A Year in Review

It’s the last day of December. It’s the freaking last day of December.

I am very out of words right now; probably for the next few days will still be so. A new year will roll around tomorrow, bringing with it a bunch of tributes for the passing year while springing anticipation for the renewed. Did your 2021 look good if you took the lens of a stranger? Or at least, did it turn out to be in line with your expectation? Good for you if it did, but if by any chance the opposite happened, worry not, for you have a whole new year to alter however you want.

Since I decided to blog more regularly last year, it has become a habit for me to pinpoint the things I consider too valuable to be forgotten. The routine allows me to point them easily, lingering around each photo and writing I once arranged to honor the moment. It's certainly nice to be able to look back and think, "I really felt that back then," with proof of your compassion hanging around your blog waiting for a simple click. It's even nicer to laugh and wonder, "Why on earth did I actually feel that?" over something seemingly dreadful back then but was actually quite insignificant.

My 2021, to put it simply, felt like a lucid dream in which I'm not very sure has really happened. It was like a quick slideshow of my camera roll: vivid, but faraway. Real, wild, but also dreamy. Let me take you on a trip down memory lane. 2021 began with the perfect January weather: windy and slow with some Christmas vibes left over. It was not long until it all went away, however. The stress of finishing my undergraduate thesis had led to so many sleepless nights, but I managed. A few days after my birthday, I got my degree, tried to find a new job, and finally got accepted into one at the end of March.

Needless to say, April started out a little gloomy. The thought of leaving my old job saddened me to no end, but on the other hand, I was really looking forward to the next chapter of my life: the second real job that I knew I would learn much more from. The rest of my 2021 was mostly colored with it, and dare I say, the experience grew more nuanced as time flew.

How I spent this year's New Year's Eve: having lunch with a friend followed by a short afternoon walking

Now that you know my schedule was quite packed for almost the whole year, it's understandable that the shows I had the opportunity to watch and finish reduced in number. I managed to finish all seasons of How I Met Your Mother (quite loved it except for the obviously disappointing ending), Squid Game (totally worth the hype), and Modern Family (loved it so so so much!). It was also a satisfying year reading-wise: I devoured 60 books in total with Pride & Prejudice and Emma by Jane Austen, House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas, The Cruel Prince by Holly Black, Fable by Adrienne Young, Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, and Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella as the most memorable that have officially become some new favorites of mine.

You can find some of them featured in my bookstagram account which I have been neglecting a little bit too much this year. Social media hasn't been a priority lately, and I'm getting better at not wanting to bother myself with its existence after those long working days. I've learned that what matters the most is not how we present ourselves for the world to see, anyway. Keeping things even more private feels better to me now than ever.

My bookstagram best nine

January 2022 will come in less than two hours, and I'm happy to close this phase of my life with what and whom I love the most: writing and my family. I may not be one who frets about new year resolutions and the struggle of turning them into fruition, but right now I sincerely hope that I can be a better person. I hope I can stop overthinking and worrying, either in work or personal life, and take things one step at a time.