It’s the most wonderful time of year … depending on who you are and what you’re doing and who you’re doing it with. For me, it was in fact a wonderful time, which can be at least partially blamed for the end of another semester. Is it weird that I feel like I’m doing it wrong if I’m getting a perfect score three semesters in a row? Is my college not pushing me hard enough? Am I secretly smart, or is the college dumb? I simply can’t decide without feeling either like I am overvaluing myself by deciding I’m (at least) book-smart, or like my accomplishments are worthless if the college is being overgenerous in its grading system. Or, maybe, it simply doesn’t matter and I’m overthinking the entire issue. This is quite possible, as proven yet again when my sister sent me a wallet which read: “Hang on. Let me overthink this.”
She knows me quite well.
A part of this past December that I enjoyed quite highly was surprising my friends with gifts. Surprise gifts are far superior to gifts out of obligation. Unfortunately, even though I love my family dearly and I want the best for them, I do feel somewhat obliged to find some gift for them, even if I can’t think up a properly unique and lovely gift. I would rather go the route of a meaningful gift or no gift at all. Next year, as a compromise, I will be writing a lot of cards singing their praises. I will resist adding their flaws and areas for improvement.
Speaking of next year, it is now 2022. I spent the holiday sitting in the dark browsing Instagram after watching a video on music theory. Earlier in the evening, when I was feeling especially celebratory, I texted my friends a happy new year.
I’ve never thought much about the “New Year’s Resolutions” tradition. I’ve always set out goals for myself, whether or not it’s a time best symbolized by new beginnings. The goals have generally been rather grand and nonspecific or incredibly small and specific. For example, this year’s larger goal is to go to Norway and finish my first two years of college. Tomorrow’s goal is attempting to prove myself worthy of a scholarship. Huzzah, I love trying to prove myself to other people as a way of measuring my worth.
Can you hear the sarcasm?
Last year, I opted against doing a year-in-review type post. This time I’m looking back to remind myself of the good things that have happened.
Personal highlights
- In January I started the novelette Raske. The segment I posted is clunky enough that it makes me laugh, but it’s still a story I value quite a lot for myself. It is a story in which I split different aspects of my personality and distributed them across the characters, instead of my typical method of stealing bits and pieces from other people.
- In February I shared some poetry, which then somehow became some of the most popular posts on this website, much to my disgust. To quote myself from last year’s January roundup: “Alas, poetry is just so overwhelmingly … Not bad, per se, but it makes me want to gag. Like eating too much ice cream one night and getting a belly ache immediately afterward.”
- In March I wrote a decent horror story, and then one of my not-so-funny lighthearted stories, within two weeks of each other.
- In April I drew a portrait of one of my characters, and managed to capture his expression and the proper lighting quite well, even if it’s otherwise a bit funky.
- In May I published a short story in three parts (because it wasn’t that short). It was The Hollow Place, one of my personal favorite tales about a boy who tries to kill a goddess in order to restore his soul.
- In June I wrote what would become one of my top ten most liked (not most clicked) short stories: The Monster of the Rain. In it, a girl has to save her brother after he is taken by a monster.
- In July, unrelated to my writing, I turned twenty years old and started rock climbing. I’ve pretty much become addicted to rock climbing since then, so that was a very significant month.
- In August I drew another portrait of another character, and he turned out amazing if I do say so myself. It’s one of the few things I’ve drawn that I’d actually like to have printed and framed.
- In September I wrote Hey You, predator and prey, which is in my top five most popular posts. It’s a gruesome short story that made me question my own sanity because … wow I haven’t written anything that bloody since the last time I tried to do calculus.
- In October I went to not just one, but two Halloween parties. At three in the morning I went out with friends to a hill and watched the stars for a few hours. I went home at five. My social battery was dead for about two weeks after that.
- In November I read The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon, which turned out to be my favorite story of the year. It’s full of sweet things that remind me of what is beautiful in life.
- And December … In December I surprised my friends with gifts they didn’t expect. The expressions they made were priceless and I will treasure them forever.
Three-Shot Stories 