2021 Wrap-Up
It is that time of year again, Virtual Paper Adventurers. And honestly still processing that it is now 2022! *faints*
Heads-up, this post will be long. Feel free to skim and jump around to the sections that most interest you. Or read this in parts. If you don't, you better settle down and grab a snack and a drink. I have a lot to say and have experience many things. It doesn't help that I made notes throughout the year while last year I started doing notes at the end of year.
You're welcome. 😇
And yes, this is quite late from the usual time people do the end of the year wrap-up posts, but at least it's still January (well, hardly. And I didn't actually finished this in January but shhh don't tell anyone). I've been busying doing life, reading, studying and procrastinating. 😂
Photo by Tom Barrett on Unsplash
Films
Starting with movies first this time because I noted them down first and I don't mind switching things up a bit.
The good, the bad and the meh
Inception - This movie was so incredible! I was mind-blown with the worldbuilding and how complex the plot was, while also maintaining characters I cared about all the way through. With big plots like these, I feel like characters get lost but not so with this movie! It shows how much of a masterpiece this is. 10/10
Clue the Movie - This one was super fun. Considering it was based off the board game, Cluedo, it was very well done. Cluedo is one of my favourites to play so I loved seeing it come to life. The only thing I didn't like was how they ended it. I didn't dislike the ending, just the way they decided to end it was the problem. I don't know if that makes sense. 😂 If you watch it, you will know what I mean. 9/10
Raya and the Last Dragon - To be honest, I thought this to be one of Disney's weakest stories. I really enjoyed it the first time, but the second and third time I found it lacking in a lot of areas. Cringey dialogue, breaking the "show don't tell" rule many times, no subtlety with the theme, surface level worldbuilding (plus overexplaining it throughout the film) and poorly done character arcs. I don't think it's a complete terrible film, just doesn't have a lot of substance and wasted its potential. 4/10
Soul - Took me a while to fully appreciate this story and fall in love with it. Not sure why I didn't love it straight away. The plot was engaging, the theme was just amazing and all of the characters were likeable in some way. And the more I watch it (I've watched it three times now), the more the message means something to me deeply. 9/10
Cruella - The costumes! I think no one can argue that the costumes were so wicked. I enjoyed this, had a blast, but I do have a few problems with it both as a fan of the villain Cruella and as someone who wants to love villain origin stories but always find something is wrong with them. I know the latter part is probably a me thing, but I like to think I have good reasons for not being satisfied. 7/10
The Galaxy Quest - This was so good... and it shouldn't be honestly. It wears its inspiration on its sleeve, and yet it's own unique thing at the same time. The humour was the best. It has my heart, not gonna lie. 9/10
The Cheetah Girls, The Cheetah Girls 2 and The Cheetah Girls: One World - I kept on hearing about The Cheetah Girls, particularly their song "Cinderella" (which I have issues with but that's for another time), so I decided to watch their movies to understand what people were talking about. My thoughts? They were quite fun, and the songs were great. I enjoyed listening to all of them, even Cinderella, and The Cheetah Girls' dance performances were entertaining to watch. But the plots were messy, lacking strong structure. I felt the second Cheetah Girl film was the most solid out of the three, and is my favourite of them. I was disappointed that each film started with them trying to get somewhere with their music, especially even after the events of the second movie. I felt like they should have gained a lot more progress than they did, considering what happened, how talented they are and how people enjoyed their performances. And the third one felt empty and weird without the main star of the first two films and overall was unnecessary (again they got nowhere with their music career). 5/10
Black Widow - I think I had the most fun in this film. It was so ridiculous in some scenes, but I loved watching those so much. Actually, I just really enjoyed all of the unrealistic things in this story, which was pleasantly surprising to me. Also Yelena is the best character ever. Her humour, her personality, her attitude, everything is *chef's kiss*. 9/10
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil - This had potential. But I just thought it was so boring in all of the moments when it should have been epic. Also, the worldbuilding surrounding Maleficent's origin made no sense with what they had established in the first film, and they didn't even give any sort of an explanation why it didn't exist in the beginning. It literally existed because they wanted it to and they thought it would be cool. I was not impressed. It was honestly the worst part of this film. Ended up not caring about anything, even though the stakes were higher than in the first one. 3/10
