New Year, New Attempt

Happy New Year!

Time to be cliche and try to be consistent about writing newsletters at the annual turnover!

I do actually have hope this year because I am going into 2025 in a strong position with some great quality of life changes going into effect regarding work (getting rid of my 3 hour commute to be mostly remote and having my time protected to focus on my project for the year because it's a key initiative for the division 🙏🏽) which means more time for doing things that aren't just “work” and “recovering from work.”

2025 HAS to be a growth year. Or at least a stabilizing year. I think a whole lot of depressing, destructive and deadly changes are going to be set into motion in 2025 but I don't think the masses will be seeing the effects on their daily lives for another couple years. Please note, the masses. Because yes, being pregnant in one of the anti-abortion states is perilous. And existing while trans. And/or Black. I may be brown and queer and fat and mentally ill but I'm still a middle-class childless millennial living in a very blue city in a blue state making a decent wage. 2025 lots of things are going to pass or fail (which ever results in the bad thing) and we're going to continue to see the erosion of the infrastructure the EPA and FDA protections that didn't get renewed during the first Trump administration were upholding.

2025 we need to be strengthening our bonds and getting involved in our community. Because we're playing Jenga here now and 2025 the tower still has enough blocks but they're getting plucked away and when things get more unstable daily, we're only going to have each other.

I'm still thinking of how I want to do this in a giving back way. I'm leaning towards getting involved with prairie rivers network. But the ways I've already figured out to be more engaged with life are:

• when I get reminded of someone and think “oh I should reach out to them,” actually reach out. People are always happy to hear from you. So they say. And I am choosing to believe them.

• Work to organize hangs more “hangs,” both friends and family. As an able-bodied childless adult working only one job I do have the bandwidth to do so (when I'm in decent mental health at least which I am currently. Clearly otherwise I wouldn't be writing this) and a lot of other people don't.

• Express myself more online again and reconnect/find new connections

• Go to more community events/classes. Theres a 4/20 yoga + sound bath class I just did that was so restorative. And I joined a rec sports club.

• Write more. Craft more. Create.

Sometimes I get the urge to write longform. That's what this is for. I imagine topics will include whatever I'm obsessing over media wise, my mental health journey particularly dealing with autistic unmasking and rebuilding your sense of self as an adult, topical topics, whatever high breakthroughs I have, among other things. Here's hoping I keep up with it this time 🫡