It adds up

It’s Thanksgiving 2024 🦃, and I am so thankful.

Last year around this time, I launched the first few versions of dotenvx.

I remember we said goodbye to family - after a wonderful Thanksgiving meal - and headed on a road trip to Arizona to visit my long time friend, Will VanOosting.

We’ve been friends since kids - playing pony league baseball. As teenagers we used to go to the Temecula mall, get girls numbers, and then invite them to the pool hall later. Will cleaned up. He was a real lady’s man!

As we grew older, he pursued a life of adventure, trucking across the country, and I pursued a creative life, making software at startups. We always stayed in touch.

Anyways, we left Thanksgiving and headed toward Kingman, Arizona. But before visiting Will and his family, we headed further to catch an old train for the Grand Canyon.

I remember it was cold, and we got ‘robbed’ on the train by cowboys on horses. It was a real adventure for the kids. For their souvenirs they each chose a stuffed animal. Those two little stuffed animals have become like part of the family - joining us on so many trips. ‘Bambi’ the dear - Sophia’s choice. And ‘Frost’ the wolf - Charlie’s.

We returned from the Grand Canyon and spent the next day hanging out with Will’s family. It was great to catch up. His parents were also in town, and I hadn’t seen them in probably a decade. Somehow we all ended up at a pool hall at the end of the day.

Good memories, that trip.

What I don’t remember is late nights and early mornings writing code. Yet, dotenvx’s git history says I did.

That was over 130,000 lines of code ago.

Over 130,000 lines of code.

Incredible.

Probably that part was hard. Because as you know it’s tough carving out an hour here, 30 minutes there, to pursue a dream.

But it adds up.

And as I reflect back on the last year, I am thankful for that hard work and enormously thankful for the many people who chose to take a chance on dotenvx, and now, use it daily. Thank you so much. 🙏

But most of all, I’m thankful for family, friends, and the memories we’ve had together. It is cherished like gold.

Happy Thanksgiving all! 🦃