It’s been a minute since I posted something new on Going The Distance. This was attributed to a few reasons which I will get into shortly below. Spoiler alert, I bought a place, got married, and got promoted. On top of those reasons, you will notice that Going The Distance has a new look. I spent a lot of time this year working on Going The Distance in the background improving the website. I am pleased with how it turned out and believe it sets me up well to primarily focus on writing in 2025 which is my true passion. I hope you notice and appreciate the change as well.
As you may have read in my article Toronto, I spent most of last year travelling to and from Toronto for work, which was a difficult but truly amazing life experience. After doing this for 10 months, it was a relief to be home again with my fiancée and see my friends and family more often. Fortunately, I joined a project immediately after returning from Toronto which kept me busy right away. This was the same project I was supposed to be on before leaving for Toronto so it was only fitting to come back and get to work on it. The opportunity this project provided makes me feel it was meant to be. I finally felt like my head was on straight being able to establish a routine again with work, more regular exercise, and easier to manage social life.
The year was busy and had a few major life events. Fortunately, I was able to squeeze in a couple of great weekend getaways, including an amazing getaway to Ucluelet on the western edge of Vancouver Island with one of my best friends, my bachelor party in Scottsdale, a few camping excursions, lake days in Penticton, and a few trips to Washington State. Amongst all this, my fiancee and I bought our first place which we love so much. We both had demanding summers with our work and there were many times I asked myself how I was going to get through it. On top of it all, we were getting married on August 31st. The wedding was everything we dreamed of it to be and was the best day of my life so far. We followed up the perfect wedding with an unforgettable honeymoon in Croatia, Hungary, and Portugal. After returning to work, I soon found out that I was promoted to Project Manager. Earning this promotion was a goal of mine for a while and represents not only my recent sacrifices but that I am capable and ready. 2024 was packed with many experiences, challenges, and milestones coming together to make it an unforgettable year.
Author
PATRICK SMYTHE
Project Manager
Civil Engineer
Motivated
Storyteller
Big Time Dreamer
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While navigating 2024 and everything it brought, I also had Going The Distance to consider. Earlier in the year when working on Going The Distance, I received the best advice regarding my website which I have been working on since. Part of the journey of Going The Distance has been learning to code and build my website from scratch. I am very proud of this. While I probably could have posted Going The Distance earlier had I gone down a different route, it is part of my journey and represents what Going The Distance is all about. In my efforts to improve my website, I struggled with a few aspects of my code. Even though I built my website from scratch, I don’t consider myself a web developer, far from it. I am more of a troubleshooter than anything. I reached a point in my code where I spent a significant amount of time diving into the code to post my articles. I spent more time coding than I did writing which is what I am truly passionate about. I decided I needed an expert’s help so I looked into Fiver and asked someone to help with a particular problem I was having with my code. This is where I received the great advice:
“Your website looks good but I think you should make it on WordPress”
For those of you who don’t know, WordPress is a Web Content Management System that helps people like myself build their websites. I looked into this before at the start of my journey but I wanted to start from scratch and challenge myself. I reached a point in my website where anything I would code would never be as good as what WordPress could offer. I take no offence to this. I simply do not know how to code well enough and would rather invest my time in writing better articles. I would like to thank Juniad from Fiver for this great advice. Shoutout Juniad. Since receiving this advice, I have been building my site again in WordPress which is where you are finding this article today. Admittedly, I have taken some time away entirely from Going The Distance. Over my years of doing as much as I can and overwhelming myself, I have learned that if you feel you are forcing yourself to do something, it’s probably best to take a break from it. Going The Distance is ultimately a passion project, and the last thing I want is to get to a place where it isn’t fun to do. While Going The Distance hasn’t appeared to be active, I have spent a lot of time planning and dreaming about what’s to come for Going The Distance.
As I was saying, now using WordPress will allow me to focus more on writing rather than focusing on the nitty-gritty of coding. I have lots of articles in mind specifically focused on the pillars of Going The Distance. I will also be starting a new, more personal branch on Going The Distance where I share more about my life through writing about my adventures and travels, journals, and even short stories. I am most excited about the latter, as I like to think I have a creative side that I’d like to show more.
So please, stay tuned for the upcoming posts as I am very excited to share with you.
