Despite the abrupt chaos the world has found itself in, 2022 has been a relatively good year for me personally. I’m starting to settle into life post graduation and found a good pace for a lifestyle that suits me well. There were many specific events that made 2022 an impressionable year, but I think my overall personal growth is what makes this such a memorable year.
Recap
The first few months of the year were kind of a blur, I injured my knee skiing so I was basically stuck at home for a month. Then, my sister got covid so I was stuck at home for even longer. The few weeks after that weren’t super eventful either, mostly just eat, sleep, work and repeat. I did end up making a video of some of the fun small things that happened though, this is my youtuber era.
I ended up travelling quite a bit this year - starting off with a vacation to L.A. for the Twice concert. This marks my first official vacation at my first job out of school; It wasn’t a super well planned trip (sorry Amber), but I had a lot of fun there and made a lot of memories that I will definitely cherish forever :)
Summer was very eventful with small trips and events, we did a bunch of hiking and beach trips and what not. I was running a lot and also started swimming as well, though combined with the drinking I did the overall health benefits and detriments probably were evened out… Overall, there were not super many big events that happened, but I loved every part of it, especially getting to spend time with my mum <3
After that, I had a quick Toronto trip to see some old friends, and then took another super long vacation to New York City to see ITZY as well as Mayday (Lots of concerts this year :D). That trip was definitely a highlight of the year, I got to experience a completely new city for the first time, which is an experience I haven’t had in a really long time. The city itself was amazing, and although we got to explore a lot of it in the 30 days that we were there, it definitely feels like there’s so of the city that we still haven’t seen; New York is certainly a city I’d like to visit again!
To end off the year, I went back to Taiwan for the first time in three years! (I had a lot of vacation days saved up) It was amazing to see my parents and extended family again, and I’m hoping to return more often since covid seems to not be as serious anymore. This year end trip was a much needed break, and getting to eat a bunch of good food was just the icing on the cake~
Personal growth
This was a year with many great personal achievements in a lot of different aspects of my life. One huge improvement I saw was in my running - I ran not only my first marathon this year but completed two marathons! I also ran the 10k elf run towards the end of the year and got 59th place overall. Honestly, my training wasn’t super consistent and I definitely took a lot of breaks, but I’m super proud of participating and completing the races that I did this year and I’m looking forward to running many more in the future.
I also finally started reading again, mostly thanks to the extra time I spend commuting to the office when I go in to work. I finished the farseer trilogy this year, and have started another series by Robin Hobbs. On top of the fantasy books I like to read, I’ve started reading some more technical books as well; More specifically, I’ve started to read the classic dragon book on compilers this year. It’s a bit of a tough read and I’ve been struggling through a lot of it, I think I’m also reading it in a wrong way (front to back is definitely not the way to go). However, it’s a good stepping stone and I hope it will help me figure out how to get through these types of books more efficiently in the future!
The most important growth to me this year is the new friends I’ve made, both at work and outside of work. It can be weird for some people to become good friends with people you work with, but I think it helps me enjoy my work a lot more this way. That’s not to say I just slack off and have a bunch of fun at work now (although I totatlly do), but it’s definitely nice to actually look forward to going to work instead of just seeing it as a thing I have to do to get through the day. I’ve also met a bunch of people outside of work, mostly through mutual friends but also reforged some old friendships as well. It’s been a lot of fun making new friends this year, and I feel like I’ve finally found some social footing in Vancouver again.
Room for Improvement
With the postivies that came this year, there were still many things that I think I fell short on. My mom came to visit for a while since my sister broke her foot, and ended up staying with us for close to half a year. I LOVE my mom, but it is somewhat hard for me to be productive when she’s around. I ended up going to cafes a lot over weekends and what not so I could actually focus on doing my work. She’s going to come to Canada again this year for my sisters graduation, so I’d better figure out how to maintain my productivity while she’s here otherwise I’m going to spend another few months just slacking off again…
I also didn’t quite stick to shedules I set for myself super well. I tried setting deadlines and goals for my own projects, but these ended up useless more often than not; I do think that maybe this is the wrong approach for my own projects, but I haven’t quite figured out anything better. In the end, I just end up with a bunch of half-finished work and nothing to actually show for the time I spent on it. This goes for my art, programming, youtube channel, and basically everything that I do.
2023
This year, I think my biggest focus will be trying to let go more. Having a rigid schedule and life plan didn’t seem to work well for me, so I want to try to be a bit more free with my time while maintaining the productivity I had before. The biggest challenge here will be actively choosing to do productive things in my free time rather than slacking off - with a looser schedule I will have to make these choices much more often.
Aside from big picture ideas, I’d like to set a few concrete goals to try and achieve this year as well. I find that having some tangible goals help me focus better on what I should be doing. These goals might change and shift throughout the year (and that’s ok!), but this should be a good base to work off of:
- Run a sub 4 hour marathon
- Read 5 books
- Make a game (actually finish it, don’t ditch it halfway)
- 10 digital paintings (also actually polished and not half-assed)
- Basic korean conversation skills
- Finish 2 sketchbooks
- Clear a V4 (bouldering)
- Read two technical books
- Write something with my own programming language
I’m at a point now where I’m ok with these goals not being met, they’re really more of a guideline for me to follow when I feel lost. Overall, I’m happy with my life the way it is now, and I’d honestly be pretty happy if there weren’t many big changes in the upcoming year. Cheers to 2023!!!