Coco - There is something so special and beautiful about remembering your heritage and your ancestors. While I don't have the same beliefs as this film and culture, I was still moved by the theme. Family is so important to me and I loved how this explored the concept of family in a completely different way. 10/10
Luca - It was such a lovely experience watching this. It was a cute, simple story. And yet has deep themes too. It wasn't impactful to me personally, but I deeply appreciate a story like this. 8/10
Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man 1 & 3 - I have mixed feelings about these ones. I enjoyed some parts but others not so much. I haven't decided my overall feelings yet. I only know that this Spider-Man version is not my favourite (sorry to all of the Tobey Maguire fans). And, yes, I know I watched the third one before the second. I will be fixing that. 6/10
Jungle Cruise - This was fine. It wasn't bad, wasn't good. I really liked some elements and aspects of it, but with others I was like bleh. It didn't help that it was using a bunch of tropes and not trying to explore a different angle to them. (Other than the masculine and feminine roles, which are not exactly tropes themselves, but they do have tropes within them.) It felt like I've seen this sort of film before and that I'm tired of them, but really it's just because this film wasn't unique enough despite the obvious attempts to be so. 5/10
Gemini Man - This was such a cool concept, and I thought they explored it well. Also really impressed that they managed to make Will Smith look so young and real. The action was clever, creative even. And I loved that there was no romance, even though the second main character was a girl and she was hanging out with the male protagonist a lot. Not even at the very end that I got the impression that they were at least interested in each other. They were purely friends, and I love that so much. 9/10
Unstoppable - I was on the edge of my seat. It was so intense! I was reminded of my childhood love for trains while watching this. I think trains are super underappreciated. They are so cool! This film showed me that trains can be just exciting as the any other exciting thing, and I'm so happy about it. 9/10
Hocus Pocus - This is not my type of film at all, and yet I loved it. I only watched it because PattyCake are such a fan of it and they made fan videos about the witches. I have to say that they have good taste in loving this one. It was fun, spooky and creative. All of the characters were fabulous. I'm quite fond of the protagonist, even though he's kind of dumb, but his love for his sister and his courage is just so admirable. 8/10
Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs - A little cringey but also just so delightful. I really appreciate the theme, even if it wasn't done perfectly, and genuinely wish more stories explore it. It's always needed in our culture. 8/10
White House Down - I've watched a lot of actions films in recent years, and most of them are mediocre. I was surprised by how much it gripped me. I remember I had planned to do something else while I was watching it, but then I couldn't bring myself to do it because I wanted to fully experience every single thing that happened in this film. It's a bit bizarre, but that is one of the reasons why I love it. 9/10
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings - I have to say that I was quite disappointed with this one. Visually fantastic, but empty of a strong character arc (he goes from strong to stronger. Great character development there) and a concise plot (let's dump a bunch of flashbacks randomly throughout the film). I wasn't impressed how the film treated the villain or the antagonistic force. And the whole thing with the ten rings was most disappointing... like only half or less of the film was actually about the ten rings themselves. 4/10
Dune - I honestly thought I would feel meh about this film, but I was so wrong. I was blown away by how immersive, deep and incredible the world was. This story managed to make a desert setting so interesting, which to me is the most boring setting people could use. I should have known that Dune, of all novels (and films), could achieve that. 10/10
Cinderella (1997) - The musical parts of this Cinderella version kind of felt awkward to me, but I still really enjoyed it. I loved the songs (even if a little long for my short attention span) and how they had different messages that you could ponder on afterwards. And the actress picked for Cinderella was so perfect for the role. 8/10
Tinkerbell and the Legend of the NeverBeast - I really enjoy the Tinkerbell franchise, especially when I got older, but I never watched this one because of The Pirate Fairy, which to this day is the weakest Tinkerbell film. I'm happy to say that this film here was actually really good for what it is! I had a fun time watching it. I really liked how it focused on a different character than Tinkerbell. Fawn is one of my favourite characters too. Also, I loved seeing a different part of the world that we haven't seen before, and that dug into more of their mythology. That was so cool! 9/10
Encanto - This film was so stunning within and without. I was so pulled in, and honestly I could live in this world forever. The songs were BRILLIANT, the characters fabulous, and the theme was so powerful. I am in love with this story so much and I will visit it hundreds of times. 10/10
TV Shows
