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2022 in Review

Well, my friends. This has been a bit of an exhausting year. I’m currently back in that familiar-to-me upperclassmen frame of mind: “If I can just make it through [x date]…”

2022 has been about traveling for family and friends, working hard, planning our wedding, always running a background process on COVID fears and fresh, fun anxieties. I’m hoping to take a breather after Rahul and I get married early next year (twice!).

Despite being an effortful year, it’s also one where I got to explore new passions and reconnect with old ones…

Highlights

Rahul smiling in a blue hat and jacket on a dirt path in the middle of a bright green field. There are yellow blossoms scattered throughout.
Rahul walking through a field into Copalis Beach in Washington state

Usual disclaimer: this is the highlight reel. The lowlights are kept private!

  • Moving into our new house and getting engaged (Rahul and I have been speed-running life changes the past couple years, it seems)
  • Dabbling in gardening and amari
  • Getting to be with my family for my niece’s 3rd birthday
  • Seeing my friends Saili and Billy get married
  • Screaming along with the girlies (masked) at a Phoebe Bridgers show. I’ve now seen all the boygenius ladies live. 🌟
  • Learning a bit about SQL
  • Floating in the sea in Hawaii
  • Attending my first NHL hockey game
  • Celebrating Diwali in India
  • Launching fun things at Netlify, like support for Azure DevOps as a Git provider, scopes and contextual values for environment variables, and subdomain delegation.
  • Continuing to spend quality time with my online writing group
  • Rediscovering sketchbooking and my love for art
  • Finding a super active art/illustration Discord server, which is currently my virtual home for art
  • Discovering the world of fountain pens and getting totally hooked on this hobby! Opening up each day in Diamine’s Inkvent calendar was especially fun this December.
  • Finding a new craft social (which requires vax cards and masks!)

Everything-ish I Made

A black pouch with a patchwork panel made of triangles, squares, and rectangles. Colors include red, yellow, pink, blue, teal, black, and white. There are black and white squares in a checkboard pattern. Two red and yellow Posca markers are next to the pouch
My A5 sketchbook pouch!

When you add it all up in a list, it feels like quite a bit!

Favorite Media

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Phoebe Bridgers, and Japanese Breakfast

Books

I read 60 books this year, so a bit of a dip from the past couple years. The culprit is likely my new love for artsy YouTube videos around bedtime.

Some favorites:

Movies

I watched 34 films this year. Some favorites:

Music

2022 — Tracks playlist on Tidal, which I think I switched to this year. Lots of my favorite sad girls (Phoebe, Julien, and Michelle).

2023 word of the year: Community

I’m still working out if/how I want to do annual goals, but I do know for sure that my theme of the year will be “community”. The pandemic has made me feel more disconnected from my community—both friends and strangers—and it has cost me dearly.

In 2023 I want to chip away at my recent hermetic shell, and spend more time 1) enjoying life in the company of others and 2) supporting those around me.

Hope you have a wonderful 2023!

Footnotes

  1. Disclosure: I’m an affiliate of Bookshop.org. Any purchases you make using my link will earn me (and local bookstores!) a small commission.

Responses

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  • Reply from sawyer on

    @melanie That snacks website!! 😻
  • Reply from Sameera on

    @melanie I so selfishly hoped you were going to do a year end review. Loved reading this, squealing at your a5 notebook pouch, and so grateful we got to spend time IRL and URL this year.
  • Reply from Melanie Richards on

    @samkap aw, I’m glad I did it then because I had to drag my heels a little! I’m glad we got to spend all this time together this year too. Hooray for more buddy time in 2023!
  • Reply from Hidde on

    @melanie lovely to read your post, wishing you a fantastic 2023!