Belated 2018 Life Wrap Up Post
2018 Achievements (in no particular order)
Moved out of house.
Got a book published and while I am under no illusions about its ability to win prizes, people have given generally positive feedback and I am happy with it.
Cooked and meal prepped good healthy regularly, more so after moving out of the house.
Got a job with regular pay and benefits which means actually being able to save regularly and I know a couple of people told me they thought I was going to be a boho thing forever I can only say that life costs money ok
Read 76 books, and also read a lot of articles, random online poetry, fanfiction. Basically read a lot of words.
Wrote a lot of words too. I don't have stats on how many words written and I stopped working on the wuxia novel in March (which was about 24k words at that point) but I did write a lot of poetry I was proud of and got 17 poems accepted in 11 journals/contests.
Finally attended Singapore Writer’s Festival! (and not in the capacity as intern or bookstore elf) and also as a featured writer and moderator. Was told that I was very articulate, which is great and will hopefully mean I will continue being invited to more events.
Bought a Nintendo Switch and many associated games on the platform and I wish I could tell child Nat who only got older brother's hand-me-down toy consoles that yes bebe it gets better. Earning money is good.
Travelled to Bali and the UK solo and met people and read poetry in scary foreign stages and ate food and talked to strangers and found old friends and survived.
Single for two years and thrived. Am so much more comfortable now with going to the cinema, and shopping, and eating in public, and wandering around alone.
Blocking and cutting toxic people without missing them.
I think I also got a lot better at asking for help. Usually I would rant about something and then attempt to move on after that and then have massive breakdowns and lie in bed for days but this year I mostly caught myself before it got too bad and actually contacted people before the meltdown stage.
Started a positivity diary on 26 December at the urging of a friend where I write down one positive thing that happened each day. So far it is all either good food or meeting friends or wearing pretty things and I hope that I can continue this forever.
Things I did not achieve (and will hopefully work on for next 2019)
Working on photography skills - I’ve been so lazy about taking my camera out since getting my Samsung S8 last year.
Learning to sew
Getting better at Chinese
Getting better at Japanese
Working on my prose more
Set up a writer website with my portfolio and Serious Writer Photos (and if you’re reading this, it means that this site is up!)
Future goals:
When asked by a friend what my goals for 2019 were, my response was that I wanted to do keep doing what I did in 2018; only more of it. And at the same time get more sleep and rest. Which means either getting a lot more efficient with the way I spend my time, or readjusting goals. I don’t know. But there are so many things still to see and do and learn.