf, and honestly that has been one of my better decisions. Not only is it a great workout every week, but it also enriches my experience giving me more time to think about my shot or use that time to reflect on everything going on in life.
And finally just a special shout out to my wife Kristie. Having kids has definitely moved our relationship into the next “stage”, and I see that a lot of couples struggle post-kids. Neither of us have time for everything, or have as much time for ourselves as we once did. Kristie not only has excelled the past few years transitioning from residency into private practice, but also has been a great mom and partner to me in life. I appreciate it more than she realizes that she’s smarter than me and always is a step ahead.
Data Comparison 2020 vs 2023:
Final 2024 thoughts:
- I’m really enjoying dad-life and looking forward to more experiences with my family next year. Reflecting on the growth of Lana just in this past year is insane, and I just want to slow down and appreciate it.
- Now that I’m apart of the EasyPost Engineering team, I’m looking forward to integrating and contributing to the overall growth of the organization. We’re on the IPO path, which will be an exciting thing to be apart of.
- For my mental and physical health, I hope to be able to continue to golf 1x per week. Early AM solo walking rounds have recently become my new favorite thing, because I can play fast and be home without missing much. I don’t have any goals to get better right now, 80s golf is fun to me and honestly I just enjoy being out at a beautiful place and walking.
- I really would like to hike more as a family next year. Kristie and I used to hike a lot just the two of us + Hamilton (our dog), but havn’t really found that groove with kids. We have a carrier for both Lana and Louis now, hope to use it more in 2024.
