I am continuing my quest to try something new every week in 2026. I had no idea how much this would challenge and change me when I decided to try it last year. I just knew that I was stuck in a slump in life and I desperately needed something to change. I am now in a much better place than I was, but I’ve enjoyed doing this so much that I don’t want to stop. Here’s to a New Year of New Things!
Week 1-
This week I did a few new things, both on the same day and accompanied by my sister. She’s going to go to grad school (they grow up so fast:,)) and will be gone year round starting in September so I’m spending all the time I can with her while I have her. We started the day by going to my cousin’s hair salon where I had my first professional permanent hair dye job. Don’t get me wrong, I was pretty proud of how the blond came out when I did it myself, but there is a difference between going to sally beauty and hoping for the best and having someone competent mess with your head. She gave me this cool pearl color that I really love. It’s basically white with hints of purple, pink and silver. Close enough to a natural hair color to get away with having at work, but fun enough that I enjoy it. I also had a fun time catching up with my cousin, I don’t get to see her too often and she’s pretty cool. The youngest generation of my family is all pretty liberal and gay. It’s nice to actually be able to show your whole personality to family and not need to edit.
The second thing we did that day was go to an oddities expo. My sister and I are both into spooky -creepy stuff and the expo totally delivered. We saw all sorts of weird stuff; taxidermy, art, clothes, antiques, jewelry, witchy stuff, and so so many interesting people. I added to my ring collection and picked up a few other jewelry pieces, and my sister got some baby doll eye keychains and vertebrae hair clips. The person I got my rings from actually knew the maker of some other rings I got at a queer art market last year halfway across the county. The art world is so cool.
Creepy family time/10 will do again!
Week 2-
A triple new thing week for week two, starting the year off with a bang! Extrapolating the pattern I have currently set I will be attempting 53 new things in one week the last week of this year. Not.
Anyway, the first thing I tried was a new craft. I’ve been avoiding craft based new things because of the impending move and a desire to have to move as few things as possible, but life’s too short and I really wanted to do it so I did. I taught myself how to make chainmail with the help of good old professor youtube. I keep seeing chainmail pop up in various art markets/ren faires/ my various social media algorithms and I’ve been wanting to try it for a while. I have this (probably extremely unrealistic) goal of making a full blanket out of chainmail. I saw someone do it online and I was like oh my god, thats perfect. As those close to me can attest, I sleep like a furnace. I do not sleep well when hot. I also need a weighted blanket to sleep well. This combination of things mean that either my house has to be freezing at night or I wake up as a sweaty blob of suffering. But! If I make a chainmail blanket I get all the weight and minimal heat retention. I’d still need at least a sheet or a thinner blanket in between but it seems like a good solution. This will be a project of mammoth proportions though so it will probably be a work in progress. As of right now I’ve just made a small band. I ran out of links and had to order some more.
Ok now for thing two. Surprising no one I continue to do weird acrobatic/circus shit. This one is fun, I took a class entirely about learning to do handstands. The instructor called out so another guy at the gym subbed in, but he was still really good. The conditioning was no joke, my shoulders are dead, my core is dead, my arms are dead, my lats are dead. Basically just very dead. I did manage to hold one for a few seconds though. I’ve been working on handstands off and on for years, I feel like if I start dedicating more time to it I can get actually good. I have a goal of a 10 second hold by the end of the year so we shall see.
And finally number three. I made a 2026 goals bingo board with my roommates. They both did it last year and it seemed like a fun challenge. Not all of them are super hard/serious (refer to the aforementioned handstand) but some are. It’s a fun way to keep working towards things or actually make time to do the things you want to do. I’m really hoping I manage to black it out!
Rating- 30/10 for three things!
Week 3-
Work related new thing this time. I’m working for a team in another state for the next several months so my new thing was traveling to work in their office for a week. I have traveled for work before but it’s all been for trainings. So traveling to work on specific projects is a new one, well kind of specific. I’m working on literally 20 parks. It’s a lot. It’s been pretty good so far, just gotta wait and see if the big freeze is going to ground my flight home. Travel is always an adventure!
Rating- it’s really cold/10
Week 4-
I need to set a reminder to update this for real. Couple days late on the update but here we go week 4. I have a collection of new things that are all relatively small and occurred because of the domino effect caused by the first one. In order of appearance-
1. My flight home was overbooked and I got a call from the airline asking if I would take a later one. They offered a big ass travel credit if I did and it only meant waiting another 2 hours so I was like yeah why not. So getting a voluntary boot on a flight was a new one, and came with a free future trip bonus.
