2016 Resolutions and 2015 Review

2016 is just around the corner! What are you aspiring to next year? What did you accomplish in 2015? Do you have any traditions/rituals you use to prepare you for the new year? Tell us all you want us to know about your past year and the year to come!

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Me personally, my only real goal for 2016 is to maintain the momentum I got in 2015 and try to have the best year possible. Oh yeah, and get into college.

Speaking of college, I'm graduating from high school in May! Should be fun. I'm just glad we're rounding the halfway point on senior year, because to be honest, I'm completely shattered.

Some end-of-the-year/beginning-of-the-year traditions I've gotten into: At the end of the year, I usually listen to the song that most defined my year. At the start of the year, I start on a positive song about nice things to come. My last song of 2014 was Oblivion by Grimes, and my first song of 2015 was The Beginning of Something Really Excellent from Homestuck. At this point in time my last song of 2015 will either be Home by LCD Soundsystem or Black Me Out by Against Me!. Not sure what the first song of 2016 will be.

Also, I always make sure I'm on Animal Crossing: New Leaf for the countdown. I'm not sure if I want to do that or not this year, given that it distracts me from the actual countdown in the real world. :V

As for good things about 2015, I did my absolute best to improve myself year, and it was a fantastic year overall! I listened to a lot of cool new music, played some great games, did my best to fix my procrastination problem, and started thinking in a more positive direction, which lead directly to coming out as trans to you guys and a much higher self-esteem overall. So I'd like to thank you guys for helping me with that! <3

Overall, 2015 was a really great year and it gives me good feelings about how 2016 will go. This is gonna be a big year for me overall, even without the transition from high school to college. Looking forward to it~!

Let's see...

2015 had a few milestones for me: New job that's still going strong, learner's permit and more confidence in driving, lots of new tech (a tablet to replace my old laptop, then a new laptop that's been great, and, most recently, a new phone, plus a 2DS finally), and lots of new games (and I've pretty much become a PC gamer with all the games I have on Steam now). Also, this holiday season has easily been one of the best, and (besides being iced in for a couple of days) the end of the year has also been excellent!

There's probably other notable things that I'm forgetting, but I think those sum up the best bits of the year nicely.

Some other things that have happened this year are...well, not as great...

After 5 years or so, I experienced something I hoped to never again experience this year: a "crush" (if you can even call it that...). That started about halfway through the year, and, now, at the end of the year, the girl is nothing but a passing thought in my head (though, I do sometimes dwell on that thought a bit longer than I should... )... So yet another failure in my "love life" (which shouldn't even be called that since there's never been any "love" in it...).

My religion has also come into play this year... I'm still very strong in my faith and beliefs, but... I didn't actually get to Church once this year... I did watch Mass online every week though, but it never feels the same as actually being there....

Lastly, of note for this year, I've noticed that I've kind of dropped out of watching anime and reading manga... I was considering myself an Otaku Gamer at the start of the year, but... I haven't read or watched anything since...September? So yeah, I'm leaning more towards the gamer side of my nerdiness going into the end of the year.

Things I hope to accomplish in 2016: Get over the opposite sex once and for all (because I'm tired of failing and daydreaming about things that will never happen), get back into anime and manga again, finish all (or at least most of) the new games I've acquired this year, and maybe get my full driver's licence. Other than that, just make sure I keep doing a good job at work, and have another great year with my family.

Oh, and go bowling at least once next year. I wanted to to that this year for my birthday, but I had to work on it, so definitely next year, going bowling again.

I think I learned a lot about myself in 2015. For example, I learned that I still can't score with a girl, and I still sabotage myself by procrastinating on important things in lieu of instant gratification.

On that self-deprecating note, my goal going into 2016 is to take the advice of my friends to heart, and focus on improving myself before attempting to close the emotional gap that I feel from the people around me. I want to learn how to work harder, procrastinate less, motivate myself more, and quit beating myself up over trivial failures that I read too deeply into.

My last song of 2015 ended up being Home by LCD Soundsystem. My first song of 2016 was Ohgodcat from Homestuck. Home was probably my favorite song I discovered in 2015, and it's a really uplifting song overall, and in general represents the year for me very well. Especially this line:

This Line(TM) wrote:If you're afraid of what you need
If you're afraid of what you need
Look around you
You're surrounded
It won't get any better

To me, that line represents a promise to take everything in general less seriously, and a good frame of mind to get in if you want to simplify your life and have more of an enjoyable outlook on everything.

And as for Ohgodcat, it's just in general a very fun, short, and cute instrumental with some very catchy sections, and it manages to do it all without repeating itself.

And now for my 2016 resolutions, copied from Twitter. :V

Some chick named me wrote:2016 GOALS:
- Become an unstoppable force for cuteness
- Treat myself much better
- In general have a great year and think positive things

I think 2015 was more of a coming of age thing for me, I got my license, I took charge of my finances, got my own vehicle, made it through my first semester of college, got a full-time job, somehow managed to survive juggling work and school with limited sleep (at times five hours at best).

2016 for me should be less hectic than 2015 since I won't have to worry about English classes, but we'll see.

jokool wrote:Things I hope to accomplish in 2016: Get over the opposite sex once and for all (because I'm tired of failing and daydreaming about things that will never happen), get back into anime and manga again,

Update to this: Sort of merged these two things together... In order to get over the opposite sex, I've been trying to replace IRL girls with anime girls... Helping a bit, but I'm afraid I might become one of those crazy otakus who obsess waaaaaaay too much over anime girls.

But, in seeking out anime girls, I am getting back in an anime mood, so I might try catching up on stuff again over the weekend.

Another thing I've been doing is...kind of stupid: I have a couple of rubber bands around my wrists, and whenever I get "distracted", I "snap" myself out of distraction and move on...