I got married! Well, I kinda did.

I finally got to check off one of my main goals during this year's extended stay in Taiwan: to host a wedding banquet for my family, especially my grandfather.

After almost canceling the event, I can finally take a deep breath, knowing that the celebration went as well as it could have.

Mission: Accomplished!

In Chinese culture, paying respect to ancestors is a pretty big deal. In fact, we make a national holiday out of it. Every April, people in China and Taiwan celebrate Tomb Sweeping Day, a day when family members get together at the cemetery, clean up the weeds that have accumulated in the past year, and share food and drinks and paper money with the deceased.

A marriage proposal is supposed to be epic, right? Us guys get one shot to propose, and we better pull it off flawlessly if we don't want to be incessantly teased about how "you had one job!"

Well, hardly anything ever works out the way you envisioned it to. I've heard plenty of personal stories about mishaps, ruined surprises, and the most dreaded "I'll think about it" answer to a poor guy popping the big question in front of his friends.

Wow. What a year it has been. It feels like I fit a decade's worth of experiences and emotions into just one year. Here's a recap of my 2017 year in review.

I quit my finance job, gave up my apartment in Hollywood, and sold my sports car. Instead, I traveled the world with my girlfriend Joanna on the cheap, organized the Work Anywhere Summit, started teaching English online, and launched this blog.

Life will never be the same again.

Here's to 12 months worth of jubilation and frustration, ups and downs, laughter and tears.

Most importantly, here's to doing (most of) it all over again in 2018.