To be honest, I have a hard time telling the years apart in my memory. Maybe it's that "ADHD time blindness" that I hear so much about. But, nonetheless, I have decided that I wanted to create a short write-up reviewing my new experiences, firsts, and notable happenings which took place in 2022.
I'm going to try and get the negative thing out of the way first; my grandmother passed away this year. She was like a third parent to my brother and I, and she even lived with us for the past few years of our lives, so watching her get sick and then pass away was really rough on the whole family. 2022 was my first Christmas without her, and my birthday gift was considered by her to be her last, big parting gift to me - a new set of furniture for my room, as the furniture I had at that point, I had since I was very young. It happened earlier this year, so I'd like to think that I've been able to move on, in part, by now, although I do feel her missing presence at all family gatherings.
As for more positive experiences... I began this website this year! May of this year, specifically. I think the longest break I've taken from updating the site might be a month, a month and a half... It's been the main 'to-do' thing for me this year. Also on the creative side of things, I wrote and published a few fanfics this year, as expected of me. I've also taken some steps to further my drawing abilities! I think that this year was the year that I began to experiment with varying line weight and started messing with colors a lot more! (Before, I would just sort of color-pick straight from the character design. It took me until 19 to figure out that maybe I should do more than that.) I also began to use references from real life pictures. Before, I had a not-great habit of using other cartoons as reference, mainly because I didn't know where to find good real-life reference photos. But now that I have a collection of websites for that sort of thing, I feel like my anatomy's improved quite a bit over this year!
As for new projects (aside from the ongoing project of this website), I have two that I started near the end of 2022: a diary for helping with my mental state (here on this very website), and I am also currently working with a team on a visual novel! Both are going quite well so far, even if only one of them has a particular 'end' that I can mark.
As for notable media, LEGO Monkie Kid season 3 finally released! And then, like... Forever later, the English dub released! The gap between the Mandarin dub and the English dub releasing, despite the English dub being what is recorded first, was actually comical, with the Mandarin dub releasing in January of this year, and then the English dub releasing in April; multiple months of having to rely solely on rushed fan-translations (when very few in the fandom actually speak Mandarin). Again, for a show originally created in English. And then, the season 3 specials released (thankfully, with the English dub coming out at the same time as the Mandarin dub). The second half of season 2 of The Owl House also aired, and Thanks to Them (the first of the season 3 specials) also aired! I love season 2 of The Owl House a ton, and, Thanks to Them... Well... We'll just say my opinion is mixed. Pokemon Legends: Arceus (one of the best mainline Pokemon games in ages) and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet (which are so well-written, so fun and so, so fucking ugly) were also released this year!
Aside from college, though, I did go to a convention. A digital convention, that is. This year was my first time going to OtherCon! A yearly digital convention for the otherkin community. This was an extremely validating and beyond-pleasant experience for me which drove me to get more involved with the otherkin community and which also, in part, drove me to make one of the zines I made this year!
Yup! I made zines this year! Well, I made one. TEMPTATION is a mixed media-esque zine I made this year about my experience as a queer kid growing up in a religious household and town. Then, I was the moderator for From Fictionfolk, a zine about the experiences of those with serious fiction-based identities.
I think this may be the best year I've had in a while; certainly the best since 2020 (which, I suppose, isn't much of an accomplishment, given that there's only 2021 to compete with, but everything in my life seems to be categorized pre-quarantine and post-quarantine in my mind, so). While I'm not setting any specific resolutions, I am looking forward to the change in perspective a new year will offer me. I welcome the year of the rabbit, 2023! Please come gentle, and please come kind.
To be honest, I have a hard time telling the years apart in my memory. Maybe it's that "ADHD time blindness" that I hear so much about. But, nonetheless, I have decided that I wanted to create a short write-up reviewing my new experiences, firsts, and notable happenings which took place in 2022.
I'm going to try and get the negative thing out of the way first; my grandmother passed away this year. She was like a third parent to my brother and I, and she even lived with us for the past few years of our lives, so watching her get sick and then pass away was really rough on the whole family. 2022 was my first Christmas without her, and my birthday gift was considered by her to be her last, big parting gift to me - a new set of furniture for my room, as the furniture I had at that point, I had since I was very young. It happened earlier this year, so I'd like to think that I've been able to move on, in part, by now, although I do feel her missing presence at all family gatherings.
As for more positive experiences... I began this website this year! May of this year, specifically. I think the longest break I've taken from updating the site might be a month, a month and a half... It's been the main 'to-do' thing for me this year. Also on the creative side of things, I wrote and published a few fanfics this year, as expected of me. I've also taken some steps to further my drawing abilities! I think that this year was the year that I began to experiment with varying line weight and started messing with colors a lot more! (Before, I would just sort of color-pick straight from the character design. It took me until 19 to figure out that maybe I should do more than that.) I also began to use references from real life pictures. Before, I had a not-great habit of using other cartoons as reference, mainly because I didn't know where to find good real-life reference photos. But now that I have a collection of websites for that sort of thing, I feel like my anatomy's improved quite a bit over this year!
As for new projects (aside from the ongoing project of this website), I have two that I started near the end of 2022: a diary for helping with my mental state (here on this very website), and I am also currently working with a team on a visual novel! Both are going quite well so far, even if only one of them has a particular 'end' that I can mark.
As for notable media, LEGO Monkie Kid season 3 finally released! And then, like... Forever later, the English dub released! The gap between the Mandarin dub and the English dub releasing, despite the English dub being what is recorded first, was actually comical, with the Mandarin dub releasing in January of this year, and then the English dub releasing in April; multiple months of having to rely solely on rushed fan-translations (when very few in the fandom actually speak Mandarin). Again, for a show originally created in English. And then, the season 3 specials released (thankfully, with the English dub coming out at the same time as the Mandarin dub). The second half of season 2 of The Owl House also aired, and Thanks to Them (the first of the season 3 specials) also aired! I love season 2 of The Owl House a ton, and, Thanks to Them... Well... We'll just say my opinion is mixed. Pokemon Legends: Arceus (one of the best mainline Pokemon games in ages) and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet (which are so well-written, so fun and so, so fucking ugly) were also released this year!
Aside from college, though, I did go to a convention. A digital convention, that is. This year was my first time going to OtherCon! A yearly digital convention for the otherkin community. This was an extremely validating and beyond-pleasant experience for me which drove me to get more involved with the otherkin community and which also, in part, drove me to make one of the zines I made this year!
Yup! I made zines this year! Well, I made one. TEMPTATION is a mixed media-esque zine I made this year about my experience as a queer kid growing up in a religious household and town. Then, I was the moderator for From Fictionfolk, a zine about the experiences of those with serious fiction-based identities.
I think this may be the best year I've had in a while; certainly the best since 2020 (which, I suppose, isn't much of an accomplishment, given that there's only 2021 to compete with, but everything in my life seems to be categorized pre-quarantine and post-quarantine in my mind, so). While I'm not setting any specific resolutions, I am looking forward to the change in perspective a new year will offer me. I welcome the year of the rabbit, 2023! Please come gentle, and please come kind.