WandaVision - I loved seeing Wanda's character fleshed out more and as the focus of the story. Before, she was either overshadowed by other characters or there wasn't enough screen time for her to truly shine. She had many amazing moments in the films she appeared in, don't get me wrong, but I just never really connected or cared for her personally. This show clearly solidified who she is in a way I haven't yet seen done with her character, and I love it so much. It felt perfect for how her nature needed to be shown. While I know some people will take issue with it, I don't believe it stops it being the best thing for Wanda and it being the growth she needed. I'm considering writing a whole post about it, just so people might appreciate it more. 8/10
The Falcon and the Winter Solider - I really enjoyed this one! I loved the themes, the villain(s), and the plot. For such a short show with many different subplots, characters and messages, it still managed to tie up, address and explore all of them without one suffering. Though I would have preferred it was longer, it was still satisfying as it is. And of course loved seeing The Falcon as the protagonist! He's now on my top 10 list of favourite Marvel characters. I can't wait to see his story continue, it's so compelling! Also, I was SO happy to see Bucky again. I adore him so much. He was a little more weak in fights than in previous films, but that's okay. Marvel has been inconsistent with other things before. *shrugs* 8/10
Loki - I could rant about how much I hate this show. To me, this show ruined Loki's character completely, the romance was awful, and almost everything was so bleh (I loved the soundtrack, Mobius was great and episode 5 was pretty cool). I have nothing against anyone who loves it, I just personally hate it with my whole soul. Will probably watch the second season with family since they enjoyed it... and maybe it might improve? Though I highly doubt it for myself. 2/10
What If...? - DNF. The first two episodes were good, but the next two made me feel so gross inside. Since the fifth episode was about the avengers being zombies, I was like, "I'm out." Don't think I'm missing much not finishing this.
Only Murders in the Building - Man, creations like these show me why I love mysteries in the first place. It's hard to find a mystery that is super satisfying for me, so you can imagine my joy when I got one that hooked me from the beginning to end, and leaving me desperately wanting more (I cannot wait for season 2... literally). Plus the stars are a trio that I didn't know I needed together. Selena Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short?! YES PLEASE. It was actually them who got me first interested in the show. I watched it for them and then stayed for the brilliant mystery and how the three have such good chemistry together. Their performances were just *chef's kiss*. 10/10 Content warning: strong language
High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (Season 1) - I have mixed feelings about this one. On one hand, I enjoyed it, I love most of the characters and loved listening to the songs (especially the original ones). On the other hand, it also felt inconsistent and slightly confusing, especially with certain character's choices. But I would have continued with it if I actually like the main characters being together. *coughs* Yeah, I shipped him with someone else and I don't like her at all and prefer if she stayed single. The show set up briefly of her being happy and finding herself while single, and the guy starting liking someone else and that someone else liked him back too. The show ruined both of those within two episodes. So considering that I won't enjoy seeing the main as a couple, I'm going to move on. 5/10
Hawkeye - I hated this... but only for the first two episodes. I'm so glad that I decided to re-watch those episodes and continued with the rest despite my feelings still saying no. I ended up really enjoying it, even loving it. I even ended up liking Kate Bishop, a character who I couldn't stand for quite a while. I would have preferred if the show focused more on Hawkeye than her, but Hawkeye didn't get completely overshadowed by her. He was still able to be shine as a character, there were a lot of moments with just him, and his subplot was intertwined with the main plot. It isn't the perfect show for Hawkeye, but I'll take it. 7/10
Books
We're finally at the part we have all been waiting for! At least I'm assuming so, because talking about books is my second favourite thing (writing is my first of course) on this blog and I'm guessing you are reading/following this blog because of that, right? (Otherwise I don't know why you're here, other than my non-existence writing progress and a million plot bunnies. XD)
Books read: 25
I read 5 less books than last year. I got into a reading slump longer than last year*, since August I believe. It happened after I read an ARC of United We Fall, which I binged-read. After that I wasn't in the mood for reading or didn't have the energy to pick up a book on most days. I still read, just quite inconsistently than my usual habit with reading. I then challenged myself to read 12 books in December (to both get out of my reading slump and win my Goodreads goal) and I failed. But I read more books than I had in months, which, at the end of the day, was the more important goal.
