how was 2021 for you?

[colours]

with this year coming to a close pretty soon (time sure has flown, huh?), how would you say 2021 has treated you up to this point?

 

[wanderist]

I'm not sure how to even describe this year. I think it was better than 2020 as a whole, but 2020 was such a "if it can go wrong, it will" kind of year for almost everyone and everything that that isn't really a high bar.

For me personally, it's been...empty, I guess? My family got a new puppy who my life has revolved around all year (her first birthday is literally New Year's Eve yay) but that's the only big thing that's happened. My life has just been taking care of the puppy, doing minor housework, looking at jobs that don't inspire me at all, and doing whatever else my parents need me to do. Job searching has not gone well, though I know the fact that I really don't know what I want anymore isn't helping. I've tried looking for remote work since that would be the most convenient for everyone, but that hasn't really been easy either. This has just been the most pointless, unproductive year of my life really. At least in 2020 I actually accomplished something (graduating college), even if that was only in the first half of the year.

On a brighter note, back in March my doctor got me on a medicine that seems to actually be cutting down on all the headaches I have been having my whole life. I still get minor ones a lot, but for a long while I finally wasn't having the major, no leaving the bed headaches so much. Though they seem to be coming back lately with a vengeance, hopefully that's just stress and/or sinus issues.

 

[Welkamo]

Ehhhhhh... in some ways, it feels like an extension of 2020. A lot of really bad shit happened. On the other hand, I finally got therapy, I moved to a new place and found new friends, and joined Bulbagarden, so that's a win. I just hope that 2022 is better.

It feels weird that the year is almost over.

 

[Neo Blaze]

Pretty good, all things considered. Finally graduated college which relieved a lot of stress. Haven't found a suitable job yet but I did manage to get an inbetween job as a mailman, leaving me in a somewhat better financial position I was in. I've bought several things I wanted to have for some time now and this year has been a really good year for enjoying my hobbies because I had more time for them and I was in a happier state of mind.

On the flipside however, things are a mess in the world and I am really sad about the state of things. I want to be an optimist but there are so many things I'm worried about on a greater level: Covid still being a thing and new variants appearing, the division in societies and cultures and social unrest because of it, climate change, politics, you name it.

So I am going into 2022 with mixed feelings. Positive about where I am personally at the moment and where I'm heading, but worried about everything else going on in the world.

 

[Okido]

I honestly... am not sure? I have mixed feelings about this whole year.

On one hand, it feels like 2021 was a lot kinder to me than 2020, or even 2019 was — yet on the other hand, it feels like it also treated me worse in some ways. There were some things that happened that made me really happy, and some things that just totally blew. My birthday back in January was particularly a nightmare lol, but around April through June was probably the high point of my last two years... and since October, it's just been a bit boring. I think I'm just going to give it a tentative "it was okay" as a whole.

It does kind of feel like "2020 part 2", in that once again, I don't feel like I really accomplished anything big this year. I can't think of a single thing I can mention that's like "I finally did it!"... things just sort of either happened, or they didn't, and usually they didn't. And I guess that's okay — but it's probably going to drive me that much more next year to start doing everything I didn't do this year. I just wanna look back on 2022 a year from now and be like "yep, that was a good year" with complete certainty. I just hope that's not a huge ask. I want next year to be good to everybody, you know?

No idea where the time went though, just like, generally. How is it December already? Wasn't it May just a minute ago???

 

[Neyo]

2020 if 2020 was better.

 

[Hydrogenium]

Uhhh… Good, I guess?

I have visited a lot of interesting places, like Prague and Brno, both are nice cities… My sister has got a second chihuahua, a puppy, and it’s a lovely creature…

And some negative things: coronavirus, or rather the crazy disinformation and fake news (I hate it), my beloved goldfish has died, and the sensitivity of my ears has gotten worst (it’s terrible when everything and everyone is too loud…)

I’m rather a pessimist and I can think of more negative than positive things…

So, let’s just say that this year was good – the people who are important to me are still alive and healthy (optimism : )

 

[Juliko]

Personally, in regards to my own life, it's been pretty good. I've managed to crawl out of my anime burnout, I got transferred to a new job that still pays as well as my old one did, I got to go to an anime convention after not being able to do so last year, and I got the vaccines, with my booster shot coming up! Of course, that's more personal on my end. I know, objectively, 2021 wasn't much better than 2020, only marginally, especially with what happened on January 6th.

 

[Isaac the Investigator]

The first part of the year was truly awful but since I have been diagnosed with ADHD things have not been as bad. Hopefully 2022 is better

 

[skywaffles]

January: Bad
February: Bad
March: Bad
April: Eh
May: Good
June: Great
July: Great
August: Great
September: Good
October: Decent
November: Decent
December: Good (so far)

 

[indigohex3]

To an earlier poster, it's "Murphy's Law" in which anything that can go wrong will go wrong. It has been a lot better than 2020 (did more work as a film extra in one month this year than all of 2020 combined), but sadly we now have the Omicron variant going around the world, and that may be problematic.

And in an example of Murphy's Law, at university (via Zoom), we were about to do presentations, and problems emerged meaning the whole class was cancelled because no one was able to get in (we did it on the Wednesday instead). I finish up in Semester 1 next year, and hopefully be ready to do research in the future (but not before teaching English in South Korea).

