Happy 2021 everybody! At least I’m hopeful it might be happier. I debated on doing a Year in Review this year because I haven’t actually blogged a lot and it’s been a crappy year overall, but I thought in an effort to start blogging more consistently and nurturing this website again I would go ahead and do one.

Reflection

Before the pandemic even started, Josie and I were having a crappy year. We tried to adopt a cat in February and it didn’t work out. We found out very quickly that Rey doesn’t play well with others and it broke our hearts for quite a while as we had already had a cat we picked out and fell in love with. The shelter kept us updated, though, and she’s in a loving hope it was just a very, very hard lesson to learn as a pet parent.

Then, of course, the world went dark. We were lucky and grateful to be able to work from home, especially considering I have asthma. We did jigsaw puzzles. I got my social media certification. We started making TikTok videos. And we tried to find a purpose.

It was sometime in the summer when things started to click again. I think the biggest thing I did was start a body positivity journey. I put on some cute outfits I was upset I couldn’t wear out and I took pictures on my balcony. And then I played around a bit. I tied my shirts into crop-tops, tried out bralettes, and soon I was figuring out that I loved myself. I’m going to talk about it in a later post, but that was a wild ride all on its own.

The rest of the year flew by in gardening, crafts, rediscovering my creativity, doing whatever social justice we could do from the house, and being madly in love with my fiancée.

This year sucked. Josie lost her grandad and her dog. We had a failed cat adoption. There were many panic attacks. But somehow I think we made the best of it. We ate a lot better, took naps on our lunch breaks, and prioritized the things we could control, like really creative date nights!

Accomplishments

Social Media Certification

My biggest achievement this year was getting my Hubspot Certification for Inbound Social Media Marketing. I’m currently working on one for overall inbound marketing as well.

Body Positivity

This year I’ve prioritized my body image and love for my body. This is probably the achievement I’m most excited about. I started following a few intuitive eating dieticians and am excited to try that in the new year along with trying to be better about doing yoga.

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NaNoWriMo

2020 was my best NaNoWriMo year since I started doing it in high school. I didn’t win, my final word count was 21,004, but I beat my personal record and had a lot of creative epiphanies about my work in progress.

Reading/ Writing

Book Haul

I definitely acquired (bought, was gifted, or received ARCs) more book than I could read! Here are all of the books I’ve acquired in 2020.

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Goodreads Challenge

I only read 7 books this year. That’s how much of loop 2020 threw me through. But here’s some highlights from my Goodreads Year in Review:

For comparison, in 2018 I read 34 books and in 2019 I read 16. I’ve been slowly declining and I need to remedy this in the new year. Read my whole summary here.

NaNoWriMo and Writing

As I said above, NaNo was very productive this year and I beat my personal record. I started out the month by deleting the entire novel that I’ve been working on for 8 years–all 30,000 words of it–and I started over from scratch and got to 20,000.

Josie and I have also been working on little personal projects like we did in high school. Little stories just for us that will never see the light of day, but that make me really happy.

Favorite Posts

Miss Americana is Fearless

I liked breaking this one down. I was really inspired by how passionately Taylor Swift talked in this documentary, and when I read through my breakdown I always feel really proud of it. From the formating, to the commentary, this is hands down one of my favorites from 2020.

Adele, Body Image, and Body Positivity

This one… I remember being so angry when I went to write it. I had seen everything everyone was saying about Adele and I rant posted. My fiancée edited and I hit post. I originally wanted to be a voice of reason to any young readers I may have to tell them their bodies are worthy, but when I read back I’m really proud of the points I made and how I presented them

Queer Representation in “Motherland: Fort Salem”

This is by far my most read story from 2020. I have no idea where all the traffic keeps coming from, but I’m really thankful. I liked doing entertainment journalism again like I did for Her Campus and talking about Queer media.

A Queer Gothic Love Story: The Haunting of Bly Manor Spoiler Review

I love this one for the same reason as my “Motherland: Fort Salem” post even though it didn’t get as many views. I just really like talking about queer media, but I also liked analyzing this one because English major brain.

2021 Resolution

If you remember my 2020 Resolutions post, you can probably tell that I hit very little of them, but I made my own goals throughout the year as everything changed around me. So I’m not setting year-long resolutions this year. I’m going to take 2021 one day at a time.

My only big long-term goal is to find a new job because my contract is up in July and I have to find a job. But other than that I have a few short-term things I’m trying. I’ve been working with my therapist to be more creative. I ordered books on intuitive eating and a new tarot journal. I’m trying to be more mindful of being kind to myself and mindfully spending my time and that’s how I plan to spend 2021.

What are your goals for 2021 if any?

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