Welcome to the sixth edition of my year in review. (See 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020 and 2019 for previous editions.)
2024 was a year of two beautiful babies born to two of my best friends: congratulations to their proud, wonderful parents, Robin and Mark and Véro and Geoff ♥️
It was also the year I became an American citizen, my two younger siblings graduated from law school, I rounded out the first decade of my career as a software engineer and O turned 3. We also discovered apartment swapping this year: we did two, one with M in Montreal and the other with a family of Js from Berlin, two big highlights.
Let's start at the beginning.
See you never, USCIS
I came to the U.S. from Canada on a three year dual intent work visa, an L1-B, in early 2017. I was working at a Canadian startup with a New York office and quite literally hit the ground running: I remember dashing out to pick up my new social security card emblazoned with the words VALID FOR WORK ONLY WITH DHS AUTHORIZATION followed by a new SIM card in Chinatown on one of my first mornings.
In my first few weeks I attended a University of Toronto alumni event at a hotel by Central Park. I don't know what I was expecting: it was a ballroom full of Canadians drinking cocktails discussing which visas they were on.
I lived in Williamsburg in a fourth floor walk-up with a roommate I found on Craigslist (shout out to Milo 💖) and worked in SoHo. It feels silly in retrospect, but I was actually surprised at how much I loved living in New York, pretty much immediately.
When I raised my hand for this opportunity, I wasn't thinking long-term: it seemed like a new and interesting challenge, one that would be fun. But once I arrived, I realized the three year clock on my visa was already ticking. I had to start lobbying my employer to sponsor my green card application if I had any interest in buying myself more time. I also met Carla soon after arriving and didn't want this new and clearly very special relationship cut short.
Thus began one of the most challenging periods of my life as I embarked on the journey from nonresident alien to lawful permanent resident, and finally citizen in February of this year.
There's a lot more to say here and maybe I'll write about it in greater detail one day. But seeing the life and career I was building dangling by a thread as I navigated a mind-bogglingly slow and artificial process, without job portability, while working at a faltering startup, all during a virulently anti-immigrant administration—not to mention the early pandemic—was so stressful it's hard to describe.
For four years, I obsessively read immigration forums and shared application timelines with fellow travelers through the broken system that is the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I felt totally powerless and dealt with depression and anxiety for the first time.
The people I found it easiest to talk to during this period were my grandparents, three of whom I'm very fortune to still be able to call. Speaking with them gave me comfort: they had immigrated to Canada from Italy in the 1950s with other close relatives ending up in the U.S., and they knew about the travel restrictions and missed life events that were part and parcel of this experience.
I'm happy I—a Canadian with a degree, though crucially not one relevant to the field I wound up in—can finally put down my bags, but so many people are stuck with far longer waits or without any path to legal status. The scale of human suffering caused by this system is mind numbing. It urgently needs to change.
The last thing I'll add, in case it helps someone in the future, is how critical it is to consult a lawyer. But this is important: NOT the one your employer hires to work on your application. That is the company's lawyer. The best advice I received was from attorney Jonathan Langer; if you're ever in need of a U.S. immigration consult, I can't recommend him highly enough.
Anyways, I'm American now. 🇺🇸 This is the place I call home, where I've started a family and plan to stay for the rest of my life—it still feels surreal to write those words.
Lawyered up
Speaking of lawyers: in May my younger siblings Martina and Luca graduated from University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall law schools respectively. So naturally I made them into bobbleheads.
Carla, O and I got to visit Toronto to celebrate with everyone—it was such a joyous time.
I assumed I'd be going to their grad ceremonies, but my brother informed me that tickets were in limited supply, the ones he had were set aside for our parents and grandparents and his personal ethics prevented him from participating in the underground economy that had emerged.
I thought he was joking. He was not. So I accepted my fate and hung around in pajamas watching everyone get ready...
Well, those who know the Bellisarios know that math is not our strong suit. Lo and behold, Luca had counted wrong! I had a ticket after all!! And about ten minutes to get ready.
I remembered my camera and snapped some photos like this one of our 96 year old grandfather, Aldo, beaming with pride:
From Montreal to Berlin
In June, we went to Montreal to celebrate Carla's birthday. It was our first apartment swap with a stranger (!): we stayed at M's apartment in Little Italy and had a ball. We went to Jean Talon market, the wading pool and playgrounds in Jarry Park, Iconoglace (run don't walk, ice cream fans), did a 40km bike ride around the south-west part of the island with a rented trailer for O and ended Carla's birthday at JazzFest for the second year in a row. We remain enamored with Montreal and want to do a winter family visit next.
In August, we celebrated O's 3rd birthday on the plane to Berlin, concluding about a week of parties with friends and family in New York. He's such a thoughtful, loving kid, and getting sillier by the day.
~Eight months earlier, we joined a home exchange group on Facebook and began searching for a match for a week in August when we had no childcare. We happened upon a family from Berlin that was planning a big American vacation and our dates lined up!
As hosts, we loved seeing this family enjoy our immediate neighborhood and explore the city over the course of ten days, and left out plenty of games and sports stuff for their kids.
Not paying for lodging can also unlock new experiences: my parents decided to drop in for part of the trip because we had space for them to stay. Some highlights included a visit to Neuremberg to see the DB Train Museum and the Playmobil FunPark at Zirndorf, and the German Museum of Technology (below) in Berlin.
We also got to spend time with Carla's friend and former roommate, F, and her lovely family 💕 Many thanks to the J name family and my colleague Lenz for all the recommendations.
Thanks for the good times, Apollo
This past Friday was my last day at Apollo. I want to thank my colleagues who made the last 2.5 years as special as they were: Jeff, Hugh, Jerel, Lenz and Ben especially, and my wider Clients Team family including Martin, Benoit, Calvin, Anthony and Zach.
It was nothing short of a dream job: I got to do open source work full-time with some of the brightest, most thoughtful engineers and managers in the business and travel around speaking about what we were building. I gave eight talks in two years (ok, with some recycled material 😅) at some of the biggest React and GraphQL conferences around the globe. My face was in the (in)famous React Conf 2024 grid:
It has been such a pleasure working with everyone at Apollo and the wider open source communities I've spent time with, and I've learned so many things from this experience I'll carry forward in my career. The future is incredibly bright for Apollo and the GraphQL community writ large.
Tudum
One last bit of news: today is my first day as a Senior Software Engineer at Netflix! I'll be working on the XD Design Engineering team building the Design Platform API with some incredible colleagues, and I couldn't be more excited about it.
Quarter century complete
I'll end on a note of gratitude and anticipation: there are some very exciting things on the horizon in 2025... We're so grateful for the past 12 months we've shared, and for everyone who made them special.
From our family to yours, we hope you have a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year. ♥️