2024 is finally over, which means 2025 is upon us.
The past couple years have been... interesting... to say the least. Pandemics, politics, riots, AI, etc. It's been a weird couple years. But this year is one I think I will look back on fondly.
This year was packed with personal progress and development. From starting community college, to learning more about programming, and even strengthening my relationship with my boyfriend. This year will be marked down as a time when I made a lot more progress than I did in previous years.
I want to use this post as a way to write down how my year went and how I made progress throughout the year.
At the time, I didn't have much going on. I was out of high-school taking a year-long break, which turned into an extended time of sitting around and playing games. It wasn't until around June where something finally happened. I made the decision to finally go to college.
Now the problem with going to college where I am is that most colleges here don't teach anything related to programming or computer-science, but one of the local community colleges happened to have a course for that route that seemed quite solid. Classes didn't start until around August, but in the meantime I spent a lot of time thinking about my future and what I wanted it to be like. My overall goal with life is to live comfortably.
I didn't want luxury, nor fame, or even much action. I just wanted to live without worrying about where my next meal would come from or how I'll pay the bills. I wanted to share my life with someone close to me, someone who understood me and would be there when we needed each other. At the time, me and Icey had been dating for almost a year. We've spent many nights together on Discord, staying up until one of us admitted defeat and went to bed. For me, Icey was the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. He's pretty and imaginative, we're able to understand each other well, and we boost each other up all the time. He was the perfect companion for me.
At the time, Icey wasn't transmasc, but he is now. I've helped Icey realize more about himself, and we're both happy with each other. When I asked a question about being transgender or wanting to swap genders, he gave me good answers that helped me understand. Icey deserves the world and more, but a little shiny gem once in a while keeps his dragon brain occupied for a while.
Another thing I thought about in the time before college started for me was yearly themes.
If you're unfamiliar with what a yearly theme is, a yearly theme is a theme you set for your year in order to steer your choices throughout the year.
CGPGrey's YouTube video was where I learned about this concept, and it has stuck with me ever since. It's a great way to subtly move yourself towards making the changes you want in your life without the fear of failure that New Year's Resolutions typically have.
This whole system around using themes instead of goals incentivises you to make decisions that are aimed towards what you want to accomplish.
The theme I chose for 2024 was titled...
I mainly went with this theme because I remembered the movie "Meet the Robinsons" and how the family in that movie always emphasises learning from your mistakes and to keep pushing forward. This little theme, though forgotten for most of the year, helped me make good decisions throughout the year.
It's a silly name for a theme, but it's one that was VERY memorable and stuck with me.
Community college is really nice. It's helped me take a lot of steps forward in my life, showing me neat career opportunities and the amazing people that work those jobs. College has helped me get a better idea of where I want to go in life, and for that I am VERY thankful.
College recently let out, which has finally given me a good chance to visit Icey. It'd been over a year since I last got to be with him. Last time we spent a lot of time talking about all the time we spent together when we were both in middle school, going out and eating great food, and enjoying each-other's company. This time around, we went out to an antique shop and bought some neat trinkets, got to see what "Sign Guy" wrote on his sign (this time it was not racist, but it was still weirdly written nonsense), and built a little LEGO train! We spent a lot of time snuggling up together as well. I really needed to see him again. I missed being able to snuggle with him and talk about life and how we feel.
I've got a lot of things I'm hopeful for in 2025, but I'm a little tired of writing, so I'll just make a simple bulleted list...
Drink responsibly, be merry, and take care! I'll see you next time!