2. Now faced with much more time between the end of work and my flight, I decided to look for a coffee shop to spend time in. It was like 15 degrees (F not C) and hella windy so I was not about to be outside any longer than necessary. When I searched it the first thing that popped up was a cat cafe and come on, obviously had to go there. So I did, only to find out you had to have a reservation to see the cats, massive tragedy. The adjacent tattoo/piercing/hair salon being appointment only was also a tragedy. But one other business on this street piqued my interest. A store called Dead People’s Stuff. It was an antique store but in a way I’d never seen one, it was focused specifically on reclaiming architectural details from structures being demolished or that had fallen into ruin. They had a full workshop in the back as well to repair anything they found that was damaged but not destroyed. It was the most unique antique store I’ve ever been in. They had a homes full entryway and grand staircase ensconced in a sea of bookshelves and organs. A tower of record players flanked a pathway entirely made of doors. Floorboards and trim filled shelves, intricate chandeliers hung from all of the available ceiling surface area. It was wild and I could have spent hours inside if not for the next new thing that presented itself to me.
3. One of the people I’d been working with in Oklahoma that week invited me to join her and her friends for lunch at a new bagel place that had opened in town. She had offered back at the office to have me over or go to a coffee place but hadn’t specified where and I was nervous so my response at that time had been noncommittal with a thank you. She reached out again when I was in the antique store and the place she was going was only about 5 minutes away so I told myself to stop being chicken shit and do it. So I did. I’ve never really hung out with anyone from work outside of it, and never as spontaneously as this. As far as I’ve come with anxiety new people still trigger it for me, especially in a context where the social “rules” aren’t as clearly defined. Or where the context that I know them has shifted. Going from professional to casual is intimidating. But anyway, waffling aside, I went. And it went well! She invited a roommate, a friend and her boyfriend along as well. The food was really good (the person who found out steak and cream cheese go together on a bagel was a genius) and we had a good time just chatting as well. I got to know a bit about all of them and their friend group and it just felt really fun. It was nice to be around people instead of just hiding away by myself while I waited to leave.
Another triple week (and all in the span of like 5 hours !)/10
Also pictures of the antique store cus that was so cool. I wish I got one of the sawn off entryway but I was just too in the moment for documentation or whateva (I forgot)
Week 5-
My friend suggested making a book club late last year and it sounded pretty fun so we had our first meeting this week. Unfortunately none of us liked the book, but it was a good time just talking about it and hanging out. The book was not what was advertised on the blurb, we expected comedy/coming of age and what we got was a super doomer attempt at lit fic but the author was making a bunch of meta jokes about it being lit fic and it really just didn’t hit. It just felt very heavy handed in the delivery, like I could see the message that she was trying to get out but it just wasn’t effective. Despite the less than auspicious first book we are going to continue, hopefully this one is better. I’ve heard a lot of good things so here’s hoping!
Rating
Dewey decimal/10
Week 6-
A new one in honor of Valentines day. I took myself out to eat at a real restaurant. Not just like a grab and go fast food place. Like I’ve eaten alone before but it was always whatever was fast/convenient. Not for the purposes of specifically having a good time by myself. I had some of the lingering social awkwardness going into it, I’ll confess that I did have to walk up and down the block a time or two before going in. But once I was in and seated it turned out so incredibly well. The owner was waiting that day and she was the sweetest woman ever, you could just tell that making people food and taking care of them really was her passion. It was a dumpling restaurant and the food was really tasty as well. I was the inly person eating alone but it was no where near as awkward as I thought it would be. I was on my phone for part of it but I tried to be more present. Maybe a future first will be eating alone without the phone crutch. We shall see.
10 dumplings/10
Week 7-
Two new things this week, one as an unintentional result of the other. The first (intentional) new thing was going to a handstand class. I’ve been passively, and pretty ineffectively, trying to get better at them for years. Turns out that form is important, whoda thunk it lol. Learning the form actually helped with my balance a lot. I was doing more of a gymnastics handstand before and now I am doing regular hand balance handstands. I was able to hold one for a pretty solid amount of time with minimal spotting.