I decided to set my Goodreads goal to 20 books instead of 30 or 25, just to tell my brain to relax about reading this year. I like achieving goals, but I'm having a hard time doing that so I'm setting goals (at least trying to) I know I can achieve and not push myself into a challenge I just don't have the capacity of doing right now.
*I forgot I got into a reading slump at the end of 2020. While skimming my 2020 wrap-up post for format reasons, I noticed I said I got into a reading slump.
The book list:
- 14/1/21 Gay Girl, Good God by Jackie Hill Perry
- 19/1/21 Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer
- 26/1/21 Fairest by Marissa Meyer
- 13/2/21 Unravel the Dusk by Elizabeth Lim
- 2/3/21 Summer Bird Blue by Akemi Dawn Bowman
- 10/3/21 Mercy of Fate by Hope Ann
- 16/3/21 Archenemies by Marissa Meyer
- 26/3/21 Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger
- 27/3/21 The Bear of Rosethorn Ring by Kirsten Fichter
- 10/4/21 Sisters of Sword and Song by Rebecca Ross
- 18/4/21 The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
- 14/5/21 Ignite by Jenna Terese
- 27/5/21 A Time to Die by Nadine Brandes
- 5/6/21 100 Days of Sunlight by Abbie Emmons
- 21/7/21 How We Rise by Brooke Riley
- 15/8/21 United We Fall by Brooke Riley
- 12/9/21 Six O'clock by Grace A. Johnson
- 20/10/21 Eye of the Storm by Ryan Stevenson
- 9/12/21 Orphan's Song by Gillian Bronte Adams
- 14/12/21 The Rose and the Balloon by Kirsten Fichter
- 20/12/21 Skyward by Brandon Sanderson
- 23/12/21 Wings of Betrayal by Brittany Wang
- 27/12/21 Palace of Potions by Brittany Wang
- 30/12/21 Sea of Secrets by Brittany Wang
- 31/12/21 Rose of the Night by Hope Ann
Blogs
New* blogs:
- Amanda Tero
- Benjamin (My best friend's new blog 💜)
- Everglow (I recommend reading all of the posts here)
- Hope Ann
- Into My Writing Journey
- Smudged Thoughts
- the rain-drenched writer.
- Wanderer's Pen
- when through the woods
- The Samwise Gamgee Appreciation Club (Another best friend's blog 😍)
Random collection of posts to check out:
- When thanksgiving involves grief
- My new and improved character profile
- Tired writers don't need more sleep, they need more spiritual rest
- How to avoid cheap grace when redeeming a villain
- I am a woman. that does not mean my heart belongs to you.
