Hello Internet!
I hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy. I’m doing pretty well. Just enjoying my holidays and relaxing as much as possible. During this time between Christmas and New Year’s, I’ve spent some time thinking about my 2023 and that inspired me to write this special blog as a type of time capsule. For me it’s currently December 30th, 2023 but this post won’t publish until the end of 2024. Around this time of year lots of people tend to look back on the year while they get ready for the new year. I tend to reflect on things like big successes, failures, and just the simple moments that would normally just slip by. Hopefully by reading this back in late 2024 I will be able to reflect on some stuff from 2023 as well as 2024.
First I just want to give a little bit of a summary of my 2023. Altogether it was a pretty good year for me. I was focused on improving my physical and mental health and I definitely think I succeeded in these aspects. I think that I’m the healthiest I’ve ever been both physically and mentally. I’m not saying this to brag or anything, but I think it’s important to celebrate when things are going well. And I want to take that energy in 2024. I want to keep improving and double down on my healthy habits I’ve established in 2023. I want to go to the gym more, eat healthier, and lose some more weight. But I have made progress and I’m happy with it. I’ve had some major issues with how my body looks in the past and I still struggle with things like how I look in photos. That’s something I have to work on in 2024. Mentally I’ve had some speed bumps but again I’m working on it. It does help for me to spend time reflecting on the year because I can see how things have improved and it helps me get out of dark spots.
This year I’ve also engaged with my hobbies. I had a goal of reading more books this year. In 2022 I read about a book a month but fell off in the second half of the year. In 2022 I read six total novels as well as some comics. In 2023, I read a total of eleven novels. The big shout outs are the four Avatar Novels by F.C. Lee as well as The Poppy War Trilogy by R. F. Kuang. I’d definitely recommend the Avatar Novels if you are a fan of the show Avatar The Last Airbender or The Legend of Korra. To me the books seem like a PG-13 version of the Avatar world that the show couldn’t touch on as much due to it being a Nickelodeon show. Also I definitely recommend The Poppy War Trilogy. R.F. Kuang is a great author and she writes very vivid stories filled with fantastic characters and a deep, fantastical world. I’m currently reading Babel by R.F. Kuang and plan on reading her other novel, Yellowface. I definitely recommend her work.
Now that I’ve talked about my 2023 I want to look to the future and make some predictions for 2024. I won’t really take huge swings but I don’t want things to age too bad. But who knows, maybe I’ll nail it.
First I want to be hopeful that I continue my healthy habits that I’ve established in 2023. I’m predicting that I will continue to go to the gym but not as much as I should. I’ll probably eat too many sweets, but I’ll continue to eat healthy most of the time and work on losing some more weight. I predict something similar to my mental health. I think that it might be a bit of a rollercoaster with some ups and downs, but I believe I’ll be able to focus on the good stuff and work through the bad stuff.
Second, I think I’ll continue to focus on my hobbies. I want to continue reading novels. My goal is to read at least 10 books a year/a book a month. I was able to do that in 2023 and I think that’s a good goal for 2024 as well. I’m predicting that I will achieve that goal. I also predict that I will spend some time playing and completing video games this year. I’m hoping that the Nintendo Switch 2 or Super Nintendo Switch or whatever it will be called will come out in 2024. If it comes out in 2024, I’ll definitely buy it.
Third, I think that I’ll continue to write here on the website, but definitely not as much as I would hope. I’ve set a goal of publishing one or two pieces a month and even that goal might not be achievable some months. In 2023 I struggled hard to get some stuff published and I constantly deal with creative burnout even when I take breaks. So I’m predicting that I won’t always accomplish my goal of writing. But I want to say two things about this. One I hope that I’m wrong on this. I want to be able to hit that goal and I want to write even more this month. I really want to write more and keep this website going strong because I do enjoy it. Two, even if I do fail, I hope I’m ok with it. I don’t want to be too hard on myself. I just want to have fun with writing and not put too much pressure on it. We’ll see. This will be the prediction I’m most interested in.
Fourth, I know that this year I will be moving out of the apartment I’m currently living in. I hope that I find a nice place to live that is less expensive than the place I live now. There are a few things that haven’t been figured out yet but I’m predicting my living situation will work out for the best and I’ll be excited for this next chapter of my life. Next I hope and predict that I will have a new job in 2024. I don’t want to give out too many details but I’ll say here that my work life has not been great. Especially near the end of 2023, unexpected things happened and now my situation is not exactly stable. (Sorry for being so vague but I have to keep some things private). All I’m saying is that I hope that I find a new, more stable job in 2024. I have big plans and I want to advance my career but my current job won’t get me there. I don’t know how things will work out but I’m currently searching for new jobs and I really, really hope that it works out.
That is my summary of my 2023 as well as my predictions for 2024. I’m actually pretty excited to read this back and see what sort of stuff ages well and what stuff ages super poorly. I can’t truly predict what 2024 has in store for me, but I’m going to guess it won’t be that crazy of a year for me personally. We’ll just have to see.
This blog was a bit long and rambly, but that’s just the sort of stuff I tend to write when I get a chance to sit down and just write. Again, I’m excited to set this aside, not think about it for a whole year, and then read it back when it gets published.
I hope you all enjoyed this type of blog. This was a pretty unique idea compared to my usual type of blogs, so if you liked this thing, please let me know. I’m definitely interested in doing this again in the future if all of you liked it.
Thank you so much for reading through this entire blog. I hope you had a wonderful 2024 and I hope 2025 is even better!
-Allen_The_Writer
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Allen The Writer 
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