Number two happened after the handstand class. The way the gym works is that if you’ve taken a class that day you have access to it all day. So normally I stay after or come early to class or both. So I was staying late and kinda joined a bunch of people working on calisthenics skills and just hanging out. The guy that instructed the class was there too and he ended up asking if I’d ever done a handstand on a person before. I have not, but I told him I was down to try so he based me for a hand to hand and it was pretty sick. Turns out he is big into acro and the skillsets I’ve developed from all the weird aerial practices I’ve added to my practice in the last year translate really well to being a flyer. Long story short I ended up staying at the gym for another three and a half hours learning acro tricks and skills. Very fun, and for sure going to be added to the list of weird hobbies I have. There are a bunch of meetups all over the city for people in acro so I’m gonna try going to some of those.
Upside down/10
Week 8-
Carrying on the theme, I went to an acro jam session! There is an organization here that hosts the jams for free a few times a week and the guy I’ve been flying with invited me to come. I went to the little intro class they have for the first hour and got to try basing for the first time. It was super fun, a whole different experience compared to flying. I liked it a lot. Though I will say it was much easier to base a 40 pound child than it was a full grown man. I was able to do both though! After the intro session I worked on more L-base flying stuff with Fadi. I’m trying to be able to do a 360 pop, but getting enough rotation for that is a challenge. I get about three quarters before I’m back to catching height and end up making Fadi do some interesting maneuvers to avoid catching me on the side of my ribs. We were able to do a 180+360 pop though! I basically start on my back then he pops me up and I get caught on my stomach, but at the same time I also spin all the way around like a helicopter blade. First few attempts we did with a spotter then we were able to land it hands free no problem. Definitely felt very cool.
The fixation on the new skill might be showing slightly lol.
I’m having a great time though so will for sure be attending more meetups.
180+360/10
Week 9-
Huge surprise, more acro! I tried L-basing this week, and also learned some thai massage techniques that can be done from an L-base position. L-basing made me realize that I may need to work on my leg strength more than what I currently do, and also just using the push muscles instead of the pull. Figuring out the correct alignment for the whole bone stacking component is also a trial and error process. For sure made progress, but it’s such a different set of skills from flying. Still pretty awesome though. Makes me feel big and strong in the best way when a move comes out right. As a side note on the big and strong feeling, I finally hit a huge weight milestone. I don’t gain or maintain weight easily, generally the worse I’m doing mentally the harder it is. But I’ve officially gotten to the heaviest I’ve ever been. I don’t check my weight often but I’ve been making an effort over the past year or so to get stronger and healthier and gain weight. And I feel great! My energy is so much better than it used to be and I get to do cool shit with my body all the time. I love it!
Yay strong!/10
Week 10-
More acro (shocker) but also other things! The acro part was the most fun, I went to a Sunday Jam out in the park. The new part of this was that it was an outdoor event. Doing it both in public and in the elements added some challenges. It got super windy a couple hours in and we had to pause for the gusts to go through. One duo did take it as an opportunity to do a too high (2 people standing, one on the other’s shoulders) and fly a kite at the same time. It made for some good pictures! It was a fun experience, smaller than the other jams I’ve been to but still a lot of fun! Will be going more often for sure.
Thing two was less fun but it was good that I did it. I am still trying to get a divorce but it is slow going for a lot of reasons. That means I still have to file my taxes as married. In the past I’ve done them jointly with my ex because it ended up being cheaper, and I would rather just do it myself so I don’t risk him messing anything up. (foreshadowing) Well I reached out to get his w-2 info to do it again this year and he apparently just decided to file as single. So tax fraud. (Side note, if you want to be single, maybe you should fill out the fucking divorce forms) Needless to say, this freaked me out cus I have absolutely zero desire to be negatively impacted by his dumb decisions, and this one seemed like it could get real bad. So I hired a professional tax person to help me get my stuff done and filed correctly so his stuff doesn’t fall back on me. It was more expensive but worth it for the peace of mind that I won’t be impacted by his mistakes. I really need to finish the divorce.
Acro good, ex bad/10
Week 11-
Kinda silly one this week. Not like silly-silly just goofy that I’ve never done it. I got my car cleaned. It was long overdue, its been an embarrassingly long time since I cleaned it myself and it was sorely needed. Of course it is also oak pollen season so it went straight back to yellow dusty, but for a few days it was so nice. The biggest thing was the inside. It was just generally dusty and dirty from various plants, pets, and other befouling factors.