- How to make your character's choices more difficult
- A kind of therapy
- {Writing} post wip depression
- 5 guidelines to consider when portraying mental illness
- How to write as an escape
- Write for yourself
- Light angst: a trope analysis
- Life has an answer key
- Trope talks ~ love triangles
- Trope talks ~ the chosen one
- 5 things I wish I'd known as a beginning writer
- Two things I didn't want to plan for 2021
- How to get back into writing // tips for inspiration + consistency
- The magic of subtext
- How to write a meaningful death for your hero
- 5 tips for giving (and receiving) critiques
- Some random thoughts on growth and rest + a writing update
- Goodbyes
Music
This time I'm sharing new favourite albums, songs and artists. Maybe share a YouTube music video or two.
New favourite songs:
- What's My Name from Descendants 2
- Stressed Out by Twenty One Pilots
- Mean Girls by Leanna Crawford
- Revolutionary by Josh Wilson
- Let Go Let God by Jack Cassidy
- Heart Of Stone by Britt Nicole
- Chillin' Like a Villain from Descendants 2
- human by Christina Perri
- Cutthroat by Imagine Dragons
- Pale Moonlight by The Gray Havens
- Born Bad by PattyCake
- Whatever It Takes by Imagine Dragons
- Play with Fire by Sam Tinnesz, Yacht Money
- Headspace by Riley Clemmons
New favourite albums:
New favourite artists:
- Twisted Jukebox
- Lydia Laird
- NF
- Zayde Wølf
- SoulBox
- Forstudio Chambersonic
- Riley Clemmons
- Natalie Cleveland
- Carmen Justice
- Sarah Reeves
- Ben Barnes
- Manwell (viewer discretion advised)
- Miiesha
- Ryan Stevenson
- Lauryn Evans
- Wande
- Ava Max (viewer discretion advised)
- Olivia Rodrigo
- Emily Weisband (viewer discretion advised)
- Beth Crowley
Achievements
1. I did 19 cover reveals on my blog (Instagram too).
1. Hunger 2. The Bear of Rosethorn Ring 3. Sins, Sons, and Siren Songs 4. Ignite 5. Of Fire and Ash 6-17 A Villain's Ever After 18. United We Fall 19. Rumors, Reunions, and Revenge
2. Joined in three blog tours, The Bear of Rosethorn Ring Blog Tour Part 1 & Part 2, Ignite Blog Tour and Rumors, Reunions, and Revenge Blog Tour.
3. I participated in a blog scavenger hunt.
4. Read three ARCs: The Bear of Rosethorn Ring, Ignite and United We Fall.
5. I beta read three books (well, I'm still reading the last one but I'm almost finished with it). Whispers of Smoke and Sea by Maddie Morrow, Calligraphy Guild by R.M. Archer, and Heir to His Crown by Issabelle Perry.
Writing
I got more plot bunnies than words. I had to take a lot of breaks, either for mental health or for study. And when I wasn't taking breaks, I mostly procrastinated and didn't write until three days or more later from the time I first planned to write.
That was my general writing life for 2021.
Current WIP wordcount: 22, 574
Short stories: 1 (called Three Days like Butterflies in Summer)
The plot bunnies
- Monsters: I've started an outline (using the 3 Act Structure based on Abbie Emmons' videos) and worldbuilding. It's been a blast so far!
- Masters and Slaves: It now has an official title! Chainbreaker, Peacemaker. The two words represents the two main characters and their roles in the story.
- Genderbent Snow White Retelling: I'm a writer who loves knowing the end of the story I want to tell, sometimes even before I know anything that happens in the middle. This particular story I was uncertain how I wanted it to end. I had two ideas on how I thought it could end, and was even considering doing a sequel because I felt one ending was too long for one book. But I didn't feel right with doing the sequel or doing the ending that people would call "neatly tied up with a bow". Eventually, I asked a friend for feedback on the ending and they confirmed that I needed to do the ending that had more consequences, which was the one I leaned toward doing. It was also then that I decided not to do a sequel at all, rather make it a standalone with two parts. It might get a little long, but this sort of ending will need that length. And as a standalone, there's no danger of prolonging the story for too long, which I believe in my gut will happen if I create a sequel for it. The last thing I want to do is do the kind of sequel that I hated authors and filmmakers for doing. No thank you.
