2022: My Year In Review
This year has felt like an absolute blur. Maybe it’s because it’s the first year things started to feel normal again with the pandemic still underfoot, but last December feels like yesterday and it’s unsettling to believe a whole year has passed again.
This year, like all years, had it’s fair share of ups and downs.
Let’s start with the good stuff. Luckily, I was able to travel quite a bit again this year. In January, I came back from Zurich, Switzerland and then went straight to San Francisco to see friends and spend my golden birthday weekend in Tahoe! In March, I had back to back trips each week - first to NOLA for work, then to LA to see the new JJK movie with friends (excessive I know), then to Iowa to see family, then to Steamboat Springs Colorado for the last ski of the season. In June, I finally got to go to Greece again (first time in four years!) and spent two weeks there - seeing a bunch of new places I hadn’t been yet, including a new island (Milos). In July and August, I had a lot of weddings, a bridal shower, and a bachelorette party which took me to Indiana, and Palm Springs. In September, I went to Dallas for work. October held more wedding festivities which included attending a wedding in Austin, Texas and culminated in being in one of my best friend’s weddings in LA. In November, I went to Red River Gorge in Kentucky for some climbing and followed that up with a pre-Thanksgiving Arizona trip to hike, climb, and see my boyfriend’s family. I finished off the year with another Alps trip, this time to Chamonix in France, followed by a little bit of Geneva in Switzerland!
I wasn’t always gone though. I was lucky enough to have a couple friends come visit me in April and May which allowed me to explore Chicago through fresh eyes for the first time in awhile. A lot of the travel also focused on weddings, namely a few trips to California to participate in one of my best friend’s weddings. I absolutely loved being in that wedding. It was a special opportunity in that the bridal party was made up of close friends and the invite list included many college friends as well. Even though it wasn’t even my wedding, it was super special. I went to a total of five weddings this year but because I was in this one, it felt like I was thinking about it all year.
Two other big accomplishments took place for me this year. First, I got a new job! Same company, new job. But it’s for a team I’m really excited for and it’s finally not a consulting job which is such a nice change of pace for me. Secondly, my boyfriend and I moved in together over the summer. It already feels like we’ve always lived together but it was a huge accomplishment combining all our stuff and re-learning how to live with someone.
Lastly, all the other random accomplishments: I took my first ever ski lesson while in Steamboat, Colorado, scuba dove for the first time in Milos, Greece, and lead climbed outside for the first time in Red River Gorge, Kentucky. My climbing has improved to being able to consistently lead climb 5.11a/b and red point 5.11c/d which is almost a whole grade harder than last year for me! I randomly took a wine class and passed the level one wine tasting certification exam, and finally, I went to about 145 new restaurants this year (all in the index!)
Now onto the heavier parts. This year was marked by loss for me. My maternal grandfather and paternal grandmother both passed away this year, leaving both my parents as orphans. I’ve written about my grief both times in prior posts but these deaths hit me a lot harder than I expected and I’m still grappling with the emotions their deaths have brought up in me.
Despite the fact that I got a new job, it didn’t happen until late summer, and most of the year was still marked by a general feeling of purposelessness. I even stopped writing regularly on this blog. Even now that I’m happier with my current job, I still can’t shake the feeling that I’m not spending my time in the right ways. I feel guilty when I spend too much time on work, with my boyfriend, or with my family. I always feel like I’m not devoting my attention to the right place at the right time. It’s a pervasive feeling and even though I continue to try to think my way out of it, it remains a persistent issue for me.
But now onto my Type-A showcase of my yearly data collection
To start, my top blog posts of the year were as follows:
Why Your Parents Don’t Understand You…and Why You Don’t Understand Them
2021: My Year In Review (lol)
What to Know About Living Alone…From Someone Who No Longer Plans on Doing it
Perhaps it was because I stopped writing three quarters of the way through the year, but the most viewed posts were overwhelmingly about family and loss. I’m not sure if I’ll get back to writing as regularly as before in this forum, but it is reassuring to know that the posts that were hardest for me to write also resonated the most.
