What was the best thing that happened to you this year?

I made a major improvement in my ability to not give a fuck about my job.

I work in American retail.

i made a person

I made the decision to go back to school. There were various life reasons why I was unable to make that decision in my 20's, but I am happy to have the opportunity to learn again with a renewed sense of drive and direction.

I met a wonderful woman. We are dating now

My parents officially cut the life line -- I didn't need their money anymore and they're retired now.

But it made me take stock of my expenditure in a way I hadn't previously.

For complicated reasons over which we have had very little control, we have had to move house 3 times in the last 5 years.

In April of this year, thoigh, we finally found somewhere that we both really love and which should be pretty much permanent. I am very happy about that.

I got an invitation from someone I had been talking to online to come and have dinner with their family. It. Was. Awesome. I got a tour of their gardens, talked pest management, chicken composting, and propagation strategies, got a ukulele concert from their usually shy daughter with some special medical needs (and got to play something for her on the instrument she never shares), and had a lovely meal from their garden. Oh, and we traded plants and cuttings with each other to help diversify our gardens (and who they support)!

I got hella teeth pulled.

I know it sounds terrible, but it really needed to happen. I'm waiting on my bone grafts to set before starting on my first set of implants. Even with my plastic partials, it's a whole new world. I don't think I had cracked a genuine smile since highschool. Now I can't stop.

My car was totaled and I walked away.

Bought a house and started my dream job

I started turning away from atheism. I've always wanted to believe in God but i was literally unable to.

Finally sold that damn boat!!

Are we thinking in the short or long term here?

Short term (enjoyment for this year): I bought a motorcycle, something I've wanted to do for years but finally had the money and independence to do so this year

Long term (this will affect my future life in a good way): I got a summer research internship as a college student, which gives me valuable experience for later in life

Everything sucked. 2023 was a calamity for me. I lost my best friend, I had a burnout, I got sick a lot, and it forced me to take 2 full weeks off to take care of myself in early December.

Those 2 weeks for myself are arguably the best thing I had this year however. I'll try to repeat this every year.

I bought a house after saving for 6 long years.

Well... there's not much. I have 2 nominations. They're not much, but it's something.

Discovering https://free-mp3-download.net/
I used to download low quality music from YouTube. Now I get FLACs.

2
I got to ride an old ZSSK 012 carriage. It's not comfortable, and it's also quite loud inside, but there's passenger seats in the back. The view makes it really worth it.

There's also possibly another one, but I'll just keep that one in my head. It's a bit weird.

My daughter (born 3 months early in mid-2022) was discharged from needing oxygen 24/7. After months of having to lug her tank and pulse oximeter around everywhere, even across a room, a wireless baby was a game-changer.

She's made huge progress in so many other ways, but this was the big one for us

I actually followed through on my "lose weight" resolution and dropped about 50lbs and put on some muscle.

I started therapy again and it's really helped me put the work in and learn to forgive the weird shit in my childhood. Feels good, mayn!

I started volunteering at a children’s theatre. Just finished the third of three production runs, seeing kids from 8 to 18 astound audiences with performances that surpass professional productions I’ve seen. It’s renewed my belief in the power of the arts to change lives, when my whole training and professional life has been in the sciences.

Got to see the northern lights together with my so!

I got a job that doubled my income and gave me the free time to do things like start a garden, learn macrame and spend a lot more uninterrupted time with my family. It was really life changing.

If I could undo this year I might though. I had 5 family members die including my grandma who raised me, my wife and I had a devastating miscarriage, my causing got hit by a car and may not be able to walk, I was diagnosed with a heart condition and put on lifelong medication and still might need open heart surgery, my deadbeat dad got out of jail and has been harrasing my mom and sister, and the icing on the cake, last week our best cat died.

I started running this year and it has literally changed my life

My eldest daughter is doing so well in violin that her school had to create a special level just for her and is busing her around to other string groups in the district for performances so they sound better.

So proud of that kid.

I got engaged!

Get fired and the hired with a boss that challenges me and trust me.

I went fishing.

I made the first step in starting my own company. 2024 I’ll be working on getting more clients so that I can quit my 9-5

I switched from Xubuntu to Arch Linux.

I got a promotion, from a drafter to a designer. :)

I got accepted for my master's degree abroad, it's been a blast so far

This year has been a bit mundane. Good has been a steady stream with no particular highlights. Not complaining. I like stability.

Quit my corporate job for a small place with a mission to do good. Never going back to bigtech.

