Things of 2022 (Part 1 of ??)
Yes, I’m still hung up on 2022. Since it's January and we'll all still be accidentally writing 2022 for the next few weeks before we get the new year in our systems, I'll spend a bit more time looking back at last year and reflecting. Here's part one of my something things from last year.
Something things because not everything I’m grateful for was a favorite thing — or a good thing. They're just… things. That meant something to me. That mean something to me.
1
Anyone who’s ever seen me “play” volleyball (POV: you run to hit the ball and hit air) or any other sport knows I am terribly uncoordinated. So last year I tried to fix that by buying a jump rope! After seeing all the cool friends on my timeline being cool and doing jump rope things!
I got it last January 3rd and a day or two later tried it out in the front yard early in the morning. “Tried it out” means trying to get the rope to get past my feet and unsuccessfully landing on the ground with elephant thuds — which my parents could apparently hear from inside the house because dad came out to investigate. He laughed when he saw what I was doing and proceeded, of course, to school me. Then mom followed outside and did the same.
I learned three things that day:
Dad’s pretty coordinated
Mom is much more coordinated than me
It turns out you need to swing the rope from front to back and not in the opposite direction, which was what I was doing wrong
I managed to get it right after that, and I got a bit better each day the more I practiced. I never got to learn tricks. I only ended up continuing the habit for around two months before losing energy. But I managed to jump rope continuously until I reached 53 jumps, my all-time highest score. Note: I’m sure I reached more than 70 but I can’t find that log in my journal and I’d rather rely on what I recorded than my memory. Need to remember to log things more faithfully this year.
But yes. I’m still pretty proud of myself. I went from being a complete dumbass at jump rope to actually understanding how and when to move my body. Small wins.
2
Speaking of logging things more faithfully, I again didn’t get to do that the entire 2022 but I finished two notebooks and got comfortable with journaling systems that work for me!
I wasn’t able to keep things pretty at all so the spreads with the most character ended up being the ones where I pasted tangible memories.
Also, I’m really happy with my digital journaling system! I’ve been using OneNote for years and I’ve developed a flow that works perfectly for documenting memories. I basically create a new notebook for each year and fill each notebook with sections where I keep notes and snippets of things.
One of the best things I tried doing that ended up becoming a staple part of these journals is my “Learning and notes” tab. One page per month with a list of things I learned and subpages as needed.
For logging actual events per day, I adapted Chad Hall’s Medium Method.
I have a notebook called Journal with a section for each month and a page for each day of the month. I log the day’s events on the page space, pushing the existing content for the past year down — so it’s basically a treasure trove for seeing what you were up to on that exact day for the past few years. It’s a great way to log growth and just reminisce, and if you’re as gung-ho about memories and reminiscing as me then I highly recommend this system.
Okay, I enjoyed this so much, I think I’m going to go into this in-depth in a future post!
3
Early last year, I again attempted another WordPress website and, well, RIP. It was okay for a while but I didn’t really feel the space anymore even though WP was one of the first places I started blogging all those years ago. The editing interface feels more clunky than it used to and each time I posted last year it just felt like a slog.
I think part of it’s also being uncomfortable with having my name just plastered there and, well, being the domain.
It was just a few days ago that I realized I feel most comfortable here using Write.as. It’s so much more seamless and I haven’t been this focused on my writing in ages. It’s nice, and I think I’ve finally found a home that fits — not just my habits but my values and who I’ve grown to be.
I’m pretty happy here.
Aaaand that about wraps up my things for now. I don’t know how many more of these posts I’m going to write, but 2022 had a ton of things going on so I don’t think I’ll be done any time soon. I’d like to not be done any time soon. There’s a lot to be grateful for.
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