Habit Data
Same as last year, I tracked my habit data across the same six habits as last year: language practice, working out, water consumption, stretching, writing, and climbing. All 6 were tracked for the whole year and the data is in the index if you’re interested.
Language: I added a flash card practice to my language learning later last year so this metric tracks each day I did flash cards, had a tutoring lesson, or worked on language individually. My average went down a little bit in this category as opposed to 2021 but I attribute it to my deletion of Duolingo. Although I practiced my languages near daily, I finally allowed myself to breathe while on vacations since the little Duolingo owl was no longer harassing me while I was relaxing. A goal for me going into 2023 is to take a mid-level HSK exam to validate how far I’ve come in my Mandarin practice.
Working out: As before, this metric was tracked each time I did an intentional workout, or had a particularly active day (hiking, skiing, walking all day, etc.). My average went down by a lot with me working out only 23 days per month on average (as opposed to 27 in 2021). Once again, I attribute this to travel. I did a lot of active travel last year but this year was more for weddings, work, and social events and did not necessarily include a lot of working out. However, I still feel really good about this number and it just goes to show how flexible this habit can be now that it’s so automatic for me.
Water: I felt so good about this one last year but in 2022 I struggled. My average was nearly the same (26 days per month) of drinking at least 2L of water per day, but I often found myself chugging water at the end of the night to hit this goal. Going into next year, I need to find ways to make drinking water more automatic throughout the day.
Writing: Obviously my writing habit went down in 2022, decreasing from an average of writing 13 days per month to 9. Namely due to the fact that I all but stopped writing completely in September of 2022. I don’t feel the same need to share in a blog format as I used to and I’m not yet sure how I’ll track this going in to 2023 if at all. I love writing and having it as a part of my life, but I need to explore what formats might be better for this practice.
Stretching: A new goal as of last year, and my average went down from 21 to 17 days per month. I attribute this decrease to the same decrease in my workout habit. I usually tack on stretching to my workouts so if I don’t workout, chances are I don’t stretch. I probably need to think of stretching and mobility as a separate endeavor because even when I don’t workout, it would almost certainly do me some good to stretch.
Climbing: another new habit as of last year. I’ve been climbing regularly since late 2019, with a big uptick at the end of 2020. I track this one mostly for fun, and the numbers help to see how training impacts how my climbing improves. In 2021, I climbed an average of 9 days per month and in 2022 it was 7. I attribute this to all the weekends I was traveling this past year as weekends were prime climbing time for me.
Media
Starting in 2020, I tracked all the media I consumed and this has been the most fun category for me to explore. I read 45 books (two more than last year), watched 59 new movies (substantially less than last year), and watched 43 new shows or new seasons of shows (substantially more than last year). My reading habit has stabilized and I regularly read at least 20 minutes a day if not more. My movie watching declined substantially because honestly, there are a lot of bad movies coming out nowadays and I approach new movies with an abundance of caution. But for ever terrible movie, it seems there is an amazing TV show and I’ve enjoyed exploring new genre’s that way. You can find the full list of everything I watched or read below.
Finance data
Last but not least - I tracked my finances. This was an interesting year for me since things were more normal for the pandemic and also since I got a substantial raise last year. I was very curious to see if my spending changed. Short answer: it did. I spent substantially more on eating out and gifts. I moved this year and also helped my sister with their moving costs so I also spent a lot of money on that endeavor (captured in ‘Necessary’s). However, I was also able to invest almost triple what I have in the past. I’m definitely going to set a budget for eating out next year but all in all, I’m happy my spending didn’t go up too much!
