I’d like to review 2024 in regards to my bullet journal and all of the goals and hopes and dreams I recorded in January. Overall, not a good year, but that’s mostly for other people due to politics and economy around the world. It was a pretty okay year for me, though I guess I am fortunate enough that I never really have had extremely bad years, just meh and uneventful years, which is a blessing. Although the mental illness from when I was young is ever present, so maybe my normal is the average people’s wretched, lol.
You can see my art thoughts in my previous post with the yearly art surveys, but summarized, I want to “continue” drawing 1 new finished piece of art each month at least, and try to incorporate one new art tutorial in general. I think that’s pretty doable as long as I don’t procrastinate on my drawing list. I won’t be keeping a bullet journal with monthly spreads this year, which really saved my ass in 2024. AI usage continues to worsen, it did not go away like NFTs, so it’s become even more important that I work on my creations and share them online somehow, encourage other creators and buying stuff from actual artists locally and around the world if I can. This also applies to writing fanfiction, which I just recently got back into doing (thanks Transformers hahah).
Here’s a look at the overall mood I set for 2024 in January, starting with letter to my 2025 self. Funny girl!
And look how chunky and thicc my bullet journal ended up, even though I stopped making a new to-do list each week halfway through, which would have made it even chunkier, probably impossible to close lol.
I did absolutely and diligently prayed, although not consistently, for a meteor to strike the earth and kill us all, mostly in regards to the November election that Trump somehow won again. I don’t know if consistency would have helped tbh. But at least according to my social media updates, world governments were not working in the favor of the average citizen in 2024, war and genocide continued. I don’t think this year will be better… but hoping it won’t be much worse? I guess?
I wrote a handful of health goals regarding better diet for better blood test results and more consistent exercise to tend my aging body, but the health tracker I was using got worse (wow, who could have expected that?) so I gave up in July. I did try to cook more with my later stint at cooking from my cookbooks every Friday for a couple of months until I got too lazy to grocery shop. I think I fell off the “Just Dance” 6 days a week in the summer when I had to go out of town, but I returned to dance-exercising a few days a week in the late autumn until the end of the year. My October physical was fine, though I was borderline on 3 different points and really need to maintain/improve a little this year lol. My brother got me small modular weights to help with strength for Christmas. But I still have other chronic health issues, some of which had lessened but new ones popped up to take their place. That’s life in your 40s!
The other personal goals were financial and related to my art business. Financially, I didn’t do the actions I had planned each quarter because I had to part with such huge amounts of money for my family for emergencies, but despite that, I still was in the positive. I didn’t add to my art shop as planned either, but I did create merch and goods in the first and third quarter for sharing and also vending one last time at my local anime art market, so I’d say I was half successful with finances and business lol.
As for activity goals, obviously maintaining a bullet journal (instead of plain journaling or writing in a planner with no art or personalization) was the new goal for the 2024 year. I also wanted to catch up on watching movies, television series and anime series, reading books (actual novels) and manga. Also, I wanted to play (finish? lol) video games, create at least one handmade cosplay or lolita outfit, and work on skills such as playing a musical instrument, another crafting skill, or learning language. Well, you can imagine with my personality how that went lol. I only made it through April before I gave up on most of that! I think bullet journaling, some anime/manga completions, and “finishing” at least a few handmade cosplay/lolita projects had been fairly successful so I’m not too disappointed in myself. Things got really bad starting in October after all so my usual last quarter catch up never happened.
Now for my hopes for 2025…
In light of the political situation, I want to say, continue to be present for my loved ones and try to physically contribute to my community more, instead of complaining on social media. But let’s be real, the only way to change this evil world is to be richer than God and/or kill people, and… that’s not happening for me. I don’t think this world is worth fighting for, hasn’t been for a while. I’m only alive because I know it would anger bad people and I’m spiteful, and also I’m too lazy to kill myself.
As for personal goals, those will be the same. As for the activity goals, I feel the main reason I never achieve a lot of them is because I have too many changing interests (due to the mental illness.) So I will grudgingly cut out danmei (both anime/live action shows and novels) from my list, and also music, in order to concentrate on things that I actually need to do for my health or that I have a bit more talent in (I’m not very musical). Also I’m going to ditch trying to keep plants alive, although one of my houseplants did bloom so there’s that. I might even cut out cosplay/lolita because I don’t really plan on going to cons since most of them have died in my area, and one day art markets are barely worth dressing up for. No longer being active in my local lolita social media groups means I have no desire to put on all the layers for lolita, especially in global warming weather and with the covid pandemic still present. Like I do not trust humans to not cough directly in my face anymore. Or wash their hands even after using the restroom! Gag!
Most importantly, I want to be my most authentic and happiest self, and continue to share as much kindness as I can, whether it’s buying from small businesses, checking in with my friends and loved ones, giving out art, writing fic (which is inherently free), encouraging folks online in their endeavors. I don’t know if my few random acts of kindness in 2024 really helped anyone much, I am assuming they didn’t hurt though, that’s what I’m telling myself anyway.
Here’s hoping 2025 is not going to be as bad as I fear…