What is something in the past year that makes you happy or proud? Maybe you learned something new, finally got that thing you wanted for ages, managed to make a hard decision with a good outcome. etc etc.
No pressure to share if you don’t want to. Hope you all have a good new years eve :)
Stopped smoking.
Keep it up. Best thing I did for my life. I had a hard time quitting but managed to get through it. Almost 10 years ago already, i stopped when i was 36. Never ever touching that again.
I helped successfully form a union at my job. Things remain very difficult, but I am so gleefully proud.
Almost ten years ago I got into a fight with a cop and some ER nurses after a suicide attempt and spent the next 48 hours twitching with EPS on the floor of a state hospital psych ward and thought I could probably do a better job of that. This year I’m considered enough of an expert in the management of violent patients that they’ve got me teaching verbal deescalation and physical disengagement skills, teaching people how to use restraints correctly, and precepting new nurses.
Wow, congratulations, you should be proud of yourself. I can’t imagine your road here was easy. (No sarcasm intended).
it’s been utterly wild at just about every turn
Held a job for more than 6 months because after 23 years in the workforce I finally found one where the pay is equal for the level of work I do, which is next to nothing on both fronts. ($20/hr)
So while I still can’t afford groceries, at least I’m not busting my ass while being poor at the same time anymore. All I do at my job is sit in front of a computer, take screenshots and then upload them, so now I’m just poor.
I moved out from my dysfunctional family, which has helped me heal or come to terms with a lot of childhood trauma. I definitely feel I’ve grown a lot more, and become much more social and confident in myself.
I asked someone out for the first time, and while I was turned down, that was still a huge step for me.
Nothing yet. I’m only a few hours into this thing.
Well I be damned. You tricked the system.
Did my first successful hard drive recovery including chip swapover while soldering on a microscope. Also started saving for retirement the first time in my life. I’m 38.
I stepped up my nerd game to start trying to land an IT job of some kind. I learned computer networking to set up my own website on recycled hardware and began writing about it. I started developing on a game engine making modules and making art assets to maybe one day make a commercial product. I released like a dozen open source projects under open source licenses.
It all kind of culminated with Christmas. The kids in my life have been begging for multiplayer Minecraft server but Microsoft destroyed the he so hard with money grabbing we refused to pay for realms or make a bunch of Microsoft accounts or whatever.
So, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work on creating a mineclonia server built on luanti/minetest engine, patching in all the Minecraft assets like textures, sounds, music that I legally own with python tools I built myself and released,
I really wanted an in game fullscreen map and nobody had ever figured out how to make one on luanti engine so I so spent a few weeks developing one from the ground up. I released the map mod two days ago and people quickly noticed saying I had changed the game forever, congratulating me on my technological achievement or whatever.
Its just a little frustrating because it feels like I’m somewhat competent at the nerd professions but I have no idea how to advertise my talents or if what I’m doing even translates to real Dev work. How Does creating universal map colorizer + generator for proceeduraly generated voxel worlds or designing a full model animation interpolation system for an engine from scratch or hosting public services on my own network built from scratch powered by solar turn into resume stuffs? That’d what I guess new years focus needs to be
2025 has been a roller coaster. I’m a DJ, and played a festival for the first time and got booked for a gig on my favourite label - amazing, rewarding achievements for me!
I also got evicted, developed panic disorder and have had to navigate our healthcare and benefits system for my partner who has a disability and hasn’t been able to advocate for himself.
I kind of feel like; we made it. And that’s an achievement on its own.
I’ve got ADHD and my organisation skills have improved quite a lot.
I’m still a scatterbrain with 5 zillion unfinished projects, but at least I’m writing them down. Sometimes.
Got to Norwegian A2 level in about two months and some change. My small farm business had its first sales.
Wrote two erotic fiction short stories, both of which will be audio books soon!
I’m very proud of my partner getting a new job and starting her career in earnest. I’m super proud of myself for having been able to support that endeavor. This isn’t something that I did last year obviously, this was a process over multiple years. I’m just very happy to see the results of my life decisions from the previous 5 years culminating in actual tangible outcomes this year. Not just for me, but for the people close to me as well. I have my path for the next 5 years visualized as well, and this type of stuff gives me the confidence to pursue things that i would have previously considered out of reach.
I failed at everything I set out to do and hoped for in 2025.
Happy New Year! I’ll try again or die trying.
Finally moving into my own apartment (away from my dad)
