I think that my 2019 reflections arriving at the beginning of February neatly sums up what the year was like for me. Days, weeks, even months went by awfully quickly, and I never really felt entirely on top of everything that I was trying to achieve. However, compared to the bog of self-hatred and dissatisfaction that was 2018, 2019 saw a number of little victories that gave me enough pride in myself to feel that I was actively moving forward, even if I wasn’t quite going as quickly as I’d like.
Firstly, I started reading for pleasure far more than I had been in previous years. I completed a book of the month challenge set by an online friend of mine, dipping my toe outside of my literary comfort zone each month and broadening my reference base in the process. I also rediscovered my love for comic books. The blend of words and pictures creates a medium unlike any other, and I have indulged in stories that would be impossible or far less well-realized in any other format. Spending more time in stories has helped me add new perspectives to my own life, and also provided necessary escape when a day was particularly draining.
Taking in more tales led to my next piece of progress – writing more often. While sadly not for this blog (yay, mandatory apology for not writing here enough out of the way!), I have been spreading my writing wings. I mentioned this in a previous post, and I have been steadily writing pieces since then. Not as steadily or regularly as I’d like, but enough that the ever-present dread and shame of being a poser who only claims to write things is assuaged more consistently than it was since I stopped writing for GosuGamers and posting twice a week on here. I have also begun writing comic reviews on a second site, Multiversitycomics.com. Joining a site as exculsively a reviewer (even if I’m currently only writing small micro-reviews for the last few editions of their Wrapping Wednesday series) is more validating than it rightly should be. I even managed to get some reviews into the last few issues of PanelxPanel, the comics journalism magazine that reignited my love for comics in the first place. Hopefully I can forge a consistent habit and hone my craft in 2020.
Beyond honing my craft, I made small choices to hone my body as well. Nothing drastic, mind, but my pudginess and general health habits needed some adjustment. After Kris watched a particularly intriguing TED Talk on how vegetarianism was an unnecessarily binary, we have changed our diets to be mostly vegetarian, only eating two meals with meat in them per week. This means that we generally eat completely vegetarian meals during the week, and have the freedom to eat meat when we see friends on the weekend. It’s not perfect, but it’s far better than not being concerned at all. Beyond that, I have begun working out more often, usually playing Ring Fit Adventure on the Switch. It may not be a complete workout regimen, but doing squats to slay anthropomorphised yoga mats and kettlebells gets me surprisingly sweaty. I aim to be in better shape going into the next Ultimate season, instead of using Ultimate as my sole source of exertion. With a little over a week until I go to Bangkok Hat, there’s not much time before I see whether my efforts have been in vain.
I always feel odd writing posts where I celebrate victories in my life, especially small ones or ones that are simply beginnings of larger journeys. I don’t want to make it seem like I believe that my entire world is going to change because I send some words out into the gaping void that is the Internet. My body type isn’t going to change overnight because I spend a few minutes playing a fitness game. However, without these little changes, I would be stagnant. In today’s ever-shifting world, there are few worse things than that. So I’ll take my tiny achievements. Perhaps I’ll build on them. Maybe I won’t. But at least I made an effort to better myself, and succeeded.