INDEX:
Top Picks
Favorite Books: Poppy War Series (By R.F. Kuang), Exercised (By Daniel Lieberman), If I Had Your Face (By Frances Cha), Ember in the Ashes Series (By Sabaa Tahir), The Black Swan (By Nassim Nicholas Taleb), Babel (By R.F. Kuang), Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow (By Gabrielle Zevin), Malice (Keigo Higashino)
Favorite Movies: My Cousin Vinny, JJK Movie, The Outfit, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Bullet Train, Look Both Ways, Top Gun Maverick, Midsommar, The Menu
Favorite TV Shows: Mob Psycho (S1-S3) (CrunchyRoll & Hulu), The Silent Sea (Netflix), The Great S2 (Hulu), Dollface S2 (Hulu), ARCANE (Netflix), Neon Genesis Evangelion (Netflix), Spy Family (Hulu), The Boys S4 (Amazon Prime), Severance (Apple TV), Kamisama Kiss (Hulu), Abbott Elementary (Hulu), The Bear (Hulu)
Favorite Products - Paula’s Choice BHA Liquid Exfoliant, Paula’s Choice Retinol, iPad Pro (for travel); Kosas Brow Gel; Tower 28 Bronzer, Amazon Sports Bras, Inez Boots
Favorite Restaurants: Widder Restaurant (Zurich, Switzerland), Galit (Chicago, IL), Kumo (Chicago, IL), El Che (Chicago, IL), Kasama (Chicago, IL), Laopengyou (Chicago, IL), Spondi (Athens, Greece), Rooh (Chicago, IL), Elske (Chicago, IL), Pine & Crane (LA, CA), Sushi by Bou (Chicago, IL), Le Tse Fung (Geneva, Switzerland)
Number One picks if you held a knife to my throat?
Book: Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow (This one hit me at the exact right moment in my life)
Movie: Everything Everywhere All At Once (No contest)
Show: Arcane (Also no contest; haven’t seen a show this perfect in a long time)
Product: Paula’s Choice BHA Solution (I seriously get more out of this than the iPad)
Restaurant: Spondi (I might be biased towards Greece but it was spectacular)
Would love any comments with your top picks for the year! I’m always looking to try new media, restaurants, and products!
Habit Data
Below is my habit data table. I still track my numbers daily, by month. I enjoy seeing the trends and remembering how they correspond to what I was doing.
Books: The title of the book is followed by the author and the page count. I read 16,264 pages this year!
The Young Elites - Marie Lu (370)
The Rose Society - Marie Lu (402)
The Midnight Star - Marie Lu (321)
The Poppy War - R.F. Kuang (531)
The Dragon Republic - R.F. Kuang (655)
Magic in The Mundane - Anthea Strategos (203)
The Burning God - R.F. Kuang (637)
The Priory of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon (835)
Silent parade - Keigo Higashino (304)
Date-onomics - Jon Birger (133)
Exercised - Daniel Lieberman (418)
Think Again - Adam Grant (307)
Tender is the Flesh - Augustina Batzerrica (214)
How High We Go in the Dark - Sequoia Nagamatsu (293)
Breasts and Eggs - Mieko Kawakami (427)
Magpie Murders - Anthony Horowitz (505)
Moonflower Murders - Anthony Horowitz (608)
If I Had Your Face - Frances Cha (269)