The new ideas
- Adult A father estranged from his son comes to visit him to find that there is another man competing for his place as father. Determined to have his son's love back, he digs into his rival's past to expose the one secret he knows he is trying to hide.
- NA A girl cursed to have every male fall in love with her (except for blood relatives and magical beings) is throwed out of her home when her father remarries and gains two stepsons. Homeless and unable to get a job, her only option is to move in with her cousin and his housemate, who is immune to all magic. After the first term of university, the three visit the cousin's family for the holidays, where the girl meets a mysterious magical being who's all alone in a mansion.
- Adult Immortal pirate captain and his crew are place in the modern times where they find a book about the whole captain's life in detail (just before he was taken into the future). Not only it exists, it's also published, has a huge fanbase and is being made into a movie. But there's one detail that the story is missing: the existence of the captain's wife.
- NA An adventurous and arrogant prince wants to picks a wife from a group of people who fights monsters and travels all over the country. Things don't to plan when she runs back to her friends after accepting his proposal. Determined to have her, he goes after her and lives among the group until she is willing to be his queen.
- YA A boy is forced to be the next Chosen One when the late Chosen One dies in his arms. He tries to escape the destiny, but when he meets two people determined to make him a hero, he decides to show everyone that he is no hero and can never be one.
- YA A prince throws a ball, and on the night of it a girl and her stepsister finds mysterious glass slippers. Despite that the girls were forbidden to go, they secretly sneaked out when the glass slippers walked off on their own toward the palace. Then at the foot of the palace's steps, the stepsister gets her feet stuck in the glass slippers, causing herself to be transformed into someone who looks like a princess. Unable to get herself free, she goes to find the prince, thinking he might be the key in this mystery.
- NA A secret superhuman made it her career to fight for proper justice for super-criminals who are either getting locking up a cell with barely any food or water (with rumours of them dying of starvation, malnourishment or dehydration) or getting brutally killed by the superheroes. But then she is forced to not only make cases in court or do protests, but also physically fight a foe known as The Phoenix. With the help from her boyfriend and her estranged siblings, she must stop this villain without forsaking her morals and her purpose in life.
- Adult Married to the only superhero in the world, a man struggles with bitterness and frustration as he raises their 15-year-old daughter alone. Everything changes when he is kidnapped by two mysterious invisible men who turns him into a superhuman with the exact same powers as his wife.
- NA To protect his sister, a former dancer, with the power to cause death, has to face the friends who turned their backs on him when he needed them most. To gain their help, he has to become the very person he swore he would never be again and return to the place that haunts him in his nightmares.
- YA A girl gets involves in a beauty competition after gaining attention when she helped her best friend survive from The Pill. With all eyes of the public on her and someone following her every move, she uses everything she has to kept her confidence and not break before she can make her escape.
- NA A girl betrays her tyrant father for freedom and joins the rebel group, evading the clutches of her father's bloodthirsty adopted son and second-in-command at every turn. Meanwhile, her twin sister, left behind, meets her fiancé, the timid man her father picked out for her. Confused that her father would give her a man with a soft nature, she secretly tries to learn everything about him before their marriage ceremony.
- YA Earth is invaded by aliens, that kills every human in sight. On the night when the monsters first came, a girl gets separated from people to attempt to survive. She falls into a nest the day after, expecting to die when the mother returns before she can escape. Instead, seeing that she hasn't hurt her eggs at all, adopts her as her own. Within a few months, most of the monsters follow the girl's command, and the ones that don't get killed by the others. Years later, two brothers in the military are given the mission to find the girl - to stop her from causing more deaths of their people through her monsters.
- YA A bully makes a deal with a popular girl to do a challenge where they pretend to be people that they are not - for him the popular guy, and for her the bully. The one who wins it is the one who not only doesn't break from their personality under any circumstances, but also successfully becomes the person they are pretending to be.
