Hindsight is 2020

December 29, 2020

Let me start out by saying that I think we can all agree that 2020 was probably one of the most eventful years in recent memories. For me, it was a year that started on a high note, went to crap really fast, but made a decent recovery.

February:

I celebrated my 30th birthday. We went out and celebrated with friends. It was a great time but little did we know that this would mark one of the last times we would go out in public in this capacity. At this time I also had 2 of the 5 movements of my Symphony completed and ready to go. Arrianne also started her volunteer work with Make-A-Wish foundation.

March:

We were originally scheduled to go to the Philippines for 2 weeks but we decided against it once we started hearing how bad covid was getting overseas. I started work on movement 3 of the symphony but was struggling to find a voice and direction on how to get where I wanted to go with the work.

April:

Like many Americans, we went into lockdown. Arrianne and I were lucky to have jobs where we could continue our work from home safely. At this point I found my creativity taking a dive in quality but I continued to push on with my symphony knowing that I’ll be hearing it live in a year.

We celebrated Arrianne’s 29th birthday. This occasion was marked with some socially distanced surprise visits and some of her favorite order-in food.

May:

What was supposed to be a 2 week quarantine turned into a full on lock-down. At this point sports had stopped completely. I along with many of my fellow co-workers were laid off as a result. It was at this point I entered a depression like I’ve never experienced before. I think the combination of concerts being cancelled, several commissions suspended, and me losing my main job as a software engineer just piled up.

At this point I started my job hunt for my next adventure while Arrianne continued to work from home.

June:

More job hunting for me. At this point Arrianne was told they would probably be working from home for the remainder of the year. I was struggling to find anything because the market was saturated with tons of people with my level of experience.

July:

Arrianne and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. We took our usual picture with the previous year’s photo and added a mask this year just to mark what we were doing during that time.

This is around the time Marching Band season starts. However socially distanced rules changed the game and made things a lot harder to plan for. My drill writing became more focused on letting groups learn and rehearse in chunks without needing the other until performance time. This was a different approach but it allowed groups to continue marching band season within their own rules and guidelines for covid.

August:

After months of interviews, I finally accepted a new job at a fintech firm. This role was probably one of the longest and hardest interviews I’ve ever done. I was beyond excited to join their team and help lead their technology and software development.

At this point I had 4 out of 5 movements done for the symphony. The summer had taken a really tough toll on me creatively and this was the first time I’ve felt creative in a while.

September:

I officially started my job. I couldn’t have made it through that horrendous summer without Arrianne.

October:

I finished the symphony (rough first draft). 26-30 minutes of music. Arrianne also finished one her side projects of making 100 hats (pictured below) for homeless shelters. I couldn’t be prouder of her and her accomplishment. She was literally working on these almost every knight and was cranking out 2-3 hats a week.

November – December:

Not much happened during this time in our lives. I continued to refine and edit the symphony and Arrianne started to work on launching her own crafting brand (more on that soon).

Forward Looking and Conclusion:

I built up a ton of momentum as a composer in 2019 but 2020 kind of slowed it down. I’m starting to find my creativity again and have many things to look forward to in the future:

Major website redesign and brand overhaul launch in 2021.
Covid vaccines rolling out
Arrianne and I’s first major european trip late 2021.
The return of live music and the premiere of my first symphony by the Peabody Institute Wind Ensemble fall 2021.

While 2020 didn’t go how we planned, it taught us how to adapt and keep on moving forward. I want to thank everyone who supported both of us in 2020. We look forward to seeing everyone again in person in the future when it’s safe to do so. Until then, be safe and keep checking in with each other.