2010 In Review

Just pretend he's looking back on the last couple of years.

With 2010 now happily behind us, we're all looking forward towards an awesome future in 2011. Over the past two years I've managed to accomplish quite a few things, and I'm going to list them for your enjoyment.

In 2009...

I completed language school


I didn't foresee it actually happening, but somehow I managed to pull myself together and actually pass the final test. As if learning Arabic wasn't hard enough, there was also all the extra Army stuff I had to deal with.


I obtained my AA degree

Another thing I wasn't exactly expecting. Through a combination of passing the final test of language school, getting good enough grades throughout my time there, CLEPing out of several subjects, and having taken AP courses in high school, I managed to scrape enough credits together to get an AA degree. I know it's not much, but geez, I can't believe I actually have a degree.


I completed advanced individual training

And I thought the language stuff was hard. AIT was like language training on steroids. Couple that with the fact that the Army stuff stepped up considerably and you've got a recipe for failure. Somehow I managed to pull together and pass the course.


Then in 2010...

I deployed to Afghanistan

Talk about rough. I didn't really like the Army before, but this pretty much cemented my feelings. It wasn't all bad though, I get a little bit of extra money which will help me on my way towards financial independence.

I actually went on missions

Man, as if sitting on a FOB wasn't bad enough, I started actually leaving it. This job is definitely not for me.

My net worth hit ~$80,000

In the grand scheme of things, that's not much, but I'm definitely on track.

And now in 2011...

I have to get a place to live

So I'm scouring Craigslist and the rest of the internet looking for apartments on the cheap. It doesn't do me much good to get back from deployment only to blow my savings on an expensive place.

I have to get a phone

I'm thinking of getting a pay-as-you-go cell phone, since I don't make a lot of calls but so people can call me if they need to. I'll have to look into the details once I'm back in the states.

My net worth should hit ~$100k

But it would be awesome if I could do better than that. Hopefully by keeping expenses low I'll be able to do so.

And that wraps it up for my year(s) in review.