2022 - a year in review

[sidhedcv]

2022 - A YEAR IN REVIEW 

I’ve wanted to do this for a while, and February is like the best moment to do it since it’s a fucking endless month as always. It’s a yearly review, more for me than for anyone else, but yeah! Journaling isn’t really my thing, but I think sometimes it helps. We’ll see.

This year I’ve:

 

• Read 100 books: literally anything Rivers Solomon & Tillie Walden wrote, a lot of graphic novels as usual, around 20 books for work (so basically steamy straight novels, not my cup of tea, but a couple of them were actually pretty enjoyable!). A special place in my heart for Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft, The Tangleroot Palace, Moon Witch & Spider King, and the Carry On trilogy.

 

 

• Watched 50 tv series: biggest disappointment award goes to The Witcher S2 (special mention to Stranger Things S4), biggest reveal of the year goes to the absolute masterpiece that is Our Flag Means Death (special mention to Schitt’s Creek and Superstore, loved all the characters so so much). I’ve also really enjoyed House of The Dragon, which was a surprise, and the absolute mess that was Croc County.

 

 

• Watched 50 movies: BIGGEST REVEAL OF THE YEAR GOES TO BULLET TRAIN THE BEST MOVIE I’VE EVER SEEN (four times in a row) IN MY ENTIRE LIFE, Encanto & Turning Red were both amazing, The Broken Heart Gallery gets a special award because,,, well,,, uhm,,, I’m a basic bitch and Dacre Montgomery has me in a fucking chokehold. Oh, and my friends finally made me watch Star Wars! And I actually enjoyed that a lot! Biggest disappointment would probably be Spiderman: Far From Home, but that’s not a surprise.

 

 

• Played 10 games: finally got a chance to play Zelda: Breath of the Wild and it was obviously stunning and super fun, but I’ve absolutely adored Pokemon Arceus because I’m a basic bitch, again. Special mention to Journey of the Broken Circle, perfect game at the perfect time.

 

 

• Published 5 fic: finished and edited two fics for The Hobbit, and then Harringrove came back to steal my heart so,,, yeah, not complaining about this one, it’s been a while since I was that invested in a ship - I think maybe back when I was deeply invested in R76?

 

 

• Completed 7/10 goals from my 2022 goal list: I’ve reached 4k follower @ my Instagram art profile, written at least 7 fics, saved at least EUR 1k per month, completed Goodreads’ challenge, and started driving again.

 

 

Other highlights from 2022 in random order:

 

• I’ve bought three calatheas (Calathea Lancifolia, Ctenanthe Oppenheimiana, and my darling Calathea Warscewiczii) and they’re all alive and thriving! Well. Two of them are, the Oppenheimiana was killed by my uncle's pesticides. But technically, not my fault!

 

 

• Managed to meet with one of my oldest friends TWICE in a year, which is wild! The second time we hang out, he was back from India and told me so many interesting things, and I can’t wait to see him again.

 

 

• Started going to the gym and kinda started liking it? Definitely wasn’t expecting that to happen, but I’ve uncovered the secret. The secret was ditching cardio and start lifting weights. Amazing.

 

 

• Finally went back to Lavertezzo, and this time I brought (well, one of my friends drove, so technically she brought us) my friends there! And they loved it! Not all of them! But that’s a different story!

 

 

• Managed to go to the Egyptian Museum in Turin! And back to Ronzone like TWENTY TIMES IN A YEAR - well, not twenty, but five times is still a lot. I know I say this to everyone I know but fuck if I love being in the woods, best experience ever.

 

 

• Started playing D&D again, and MAN I MISSED THAT! I love the group I’ve been playing with, I think we’re a well-balanced party, it’s like 50% memes and 50% conspiracy theories and I loved that for us.

 

 

Would love to say 2022 was a perfectly good year, but I mean… nope. I’ve lost Esther in 2018, my uncle in 2019, my grandpa in 2020, 2021 was like full-on pandemic hospital scare for my dad, and 2022 decided to go ahead and take away my other grandpa.

We knew it was gonna happen, but still, it’s never easy. He spent like four months in the hospital, and we were like… waiting for it to happen, which sounds horrible but we also knew there wasn’t anything they could do for him.

Went to Sardinia with some friends and, man, was that a fucking trainwreck. It was like living in a lucid fever dream, I had to insist like every day of my five (5) unpaid vacation days to do things, otherwise, we’d stay in to do absolutely nothing. Other crazy things happened, but I think that was just the last pull in a frail relationship.

I think one of the worst things for me is that one of my closest friends (we’ve been friends for like 10 years) started being… I mean, I could put this in so many ways, but essentially they started being a dick to me (specifically) & to my other friends.

It started way back in 2021, but at first, I thought I was being too harsh as usual. The beginning of 2022 was hard for them, so I tried my best to overlook things that were said & not said to me, but it went on like every day up until the trip to Sardinia.

(Which, let me tell you, spending days of your life being actively ignored and talked over by one of your closest friends… not cool. One night I came really close to just break down crying, luckily I wasn't there alone.)

I honestly wanted to talk about everything that happened, and things that I found out they said about me or re: me to our other friends, but they basically… ghosted me & everyone else, irl and online.

I texted them once, and I wanted to do it again… and then I thought, this person is one of my closest friends and they decided whatever the fuck they were doing was more important than, idk, reaching out to me when my grandfather died? Yeah, no thank you.

(Do I still wanna talk to them about what happened? Absolutely. Will I be the one to text them a third time after the shit I’ve seen them retweet and reblog everywhere? Absolutely not.)

Oh, and the company I was working for closed and entire branch in November due to the recession! So that was fun! I’m lucky enough I basically had another job lined up, but I’m still working on finding something I like more.

 

I think 2022 showed me that there are people in your life who can be happy for your accomplishments and stay at your side when you need them without rubbing it in your face for the years to come.

2022 showed me that, sometimes, you can try once, twice, and then it’s up to the other person. And sometimes, how much you love someone isn’t enough.

Overall, not the worst year of the past five years - because nothing can top 2018 lmao. I think that’s somehow an accomplishment.