The Bone Witch - Rin Chupeco (306)
The Heart Forger - Rin Chupeco (380)
The Shadow Glass - Rin Chupeco (399)
Inspired - Marty Cagan (370)
Truly Global - Anna Schlegel (100)
An Ember in the Ashes - Sabaa Tahir (454)
Think Outside the Country - John Yunker (244)
A Torch Against The Night - Sabaa Tahir (453)
Strategize - Roman Pichler (160)
A Reaper at the Gates - Sabaa Tahir (463)
Empowered - Marty Cagan (395)
A Sky Beyond The Storm - Sabaa Tahir (517)
Translation & Web Localization - Miguel Jimenez-Crespo (244)
The Lead Product Playbook - Dan Olsen (283)
Lean Analytics - Jeffrey Ries (72)
Open, The Story of Human Progress - Johan Norberg (382)
The Language of Global Marketing - Wendy Pease (173)
The Black Swan - Nassim Nicholas Taleb (300)
Self Care - Leigh Stein (245)
Babel - R.F. Kuang (543)
Trust - Hernan Diaz (406)
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin (405)
The Storied Life of AJ Fikry - Gabrielle Zevin (260)
Food Rules - Michael Pollan (105)
Malice - Keigo Higashino (276)
Newcomer - Keigo Higashino (343)
Under the Midnight Sun - Keigo Higashino (554)
Movies
Vanilla Sky
The Dawn Wall
Hannold 2.0
Casino Royals
King Richard
Harry Potter Reunion
Encanto
Climb For Gold
My Cousin Vinny
The Tinder Swindler
Hotel Transylvania 4
Nightmare Alley
Late Bloomer
The King’s Man
This is Where I Leave You
The 355
House of Gucci
JJK Movie
Spider Man No Way Home
Death on the Nile
Se7en
Spencer
The Batman
Bubble
Operation Mincemeat
Top Gun
The Outfit
Dr Strange & The Multiverse of Madness
Last Night in Soho
The Northman
Gattaca
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Spider head
The Gray Man
The Sea Beast
Not Okay
Bullet Train
Top Gun Maverick
Thor Love & Thunder
Look Both Ways
Vengeance
Light year
Collateral
Deception
The Stepford Wives
Dark Places
Along Came a Spider
Midsommar
Luckiest Girl Alive
Father of The Bride
The Witch
End of Evangelion
The Bad Guys
My Mind & Me
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
Do Revenge
The Menu
See How They Run
Causeway
TV Shows
The Silent Sea
Mob Psycho
Demon Slayery S2
Attack on Titan S4
Sex Lives of College Girls
And Just Like That…
Emily In Paris S2
The Great S2
Queer Eye S6
Marvelous Mrs. Maisel S4
Steinsgate
Arcane
Inventing Anna
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Human Resources
Bridgestone S2
Euphoria S1 & 2
The Ultimatum
Selling Sunset S5
The Shining Girls
SpyxFamily S1 & 2
Ranking of Kings
Stranger Things S4
Severance
The Boys S4
The Summer I Turned Pretty
Kamisama Kiss
Never Have I Ever S3
House of Dragons
Abbott Elementary S1 & 2
Keep Sweet Pray & Obey
Parasyte The Maxim
My Hero Acadamia S6
Chainsaw Man
The Bear
Big Mouth S6
Love is Blind S3
Spy Family S2
Mob Psycho S3
Wednesday
His Dark Materials S3
White Lotus S1 & 2
Inuyasha
Restaurants - I’ve added the location of each of these in parentheses. If there is no location specified, the restaurant is in my home base city of Chicago.
