#yearly reflection

[wecandoit]

2025: The year I made it happen

2025 was a big year for me academically and professionally. I...

got into my university's Honours program for the last year of my psychology degree

kept working up to three days at my part-time hospital job

coordinated social group and provided mentoring in the university's autism support program

took on an extra volunteering at my hospital's psychology clinic to boost my resume

continued studying full-time attending classes and lectures throughout the week

submitted 49 master applications at 26 universities each with unique personal statements and cover letters

finished my first ever dissertation and completed my first degree

completed 13 masters interviews and got nine offers (fun fact, I did an interview at 5AM the day these photos were taken)

But what made the year even more memorable was the other stuff I did. The 'living' side of it. I...

started making time to catch up with friends without asking my family first

entered my first ever relationship and fell in love

took initiative to create teams of friends for weekly social beach volleyball team for the first half of the year

pushed my unreasonable curfews to actually attend the volleyball games

decided to resign from a long-term position to work somewhere that aligned with my interests

planned and convinced my parents to let me go on an overseas trip with my lifelong best friend

had the most life-changing time travelling in the UK during winter

accepted an offer that will finally allow me to move away from home and, terrifyingly, to a place where I don't know a single soul.

[pinkxindicta]

2025 Reflection

I had 2 years in 1. The front half was mediocre, disappointing and exhausting. The back half has been wonderful ✨

This year was one of change. A year where things just clicked into place: I've figured out how to manage my depression. I now know where I am lacking in my personality in order to reach my goals. I'm working on not only my personality but my boundaries and communication style. I've found a job I like and can see myself committed to for the next few years. I've become much more strict about protecting my work/life balance. I've found where my values lie and how I wish to express them to the world. I am ONE piece of equipment away from finishing my home gym 💞 I'm so excited.

2025 revealed so many of my faults while lighting a path to correct these faults: I didn't read many published books in 2025 because I like real life diaries and horror books written by women only. 2026 I will make an effort to find these books. (I did however read a lot of short horror stories.) I need to work on my communication and public speaking skills. I need to work hard on figuring out my boundaries and assertiveness. I need to work on my day to day rituals to create a beautiful life. I need to work on my charm and interpersonal skills.

2025 was an interesting mix that created a year of unintentional practice, which has become the perfect base for an amazing 2026.

A massive thank you to my beautiful mutuals @empressarchives & @keptandkind for making this last stretch of the year beautiful!!!

∧,,,∧ (  ̳• · • ̳) /    づ♡ Hugs and Kisses

[iaathcomic]

original can be found here!

[heatherannchristie]

I did the whole 10Q questions at once because I completely forgot about it. It's the first year since I started doing it more than a decade ago that happened. I haven't done the amount of reflection and planning I have in past years.

[crimson-kas]

My yearly reflection for 2023 ended up being on the last page of this Hobonichi Weeks Memo notebook. What a satisfying way to end a notebook!

[fucking-zawa-sensei]

2023 is almost here and we are all posting sappy little emotional year recaps and goals for next year and let's be real it all feels good until you forget about those goals halfway through the year because 365 days just isn't long enough and there is far too much to do. Every year is always a mixed bag of events, some planned and some not, some good and some not, but every year we change in ways we planned and ways we did not.

All this to say, I didn't quite do as much as I'd hope for this past year in terms of growth in my writing or my person, but I did make huge leaps in other ways. I did things I never thought I'd be brave enough to do (hello, parasailing) and met people I hope will be in my life for a very long time, and learned to see the world a little differently.

I'm not making any promises, but I do hope next year will be the one where I stay focused and not just update Riptide, but complete it. I hope I start working on my personal writing projects as well. I hope I start painting again. I hope I can make time for going to the gym, for filling my life with love, for getting closer to creating something that will outlive me. I hope this year makes me laugh harder than ever before, and I hope it's the one I look back on and finally feel satisfied with, finally feel accomplished in. I hope it's the one where I can say "I did it," whatever "it" ends up being.

If you read this far, thank you! This was more for me than you, and I appreciate you sticking it out with me. I really hope to write so much more and share everything tumbling around in my head with you.

Stay tuned, I'm not done yet.

[ukulela]

Reflection on 2020

If I had to succinctly define 2020, I would say it was a year of EXTREMES. I’ve felt immense joy and deep sorrow. It was one of the best years of my life and one of the worst. Moving (twice), the beginning and ending of relationships and friendships, my first job as a counselor out of grad school, deaths of beloved pets, and of course all of this in the midst of a pandemic. As I see everyone else’s posts about 2020, I don’t feel alone. This has been a rough year for us in so many ways despite the pandemic and I know there are many who have had things so much worse. I am grateful for being able to maintain my job and for my loved ones and I staying relatively healthy.

I have asked many times through my tears why does it all have to happen at once? I know there are lessons learned but can’t I just have a break please? Does it really have to be this hard? This painful? I don’t know how many times I’ve begged for peace and stability. I don’t know how many times I questioned my abilities as a counselor because how am I supposed to help others through this mess when I feel like I am barely scraping by? Through all of the difficulty however, I see the strength, the light, and the love and support of others. Without all the darkness I don’t know if the light would have shown so strongly.

I’ve learned the importance of community, of boundaries, and of looking out for myself before anyone else. I’ve learned the importance of balance, of stability, and of treasuring the seemingly small things like hugs, concerts, and gathering with loved ones.

Knowing things won’t automatically change because we switch out our calendars is unfortunate. I wish it worked that way. But in a way, it gives us the freedom of autonomy because it puts us in control. We make the change. Change does not always depend on how many times the sun sets or how many days we cross off our calendar. Change comes from the heart, from a shift in perspective, from making the decision to move forward and play, love, and give despite extraneous circumstances.

This is what 2020 has taught me and from looking around I see many others feel the same. We can choose to look back on 2020 and say “well that was one shitshow of a year…” or we can look back and say that was a year of growth. That was the year I learned the importance of so many things I once took for granted.

[thatguydrawstuf]

Only one thing I uploaded in July, CHRIST!

In terms of output and keeping myself drawing on a consistently regular (if not daily) basis I’d say 2017 was an overall worse year for me than 2016. I thought that once I graduated College I’d be able to hit a stride but hunting and getting a job as well as getting into persona games basically shot a lot of my art productivity in the foot. There were a lot of things that I had wanted to draw and I really wanted to seriously try making more bigger art pieces than ‘character-posing-in-the-void ™ ‘ but most of those plans still remain as drafts in my files. If there’s one thing I want to for sure focus on improving it’s on how much I’m able to consistently draw.

Terrible as I make that all sound for myself, I am glad that I’m finally getting over my phobia of getting color wrong so that I can at least try to experiment with it and I’m feeling a lot more comfortable with working my tablet, almost to the point that I rarely think of an inked picture as a finished one anymore. It was also good for me to practice shading without having to worry about ruining any picture that I may have spent a long amount of hours on. There are also a few other art related things I got to try out during the year but I’l leave it at that til it actually becomes shareable.

Not a great year but not as terrible as I may have initially thought.