I also watched the Olympics and Paralympics on the television, and I felt disappointed that we didn't get to see sports climbing, table tennis or badminton on the television here in Australia as I would've loved to see those events. But fortunately with the Paralympics, I watched the table tennis where we got a couple of surprise medals (including two gold medals, resulting in Australia finishing second in the event behind China).

 

[Frozen Fennec]

Mixed, made headway on several goals but accidentally jumped the shark on one goal without considering I need a new pc overall first since my older pc seems to be slowly dying and unable to keep up with newer games.

 

[CuboneKing]

Very mixed bag of a year.

On one hand I’ve been in a relationship all year with a wonderful girl who cares about me a lot, I moved out of my parents’ house and into an apartment with a couple friends which has been fun, I’ve expanded my music production knowledge a good bit, I’ve gone on some cool trips, and I left my crappy retail job after two and a half years.

On the other, my mental health has been declining all year and recently steeply dropped off. I have a shit ton of issues and trauma that is getting in the way of me living my life. My heart feels way too blocked up to fully enjoy the relationship, which is a problem in itself, but I’ve also got the guilt of that fact eating me alive. My self esteem, motivation, and energy to interact with people are all out the door. I haven’t been working for months now and I’m barely a functioning person at this point. Luckily I’m getting support and will soon be starting a partial hospitalization program soon to heal and set myself on the right path but it’s gonna be a lot of work and I’m really intimidated. I worry I may become even more burnt out. There have also been more conflicts with my friends and family this year than I’d like there to be, I spent a lot of it working said crappy retail job, my girlfriend’s cat died and that fucking sucked, and everything’s just kind of a mess. But I have a chance to make it better. I hope I don’t blow it.

Hoo wee that was more than I thought it’d be but here we are. Hope your year was better than mine lmao.

 

[colours]

this year sucked for me. a lot.

it's mostly because at the beginning of this year, i took a job that i ended up hating a lot. i got a lot of verbal abuse from one of my leads and the job itself was meh and i was very underpaid. did that for seven months until i resigned last month. i thought i'd had a job offer, but it turns out that went in the dumps too and things didn't go as planned, so now it's back to the drawing board of applying to jobs.

i just want my life to not be so difficult. hopefully 2022 will be my year. @_@

 

[Ivan the Dragon]

Pretty much was terrible due to Covid

 

[Insanish Danish]

2021 has been the worst year of my entire life, bar none, due to a whole host of reasons I'm not comfortable discussing. Christmas is usually my favorite time of the year and I'm not even excited for it this year - this is the first time I have EVER been so bad that not even Christmas could cheer me up. My anxiety and depression have been out of control to an extent they have never been before. No one understands because it's always just "oh well the pandemic's been hard on everyone!" No. Most of what I've gone through this year is completely unrelated to the pandemic. It's a lot of personal shit that I can't even discuss because, again, no one gets it. I'm so fucking exhausted.

I would like to edit this post to clarify that it wasn't ENTIRELY bad. 2021 definitely had its share of good times, and I will carry those memories with me fondly. Unfortunately, when it was bad, it was really, really bad, hence why I'm declaring 2021 the worst year of my life so far.

 

[Aulos]

It feels like it has all been uphill from the very beginning of 2020, where I really hit near rock bottom. 2021 has been a fantastic year for me. I feel like I will remember it as fondly as some of my other best years (2008 and pre-election 2016). Some really exciting things happened in my life. The only downside about it has been how slow things have gone in getting me a job and thus income hasn't been there for me all year.

Certain aspects of the year have been particularly rough for my family, though.

 

[Aozora]

Well, there sure is a lot going on that makes it hard to be optimistic about the future of our society. But on a personal level, 2021 has been pretty good for me. The first half our so was really slow, but in August I moved from Ohio to Minnesota to start a new job, which has been pretty nice so far. I did break my ankle around Thanksgiving which is a pain, but it will heal.

 

[Sheep]

Mixed, but mostly positive. I moved across the world to be with my husband, which is a huge plus since this is the first time we're really together permanently and not for 6-month stints (which was the max I could extend my tourist visa for when he was working in South Africa). This time in Australia I applied for a proper permanent visa and while it's still being looked over since it can take up to 1-2 years, I'm pretty confident we'll get it. And I can stay in Aus while it's being processed.

Bad stuff has also happened to make it mixed, the main thing is I got diagnosed with IBS and am struggling to eat certain foods without stomach pain/bloating/etc. Still trying to 100% figure out my triggers and when we were on our roadtrip a week ago I had pains from eating at restaurants literally every single day lol. It's so hard to vacation with this condition and some days it just hurts soo much.

 

[R1ke]

Pretty good overall, especially compared to last year. I had a lot more to do, met more people and was much busier. I even got better grades consistently and moved to a better house. Not to mention entertainment was soo good too. There have been rough patches, but most of them are me actually confronting and trying to solve my issues, rather than them silently being in the background. I did still feel unhappy for a while here but I’m working through it and made significant progress. Really just coming to terms with myself and what I want. It was a challenging reward but a fairly rewarding one. Hope the work I’ve put in pays off this year.