A short and commemorative post, a customary memorial service for the old year, and baby shower for the new in the same post.
It's becoming a rule that you don't predict the 20's. When I see a picture of myself celebrating 2020, living it up in the crowded streets of Taipei with a posse of maskless friends, I just wanna say, "Oh you poor little lamb, you have no idea." Had I told myself that in just two short years I would quit my life abroad, double my Instagram following, move to Alaska, and take a whirlwind roadtrip up and down California, I probably wouldn't believe my time traveling self.
2021 in Review
2021 was not anything like I expected it to be. I think I was expecting everything to stabilize, globally, and for me to be able to get back to travel. That didn't happen. Instead, I got familiar with my own country, and the glass-half-full part of me feels like that was necessary. On a personal level, I got a lot of healing, specifically in Alaska.
2022 in Preview
I don't care if you're into politics, economics, the stock market, or astrology—please, please do NOT make predictions for the next year! Because the 20's have proved themselves largely unpredictable. I've got no feelings about these upcoming twelve months, no proclamations about how this is gonna be My Year, no diets I'm going to do or exercise regimes I'm going to stick to.
The future is a giant question mark box from Mario, and I don't have X-ray vision.
What I can do is lay out my wishes for the new year, and here they are.
Pandemic end. I cannot express how much I hope this is the year it comes to a close. (Another sentence I wouldn't imagine myself saying two years ago.) Relegated to domestic travel, I feel like a bird with clipped wings. The fact that I can't just fly off to Paris on a whim saddens me deeply, and I'm so jealous of my 2017 self for the freedom he had to traipse around the globe. I wish I had taken advantage of that more. On a positive note, I'm just glad we're not in lockdown anymore. (I hope this sentence doesn't come back to haunt me.)
Publishing. I do feel finally ready to do some publishing. It's true, I probably said this last year. But if I keep saying it every year, eventually I'll be right, yeah? Books in various states of progress: The first and second books in a saga I've been working on for 15 years, two coming-of-age novels (one set in the 90's and the other in the 2000's), a memoir about communal living in Alaska, and a memoir (in Mandarin) about being a foreigner in Taiwan. Let's see which flies!
Third language. I do hope to conquer my third language this year, though, and maybe start a fourth. This honestly has the same hold as the publishing dream—I've got the material, I just have to polish it. Languages that could easily slide into third place: Italian, French, and Russian.
Money. I would really like to start investing this year. If I can only figure out how to start!
Art/Instagram. More content, wider audience. I'd love to see a following of 3,000 this year, and get published enough times to get a blue check!
Taiwan. No promises, but I really hope there's a way to sneak on back to Sweet Potato Island at the end of this year.
What are your hopes for this next year?
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