Mille Feuille (Lucerne, Switzerland)
Spaghetti Factory (Zurich, Switzerland)
Widder Restaurant (Zurich, Switzerland)
Daeho Kalbijim (SF, California)
Miss Saigon (SF, California)
Neighbor Bakehouse (SF, California)
Wooly Pig (SF, California)
Le Fromagerie (SF, California)
Nabe (SF, California)
Senor Sisig (SF, California)
Venus Cafe (SF, California)
Mochil (SF, California)
U Dessert Story (SF, California)
Gus’s Seafod
Barrio
Ramen Takeya
Galit
Replay Bar
Roisters
Urban Belly
Publican Quality Meats
X Pot
Lena Brava
Rosemary
Lyra
French Truck Coffee (New Orleans, LA)
The Fourth Wall (New Orleans, LA)
Carlo (New Orleans, LA)
Bru’s Wiffle (LA, California)
Mugumugu (LA, California)
Kiff Kafe (LA, California)
Marugame Udon (LA, California)
Sunright Boba (LA, California)
Tocaya (LA, California)
Larchmont Bungalow Cafe (LA, California)
Silverback Coffee (LA, California)
Millet Creperie (LA, California)
Copperhead (Steamboat Springs, Colorado)
Truffle Pig (Steamboat Springs, Colorado)
Creek side Cafe (Steamboat Springs, Colorado)
Smell That Bread (Steamboat Springs, Colorado)
Laundry (Steamboat Springs, Colorado)
Yampa Valley Kitchen (Steamboat Springs, Colorado)
Mountain Tap Brewery (Steamboat Springs, Colorado)
Anise (Steamboat Springs, Colorado)
Tamashii Ramen
Green Street Meats
The Lobby at the Peninsula
Venteaux
3 Arts Club Cafe
Aba
Smith & Wollensky’s
Kumo
El Che
Kasama
BLVD
Sushi Pink
Pho Loan
Laopengyou
Formento’s
Metsovitiki Folia (Greece)
Mikros Apoplous (Ioannina, Greece)
De Milos (Milos, Greece)
Mavro Xoiro (Milos, Greece)
To Patrikio Mas (Delphi, Greece)
Spondi (Athens, Greece)
The Publican
CIRA
GIOIA
Hugo’s Frog Bar
Vietfive
Forbidden Root
Izakaya at Momotaro
TenGoku
Rooh
Soju BBQ
Mason’s Dumplings (LA, California)
The Tropicale (Palm Springs, California)
Workshop Kitchen (Palm Springs, California)
1501 Gastropub (Palm Springs, California)
El Mirasol Los Árboles (Palm Springs, California)
The Hoppy Gnome (Fort Wayne, Indiana)
Proximo (Fort Wayne, Indiana)
JJ Thai Street Food
Nancy’s Pizza
Circle Sushi
Black Barrel Tavern
Pilot Project Brewing
Sunset Pho
Elske
Qi Asian (Austin, Texas)
Forthright (Austin, Texas)
Comedor (Austin, Texas)
Miranda’s Cafe (Austin, Texas)
Corner Cafe (Austin, Texas)
Corinne (Austin, Texas)
Gyuro
Le French Rooster (LA, California)
Rose & Blanc Tea Room (LA, California)
Pine & Crane (LA, California)
Raffi’s (LA, California)
Café Integral (LA, California)
Afuri Ramen (LA, California)
Matcha Tea Master (LA, California)
Osteria La Buca (LA, California)
Cava (LA, California)
Sonoritas (LA, California)
Nijiya Market (LA, California)
Mochi Dochi (LA, California)
Mashti Mallone’s (LA, California)
Cafe Luxxe/Farmshop (LA, California)
Ttsujita Annex (LA, California)
Lighthouse Cafe (Orange County, California)
Gia Mia
Red point BBQ (Red River Gorge, Kentucky)
Miguel’s Pizza (Red River Gorge, Kentucky)
Daniel Boone Coffee (Red River Gorge, Kentucky)
OHSO Brewery (Red River Gorge, Kentucky)
Janie’s Cafe (Scottsdale, Arizona)
Four Peaks Brewery (Scottsdale, Arizona)
Carefree Cafe (Scottsdale, Arizona)
Creek Bar & Grill (Scottsdale, Arizona)
Fat Ox (Scottsdale, Arizona)
Rice Paper Vietnamese (Scottsdale, Arizona)
Kala
Porto
Monster Ramen
Nisos
Sushi by Bou
Hubbard Inn
XO Marshmallow Cafe
La Fruterie (Chamonix, France)
Carousel (Chamonix, France)
Akashon (Chamonix, France)
La Maison Carrier (Chamonix, France)
Moo Bar (Chamonix, France)
MBC Chamonix (Chamonix, France)
Josephine’s (Chamonix, France
Le Tse Fung (Geneva, Switzerland)
Le Safran (Geneva, Switzerland)
141-146 Plus about 5 nameless Greek tavernas during my Greece trip
Looking back at 2022