Thing two was going to a charity aerial gym event. It was fundraising for circus kids and they brought out a bunch of cool rigs to try out. I got to go on a cube and an umbrella, both are lyra variations and have some fun transferable moves. I like the cube better but the umbrella has its merits as well. Fun time!
Clean cube/10
Week 12-
Did something I’ve been procrastinating for a long time this week. I fixed my car! I’ve never done any kind of work on it myself and I knew the fix should be fairly easy. I just had to replace the ambient temp sensor and a headlight. It also helps that my (very awesome and helpful) roommate works as a mechanic and let me use some tools and helped with the tricky parts. Could not have done it without him, very cool of him to help. So like it wasn’t a total solo adventure but it was the most I’ve ever done on my car. The dealership for my kind of car near me try’s to scam me every time I have to take it in, and the car type is dumb so they are the only ones who will do some kinds of fixes so I feel pretty trapped. Being able to know how to fix my own stuff restores some of my confidence in myself in that area. I like knowing how to do things and understanding the way they work.
10/10
Week 13-
I went to a party with new people I’ve met through Acro. I didn’t know anyone going super well, we’ve talked or done some acro a few times at most. My first instinct was to say no because of that, but when I thought about why that was I realized it was just an old instinct left over from the days of my more extreme social anxiety. One of my big goals for myself is to not let fear dictate my decisions or hold me back. This was for sure a big step with that. Obvi I’m not going for it without safety in mind, I knew the organizer and the crowd that would be going generally, just didn’t have a “crutch” of someone I knew really well to hide behind, for lack of a better word.
With all the backstory out of the way- it turned out to be pretty fun! I got to know more people, did some acro, watched some social dancing and jiu jitsu, and played some group games. The acro community is pretty open and friendly here which helps a lot. Kinda have to be friendly when the typical interaction after meeting someone for the first time is to have your full body balanced on their feet at minimum. It’s a very close contact sport lol.
Overall, really good time!
10 birds/10
Week 14-
Two things again this week, one acro cus I’m obsessed and one in an entirely new category. To start with the acro one- I was able to successfully base someone in a too high! A too high is where the base is standing up fully and the flyer is standing straight on their shoulders, so no hand support on their end. The base does hold onto their calves/lower knee pit area and brace them against their head, so there is some support. I’ve flown them a few times (this is the one category of acro that I have to fight fear with, the heights are heighting) but I want to get better at basing and one of the acro people was down to let me fly her. I kept it pretty simple, we did a test run with me kneeling to get a feel for it then went to the full skill. The full starts out in a squatting position then the flyer uses your leg as a step stool to get up to the shoulders. I got to standing and we held it for a little bit and then got down. No walking or anything this time but I do want to try it!
Thing two- I got matched as a stem cell/bone marrow donor! I signed up a few years back, partly cus of a Hank Green video where he showed how easy it was and talked about how they do it now (almost never getting stabbed in a bone, now they just filter some bits out of your blood) and partly cus my grandpa had needed a donation because he is fighting cancer. The odds of matching someone are like less than 1% so I really wasn’t expecting much when I did it. I’m super excited that I have a chance to help someone though! To sign up you just swab your cheek and mail it in. The process once you get matched is more in depth, they called me and had a whole long health questionnaire to make sure I was able to donate, then they sent me up to a lab to do a bunch of blood tests. I’ll find out in about a week what the results of those are and if I move forward with the donation. All I know about the person so far is that they are 30. It feels really good to know that I can help someone.
10(feet tall)/10
Week 15-
A few things! First- I’ve been trying to transfer at my job for over a year now. Life stuff happened and I want to be closer to home and out of Texas. This week I’ve finally been able to get my trial run at the location I’m trying to transfer to! I’ll be here for two weeks working with the team and at the end of the trial we will talk next steps. After so long waiting for this to happen it feels great to finally be here!
Thing the second- I’m continuing to move forward with the stem cell donation process. I had another round of testing to make sure I’m compatible with the recipient and in a good state to donate. Shout out to my veins cus they have been troopers over the last few weeks. We are up to 22 blood tests and counting at this point wow.
Thing the third- I went on a date (!) to visit a tnr’d cat colony on a jetty. The cats were very cute and cuddly, we got big ol purrs from one notable little lady. The colony cohabitates with a gang of raccoons and at minimum one opossum. I fulfilled one of my disney princess fantasies by having a raccoon come over to me and sniff my hand (protected in a sweater in case of teeth) But so so fun! And with someone that makes me happy and knows me well enough to suggest this!
