Every year, I do a year in review, with highlights and lowlights and a summary so this is my year in review for 2024.
Highlights
-Got married this year! In Gyeongju, Korea
-Went on two different honeymoon trips – one to Hawaii, USA and another to Tokyo, Japan
-My parents got to visit Seoul, Korea to see me and my wife
-Became closer to some of my Vancouver friends, invited to lots of house parties (yay!)
-Had a good end of year family gathering with everyone together
Lowlights
-Marriage is difficult, especially when I was still long distance with my wife. The times when we were apart we argued alot due to misunderstandings and not being to be as close through text and calls. She also called me at bad times mostly when I was hanging out with my friends. I went back to Korea 3 times to visit her, but each time was also difficult and she was a very different person from me who had very different habits so it was hard to get used to, and we had a lot of heated arguments living together as well. Many times I thought about breaking up or divorce. It was not an easy relationship or marriage. The actual wedding itself was also botched and neither of us liked how it went because it was not directed properly and there was no rehearsal.
-Planning for a baby is difficult. My wife is older than me by 2.5 years and she is in her late 30s which makes having a baby and getting pregnant that much more difficult, and I always felt time pressure because of it. We had lots of arguments because she felt I was rushing to have a baby. We argued over doing IVF and IUI and ultimately I decided to just accept things the way they are and its up to her. I have to get used to the very real possibility that I might not be able to have a healthy kid with her, and maybe that’s ok. But it was stressful to think about this.
-More financial woes. I lost $2400 from a Canada Post screwup last year because the driver lost my expensive luxury watch package. A buyer wanted to send back a Samsung Galaxy Fold phone (worth $700) because of a tiny issue and I didn’t respond in time because I was on my honeymoon and eBay forced me to refund him without him sending me back the phone. I lost an additional $1000 because an amplifier broke from shipping, and an additional $1200 because of a turntable that broke during shipping. Buying and selling items has really taken a financial toll on me.
Summary
Overall a very up/down year. For all the joys of being married to someone, I experienced maybe even more depression and stress from being married as well. I guess I had rushed into this marriage and didn’t think properly before committing and wasn’t fully prepared for it, so when it came time to live with someone else I wasn’t fully ready. All my habits had to be changed. My eating habits had to change to be more healthy. My cleaning habits had to change because I was too messy. My spending habits had to change because I bought too much unnecessary items. I wasn’t paying down enough of my mortgage so that had to be paid down too. Living with someone else was difficult – I had lived alone for most of my life so it took some time to adjust. I had a lot of hobbies and I had reduce some of my hobbies and that was difficult too. I also wasn’t used to showing emotion and I had to figure out the best way to make my wife happy and that wasn’t easy. Then there was the pressure of having a baby which also made me very stressed as well. Then on top of all this is the PR application and supporting her when she moves to Canada which also adds to the stress.
In addition to that I had suffered alot of financial issues this year, as I did last year, with Canada Post not reimbursing or not compensating me despite the fact that I had bought insurance and they had damaged a lot of my shipped packages. They always had these exceptions which made it hard for me to claim insurance so I ended up eating a lot of the losses.
On the bright side, I’m happy my parents finally got to visit Korea and I’m happy that I got to travel a lot and go on 2 honeymoon trips together. During COVID many couples didn’t even get to go on a single trip, so the fact that we went on 2 made me feel lucky in that aspect. In addition many of my Vancouver friends seem to accept me and invite me to a lot of their home parties which is nice too so I had a lot of fun with them (despite me being gone half the year going back and forth between Korea).
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