Life stuff
I had no idea how much 2021 would break me. How much everything would fall apart. I am a different person now, one I hope is better than the old me. Though I'm not sure if I am right now. In the future, I could see myself more clearly, but now I'm still too close to the new me, uncertain if I made the right choices for myself. Only time will tell. All I know is, no matter what, God is with me and I trust Him to lead me free from all of the pain I got myself into.
He has so far. And He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
I think it's no surprise to you, especially after the opening of this section, if I said 2021 sucked. When looking back on 2020, I didn't find a lot to comment on or complain or anything else like that because it was overall a neutral season. 2021 though is filled with those moments, and a lot of it negative. Mental health issues; fatigue; self-worth struggles; trying to study with no energy or motivation; writing life on and off; feelings of jealousy and loneliness (though loneliness has around in my life forever); Instagram, Discord and the blogosphere overwhelming me; and the stress and FOMO of not being able to keep up with things - to name a few (there's more but those are too personal to share on the internet).
Never before have I experienced the feeling of not wanting to get out of bed. I'm a morning person so I love getting up in the morning. The mornings are my best times. Or they were. There were so many mornings that were just so difficult to do anything on.
I felt so distant and close to God. A lot of times I just couldn't focus my thoughts enough to pray, even if I so deeply wanted to. This hardship grew my need to reach out to God more than ever before. I was drowning in my mental health taking nose dive in the deep end and not coming up to breathe.
And Christmas got cancelled (by you know what).
However, My 18th birthday in January was the most amazing experience ever. Back when life was good and refreshing. Back when I thought this year would be a good season. That I would finally achieve all of those writing goals and catch up with the blogs finally and getting Instagram to dig my hands into a whole new community and discover a whole new bookish and writing world with excitement. Back when Britt Nicole's song Heart of Stone became Smoke's arc of the series.
Okay, that may sound like a weird thing to mention but it was a mark of when I was so confident I could write more and consistently. In hindsight, judging a year from the first month is a bad idea. No wonder so many people get lost and depressed and so discouraged when they plan their year in this month. It kinda of lies, doesn't it? Or does it? If we are all honest, it never makes promises and really it is just us trying to control something that was out of control in the first place. Of course it is easy to think the year is good because our minds reset themselves and it is when we step back and take breaks and refresh and rethink things. It is a peaceful month. My favourite month just because there are little to no expectations. I am just living and enjoying life.
Other things (small) that were good this year:
- Joining Jenna Terese's Street Team, The Avengers (most of us are Marvel fans 😂)! I've never been in a street team before, so not only was it a first experience but also it was so awesome! I love being part of a community that has the common goal of promoting Jenna's books. (Speaking of her books, did you know that she is releasing Ares' prequel short story on February 25th?)
- It was so fun to get Instagram! And my account shares the same birthday as my blog! (I didn't do that on purpose.) As I mentioned before, Instagram did overwhelmed me because I tired too hard to read and like all of the things my friends and people I follow created, but once I stopped, and always kept on stopping when I had enough, it's been great! I didn't think I could make photos I love but I did! I have a few that are terrible, but those just made me do better next time.
- I got the free version of the Forest App, which is so good to use when I remember... to use it.
- I have a story about Unsplash. When I first got it, I thought the photos weren't good enough so I stopped using it. But then when I started making my own photos for my blog and hated most of them, I decided to try using it again. And I loved how the photos looked on my blog! I started adding one to each of my blog posts, but I got busy and haven't finished doing that yet.
- Brooke Riley's books, How We Rise and United We Fall. I can't properly express how much these books mean to me. They were a comfort and a joy when life was not. They gave me a story and characters that I could fangirl over forever. They helped me process life and grief better. They are everything to me, and more of you guys should read them (you will never hear of the end of this until you do.)
So 2021 wasn't all bad. It was just rough. I survived though, and one day I know I will RISE. It just isn't now. And that's okay. Jesus has conquered all (literally death) and that's the only thing that matters.
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