Happy Leap Day! I think we can all agree that it’s a crime that February 29 isn’t an internationally recognized holiday, but we can still enjoy this rarest of all days. And in particular, a very happy birthday to anyone who hasn’t had one in a few years.
A lot has happened since the last Leap Day. The USA replaced its president with a human being. The UK went through Prime Ministers like they’re Sugababes, and then moved on to monarchs. Everyone became and expert on epidemiology for a bit. It’s been a whirlwind.
Plenty has changed for me since then too. I’m still in the same flat in London, which I was actually in for the previous Leap Day too — by far the longest I’ve lived anywhere since my parents’ house — but now I share it with an eight-year old, which most people will agree is different to a four-year-old.
This particular eight-year-old got to start school in the middle of a pandemic. That began a tumultuous year full of sudden changes to routines as lockdowns came and went. As he’s autistic, this wasn’t ideal. Half way through Year 1 it became very clear that his needs couldn’t be met in mainstream, so the two years since then have been a battle to get him a place in a school that works for him. Maybe by next Leap Day I’ll have good things to report on that front.
I’ve changed jobs too, but because I’m averse to change I did it within the same company. I moved from Google Search to Fitbit in 2021, and it appears to have gone well since then because they promoted me to staff engineer late last year. It’s a bit of a shame, as I was enjoying not having imposter syndrome for a while.
I turned forty last year. You might think I would have seen it coming, but it took me by surprise nonetheless. I’m still waiting to find out when I’ll start feeling like a grown-up. I’m sure that’s just around the corner. For now I’ll continue to fake it.
We also celebrated our ten year wedding anniversary last summer. We had a bottle of wine from our honeymoon set aside to open after ten years, but we forgot to open it and now it feels impossible to choose an occasion worthy of it. We might need to wait for our twenty-year anniversary.
I hope you’ve had a good four years, and that the next four are kind to you too.