She Does Better

Emilie Burke

You are here: Home / Personal / Life Lately / 2020 Year in Review

2020 Year in Review

// Life Lately, Personal

Reading Time: 4 minutes

WHAT A YEAR. Sure, 2020 might be the year of the global pandemic, but it’s also the year Casey and I became parents. With two deployments, a job change, a move, grad school, and a new baby, 2020 was full even if it wasn’t full of travel.

Note: I’m actually publishing this on Jan 10, but backdating it to Dec 31, 2020 because I want to be able to find it again next year.

Overview

  • January: Rung in the New Year in Savannah. C deployed. Spoke at GitLab Commit SF. Hit some heavy clean and jerks.
  • February: Celebrated Marcos and Walter’s 10th anniversary in MA. Went to Boulder, CO for the e-group offsite.
  • March: PR’d my pull-ups with 8 strict pull ups. Started lockdown. Weird family zooms. Casey made the little chickens.
  • April: Made banana bread. Took vacation from work. Found out we were pregnant (April 19th).
  • May: Survived?
  • June: Turned 27. Announced our pregnancy. Casey turned 27. C deployed.
  • July: My sister visited and made me French onion soup. Celebrated Bo’s birthday.
  • August: Took a cooking class at Chef Darrin’s. C came home. Switched jobs.
  • September: Zoom baby shower. Surprised my mom with a trip to NJ.
  • October: Started grad school. Moved.
  • November: Took maternity pictures. Thanksgiving with the Larkins.
  • December: Finished my first quarter of grad school. Spoke at dbt Coalesce. HAD A BABY.

Physical

This year was a bit different on the physical front. Instead of crushing weightlifting PRs, I had a baby- with a relatively easy pregnancy, all things considered. I was hitting PRs before I got pregnant. I am reminded of my own words: Progress is not a straight line.

Now, I’m not one to suggest that one should stop working out while pregnant, as I did this year, much to my chagrin. This was more a factor of circumstances: the pandemic shut things down at the same time that I discovered I was pregnant. When things eventually reopened, I was so pregnant that I was no longer comfortable with the risk that COVID-19 posed to us.

Grade: B+

Financial

Last year, the goal was to hit a 100K net worth, and we did. We more than doubled our net worth and quintupled our liquid assets. As we plan to buy a house in the next year, we’ve stayed focus on the things that matter, without limiting ourselves too much.

One thing that I’ve come to appreciate: when I was in that first job fresh out of college, making 38K/year, I remember making $600 payments on my debt and feeling like that was SO much money. This month, though, my retirement accounts at Betterment (so retirement accounts, not including my 401K which is at another provider) earned that much in interest (and these are just mine, since retirement accounts are in individual names).

Grade: A

Professional

After an incredible time at GitLab, including winning the Transparency award, August was my last day. A year ago, I had said that my next career move was going to be as head of data at a 100 person startup, slightly frustrated with the things that come from transitioning to an enterprise. I had watched GitLab grow from 280 people to over 1300. My plan was that I’d sit tight, continue my work, have the baby (and my maternity leave) and then start seeing what the market looked like.

Almost a year before plan, though, I had an incredible opportunity to join Netlify as Head of Data, working for the most incredible VP of Engineering. And, I am so glad I did. This role is a delight. I’ve gotten the chance to build a wonderful team and I think we’ve gotten to be really impactful in my first three months.

I’m now out on maternity leave, but I feel good about the state of my team. While I’m absolutely adoring this time home, I am also excited to go back to work. I’m grateful to really get to do a special job that I do thoroughly enjoy.

Grade: A

Fave 5 Blog Posts

  1. Bun in the Oven. Fully Baked December 2020
  2. Appreciating that my body is growing a human (34 weeks)
  3. Ideal week vs actual week
  4. 27: A day of favorite food
  5. Spend time outside

Top 5 Books

  1. How the Internet Happened: From Netscape to the iPhone by Brian McCullough
  2. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
  3. Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener
  4. Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom is Wrong- and What You Really Need to Know by Emily Oster
  5. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb

Honorable Mention: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Goals

HAHAHAHAHA. What a year.

Read 34 books

I read 30 books. I lost 2 months this year to my first trimester, in which there was no energy left over for anything but survival and the last quarter of the year to the chaos that was my life, so I’m very pleased with how I did, even if I didn’t hit my goals.

Push the limits of what my body can do

While I hoped for things like a 300 lbs deadlift, I ended up hitting this in a different way because BABY.

Build a career plan

Gold. freaking. star.

Be more proactive in cultivating my friendships

Well, I was good at this in the beginning of the year, especially with C deployed at the beginning, but then pandemic and 🤷‍♀️

Say no to more things

Nah, not really good at this. I will never be good at this.

Previous Years in Review