Looking Back on 2020
So, what a year, right? I think you all know EVERYTHING that happened in these past twelve months so I’m not doing to talk about them here. I am just going to share my memories from it of which I actually had quite a few good ones.
I actually had quite a social start to 2020 (if only I had known…). There was Jonathan’s midnight rollerskating birthday party and finally getting our Dungeons&Dragons group back together. I think if this year taught us anything, it was to treasure the people in your life.
I got my wisdom teeth out, got my third tattoo (the Chariot tarot card on my left bicep) and moved out of my childhood home with the love of my life. Kyle and I had decided we wanted to move in together when he started at Cal Poly Pomona and my parents decided they wanted to help us out by buying us a house to rent! We moved in at the beginning of August and it has been some of the best four months of my life. I miss my parents and sister greatly every day, but I get to see them weekly and we feel even closer than before. I invested in a Nintendo Switch and Savannah, Kyle and I have enjoyed playing Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Brothers Brawl. (I also have Pokémon Shield and Skyrim.) Kyle and I also celebrated our five year anniversary though sadly, we weren’t able to do it together, but now we get to spend every day together.
Moving into a new place was one of the best and worst things I have experienced and it took a while to adjust, but now I think I am in the best place I have been in my life. I’ve developed solid routines that really are attune to me which has actually helped me become more productive. Luckily for me, Kyle is just as good a cook as my mum and we’ve tried a bunch of new recipes. Our favorites have been different rice bowls, the top being katsudon. Some of my favorite memories have been curling up on our giant cushion chair with our bowls and watching a couple episodes of our current anime. We’ve gone through quite a few. Ouran High School Host Club, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, Food Wars and Fruits Basket.
This year, I managed to pour my creative energy into a few projects I’m really proud of. Earlier this year, I did a study of the complete tarot deck which deepened my understanding of these messages and how I read them. During the month of October, I posted a new video every day, completing my first Youtober before moving into November and smashing out 50,000 words for my second Nanowrimo. I also got my second Honorable Mention on my fifth entry to the L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future contest. Despite everything, I managed to rise above and create. Next year, I’m thinking of editing one of the novels I have laying around and continue to try and make more video posts. And, of course, keep entering short stories until I win.
My spirituality also went through an evolution in this past twelve months. My year-ahead tarot spread turned out to be way more accurate than I thought it would which makes me eager to see what the new year will bring. I focused more on the sabbets and moons and tried to work more with my deities. But, after I moved, I noticed more of a call to look inward. There are things deep inside me that still need to be addressed and healed and I am turning my energy more toward that and my goal is to have it be noticeably improved by the end of next year. Loki and Brigid have stepped back to let me focus on myself, but I still feel them there supporting me. I am currently doing some shadow work and am considering therapy, but am still not convinced on it so I’m sticking to journaling more regularly.
I hope everyone made it through this year okay and have some smiles to go with your tears. 2021 isn’t going to be much easier, but I see a light at the end of the tunnel. In the words of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Sam Gamgee: “It's like the great stories, Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad has happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing this shadow, even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines, it'll shine out the clearer. I know now folks in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going because they were holding on to something. That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for.”
