Goodbye 2018: Things I Accomplished (and Also Unfortunately Didn’t) This Year!

Hi, I’m May and sometimes my self-worth depends on my productivity. 

I love opening up posts with lines that are way too personal!!!

Okay, but I’m like actually 100% serious about this. I know it’s bad and it’s a really destructive mindset to have but I’m working on it!!

Today, as a part of me attempting to improve, I’m writing a completely unbiased post about what I have and haven’t been able to accomplish this year. I’m not judging myself for what I couldn’t do, because I deserve to be good to myself!

(Also this is another short post?? Who am I??? Where did over-1k-word-blog-post May go??)

WHAT I ACCOMPLISHED

• Being less stressed over grades! This mostly started happening near the end of the year, but it’s such a big accomplishment because I’ve always been a huge worrier over grades. And now I’ve finally been able to let it go if I don’t get a Perfect Score because that is! next to impossible!
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• Reading books I enjoyed! Like I talked about, I’ve rated books a lot more highly this year than before, and I truly think it boils down to me just getting better at picking out books I think I’ll like. Which has just led me to have an overall better reading experience (even if I’m struggling to hit 100 books for the year!).
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• Also, reading more webcomics? This is for the end of the year (November and December) because I’m rushing to finish my Goodreads challenge, but I’m SO glad I got into a webcomic kick because there are so many good ones—On a Sunbeam is actually a favorite book of the year for me!—and I’m excited to read more in 2019!

• Writing things I’m really proud of! Usually whenever I write stuff, I end up not liking it later, which I’m sure other people can relate to. But this year I’ve actually written stuff that I’ve stayed proud of and I’m really happy about that!
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• Writing almost 25K of my WIP! While I didn’t actually reach the set NaNoWriMo goal, I’m proud of myself for writing as much as I did, and I feel like I could really go somewhere with this WIP. This is definitely a source of pride for me and I’m happy about it (since it’s hard for me to feel proud about my writing a lot).
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• Starting a bookstagram! I’ve always loved the idea of taking pictures of books, and I’m really glad I started a bookstagram this year because I love taking photos and feeling proud of how they turn out.

• Becoming closer to/made more friends!This year I feel like I really made a lot of new friends online by pushing myself to really branch out and interact (at least on social media oops). And while I haven’t really made any new friends irl, I’ve grown closer to a lot of my existing friends and I’m proud of myself.
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• Hitting 1.5K followers on my blog! This was one of my goals for 2018 and I really didn’t think I’d make it, considering how poorly I’ve been at blogging this year, so I’m really proud of this!
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WHAT I DIDN’T ACCOMPLISH

• Participating in more self-care. I mean, I kind of did it, but when it was at the point that I actually truly NEEDED it after I hadn’t taken care of myself. I feel like I’d practiced self-care more often, things wouldn’t have gotten to the point that they had. (This includes getting enough sleep or water, doing things for myself/my happiness, and skincare.)
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• Writing book reviews. I probably have like 60 book reviews that I need to write? I’m probably not ever going to write those reviews (except for…overdue ARC ones) because 1) lack of time and 2) lack of memory, but I’m kinda sad about it since I miss writing them
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• Actually… being a good blogger? Hi yes, you all know this but this year I just sucked at interacting and actually being a blogger besides posting stuff! And I hate it so much, but I’ve already beat myself up about it so I won’t say anything else about it other than the fact that I plan to actively change this in 2019.
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• Managing time and stress. I think I’m always going to have this problem but I thought in 2018 I’d be a lot better at it?? (What a nice, oblivious time that was.) There are so many times where I could have NOT procrastinated and saved myself a lot of stress, but I didn’t. Really truly going to try and fix that in 2019… at least at first??
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• Watching the TV shows I wanted to. I’m writing this the night before I go on a road trip when I might watch The Good Place, but I’m sad because the only show I got to watch that I’ve been wanting to watch was Brooklyn 99. Which was an excellent choice, but I want to watch more!!
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• Branching out in music. I mean, listening to Brockhampton was a pretty big branching out since I almost never listen to hip hop/rap. But I feel like most of my listening is resorted to one artist for a month (or more than a month, in Brockhampton’s case), which limited how much music I really listened to.

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what are some things you accomplished this year? do you have any music/tv show recs for me? what are some standout books you read? if you have a bookstagram, feel free to link it to me!!