Great week!
Raccoon gang/10
Week 15-
More work related things but still good nevertheless! I’ve been interested in becoming a certified arborist for a while now, and the team I’m working with does their own tree surveys and has an arborist approve them. I got to travel to go do a tree survey and basically take the first step towards the arborist certification. Very exciting! A bit harrowing at times, there was a german shepard that started coming at me and my coworker as soon as we got on site, no collar and fully just free. It was coming pretty fast and we were both gearing up to run for our lives, but when it got close it just did big old puppy eyes and sat asking to be pet. She then proceeded to be our little protector for the rest of the day. Which we were especially grateful for when another free roaming german came up and was trying to get up close. Our friend kept him away. Very happy no dog bites or fights occurred.
10 caliper inches/10
Week 16-
I went to an aerial yoga class. I’ve taken sling/ hammock classes in abundance, but never the yoga version. It was at this really cool outdoor space with a whole garden and pretty decor all around. Very vibey. The rig was different to what I was used to as well, it was a two point so more static. It ended up being a good class, the people and teacher were nice and the movements were good stretches and exercises. Will go again!
10/10
Week 17-
New one this week, some of my acro friends invited me to go to an adult skate night at our local roller rink. Despite my skates living in my car 24/7, I have not been skating all that often. Maybe every few months or so and not with people just by myself. I had a really great time at the skate night! It was also nice that it was adult only, a vast majority of the people there knew what they were doing so there were very few falls and collisions. The exception being figure 8 skate time, but that’s fun because of the risk. It’s every tuesday and a lot of acro people go every week, so I’ll for sure be adding it to my weekly habits until I move.
My other new thing is that I officially signed my transfer agreement! Ya boy is finally leaving Texas! Bittersweet because I’ll miss the people and the amazing community I’ve found here in the last year or so. But overall I think it is for the best for sure. I know I’ll be able to make new friends and find a place wherever I am. And I can always come back and visit.
Week 18!
A few again! I went to my sister’s college graduation (so proud of her!) She starts in on her doctorate(!!!) later this year. Very fun, I love that I got to go out and support her. My 89 year old great grandma was able to come too and oh boy, that campus is not accessible. Like yes we had ramp access technically. But it was also not possible to park close and we walked her over a quarter mile up a decently steep hill. She is such a trooper and made it though!
Thing two! I got my first apartment on my own! I’ve lived alone before (not by choice, the divorce debacle lore goes crazy) but that was a place picked and rented with another person. This time it’s solo. My parents were really pushing me to let them help me pay for a place, but I needed to do it myself just to be able to be comfortable and feel like it was mine. I know it may seem silly but I need that independence and self sufficiency to prove to myself that I can do this.
And last but not least, I got given flowers (by someone who is not my parents) for the first time. Not self initiated but it made me really happy and it was a first so I’m including it. I make the rules do no one can stop me! Top tier bouquet selection too, very pretty, very happy, very excited ahhh!
100/10
Week 19-
Hella delayed on this one for moving reasons. My brain is scattered on the floor of my apartment along with every other one of my belongings.
My new thing last week was starting to say goodbye to Austin. I’ve lived there for over three years but it really took until this last year for me to really find my people and my place. I found great communities and great friends, and I will miss them dearly. Of course this all happened just in time for me to leave, but I don’t regret any of it. Even if putting down more ties to it makes leaving hurt more. I am fully a different person than I was when I came, and the change has been unequivocally for the better. I started going to the places and seeing people for the last time as a resident. I fully plan to visit often, but it will be different to go places and see people as a visitor rather than as an inhabitant. So many big feelings this week. But I know starting over in a new place will be a good thing, and I can find community here too.
Not really sure/10
Week 20-
Massive tonal shift on this one. This week I learned how to play magic the gathering! One of my partners friend is really into it and he invited a couple of their friend group people to learn and the invite got extended to me as well. He had a bunch of starter decks that he set all the newbies up on. Major props to him cus he was basically playing three games at once teaching us all at the same time. Explaining the rules in the beginning was pretty hard to grasp but once we got into actually playing it made a whole lot more sense. We started with a four person game then went down to one on one cus that was gonna take forever. I ended up winning my game and I had a really good time, bonus that now I have more board game friends!
10attack/10 defense
Lol