I keep killin' it in my easy af graduate program.

This was my covid makeup year. I sold the house I bought in 2020 and got one that suited me instead of whatever I could afford (my old apt was intentionally too small to spend time in so I could save for a house), I had a proper wedding ceremony to make up for the courthouse one in 2020 (which I attended on crutches). We went to some music festivals. Even at work I got to lead a project after the one i was meant to lead in 2020 got canceled by the pandemic.

I learnt that altruism and selfless communist efforts for others without anything in return is impossible to keep doing. You cannot neglect or ignore yourself. You must be a little selfish and give a fuck about your existence. Basically, I am the opposite of what the world is, and it is not working, because the world is a steaming pile of shit with too much individualism and capitalism.

I understood in practice never to trust what anyone says, instead only trust and judge people by their actions. The social landscape is fucking evil and its here to devour sane, good men like me without regret or concern. You will be told nobody cares about men and their problems, to which all you need to do is avoid helping them. Save yourself, because ultimately nobody will come for you.

Cut off jackasses that you help, but never help you in bad times. They are life energy sucking parasites with an ego fatter than the fattest pig in town.

Its okay to disconnect from the garbage world we live in. Its okay to disconnect from politics. Its okay to disconnect from internet and social media. Its okay to ignore others' problems for your own. Prioritise yourself.

The world is not as nice as the "inclusive" propaganda makes it seem like, and people in reality do love to judge and exclude others based on irrational methodology. Morality is not something set in stone, but is a vague guideline, one to be followed and utilised with honesty, not with bigotry.

Brother's family moved to my city, leading to lots of time with the niblings

Got a job that I really like and is very lenient when I come in. I have some medical condition that makes a job and life nearly impossible, some days I feel debilitatingly horrible at complete random. It feels like there's 200 pounds strapped to my back, and I have done that before so I know it really feels like that. Thankfully my boss is very lenient when I come in so if I feel like crap I can take the day off. If I suddenly feel like crap 2 hours into the day, no biggie I can go home early.

Granted it's minimum wage and I'm arguably being underpaid for my level of expertise but the flexibility of my workplace is priceless.

I survived and managed to find a job that helps me help a few other humans survive.

It's a split between two things:

Firstly, I finally got my degree. People in my immediate surroundings got tired of the confirmed bachelor jokes after the first week of me making them.

And secondly, after a year and a half of waiting I got to talk to a gender service doctor back in February. Now I'm well on the way to get the bureaucracy part of my transition out of the way. And I'll be getting my hormones soon.

My ability to do math and predict my monthly budget costs is bad enough that it finally worked out in my favor... I'm still curious how that's happening, but I'm not inclined to look to deeply else I tip the balance of the universe out of my favor sooner that is bound to happen.

That it’s almost over. My spouse had two unexpected surgeries (successful and all seems well so that’s also good), and my work has turned to shit. Here’s hoping for a better 2024!

Won conference championships in indoor and outdoor collegiate track and field. Ran a half marathon after years of chronic knee problems. Won a piano competition and performed with a full orchestra. Wrote a 48 page honors thesis and presented it. Formed a jazz trio. Graduated college. It's been a cool 365 days, I'm grateful to not know how to pick the best thing.

i think i took about 500 shits

Got the opportunity to spend less time working for a still reasonable amount of money

Union almost struck, and we got a nice fat contract.

Unionize people. It's the only way to fight back and have a living wage.

Probably that I met a bunch of other decently-high-level fighting game players that have similar demeanor about the games we all play. Hanging out with them gave me an entire new community to feel at home in, and got me back into content creation. Plus, they collectively made it not feel impossible to go to my local tournaments on occasion, at which I'm at least not the weakest player in the room by a good margin.

Oh yeah, I completely quit drinking as well, after overdoing it one night and teleporting to the bathroom to vomit. I'm not counting days or anything, just kinda neat that I dropped it cold turkey, had plenty of opportunities to drink again, and just haven't wanted to.

Through circumstances I’m not going to describe because I’d sound like a crazy person, I discovered that I am immortal. Being unable to escape life has given me a new commitment to living well, and I’ve been pushing every day without hesitation since that happened.

First winter in a long while that hasn't been hell, the new anti-depressants stopped my winter depression. And even helped a bit against my year round depression.

I've started a weekly swimming session too. Haven't been good at following it after the snow came, but its still progress.

Wife and I finally got permanent residency.

I can finally be myself and I even started dating and it's actually enjoyable now.

Eurovision Song Contest 2023