Reflecting on 2024 and How It Was For You

[Moonface]

With only hours left until the whole world moves forward into 2025, it feels appropriate to look back on 2024 either in a wider scope or from a personal standpoint. For anyone who posted in our 2024: The New Year Begins thread, is there anything you had said in that thread about your hopes or plans for this year that did or didn't pan out?

Here's what I said in that thread:

I did want to start my year off with trying to get myself more organized when it comes to managing chores and other important tasks as I've yet to find a system that helps me consistently keep on top of all those things.

I had also shared some things I had started to try out to achieve this, such as the massive wall calendar that we got, and I'd say I had some degree of success in better managing my tasks and stuff this year but I think it could still be a lot better than it is.

I think a big thing that I did improve on this year is just being able to manage stress a lot better and not let things overwhelm me so much. A lot of things kept going wrong for example during my most recent college semester that I know in earlier times would have absolutely caused me to have a breakdown but I actually kept a good handle on my mental state even if things weren't working out well around me more times than I had intended.

[Mr EliteL]

Happy New Year, dang '24 really did finish.

In a way mine isn't so "Happy" although with circumstances, we managed to do at least a little something towards making it be slightly enjoyable. Family friend stayed over for the night, albeit sleeping arrangements had to be sorted out as we don't have 4 bedrooms, but we managed. Then just eaten out yesterday, ate in today.

Anyway, looking back at the '24 it was mostly a nothing year. Here's what I had 'hoped' for...

This year (2024) though I want to...ugh, back to this again, do art more, get back into weightlifting with my dumbbells as I feel like I've gotten weaker. Maybe a vacation as I haven't been on one since '19 but that was just to Isle of Wight so only a stone throw away from UK mainland.  Oh, and finally getting my bedroom fully sorted and..."decked out" if you will with my tiny space. Yay.

Did I do more art, or heck any? No.
Weightlifting, sort of, had a good consistent September/October, although I got ill and couldn't continue. I'll aim to do more this year.
Vacation? Nah.
Got my bedroom sorted?...YES. An actual positive outcome. Well, I wouldn't say it's "decked out" but it looks so much better with a new bed, my first freaking wardrobe ever, as my clothes were usually stored in small drawers or on a crappy hanger stand. Plus a desk for my new (bought in July) gaming laptop. I have my old shelving that is high up but is not full yet, I haven't fully decided on what should go up there yet. Nor do I have posters or anything on the wall. However, the other mass of items I did have in my previous (though same located) bedroom is now in a spare room still to be sorted through, but I go in there to play on my PS5 (or other consoles if I can be bothered) as my old TV set up is in there, or use my old-ish laptop (still have an older laptop).

That was my year in a way, personally. I'm still at a job I'd rather wish I wasn't still in, though still has it's benefits for now being only a 5 min walk away. Most of the year other than getting a new bedroom was quite forgetful, however the latter months started to turn '24 into a more bothersome year. Family issues started propping up, so we go into '25 with those problems lingering. Yay.

Still want to get back in to art, got to make sure I get my own car and licence, and deal with my own issues as well. Good luck, '25 me, ha ha..ha..ha.

[ShiraNoMai]

You know what, EL? That list wasn't zero. You actually did quite a bit last year. It wasn't everything, but it also wasn't nothing. Great job, my dude. You've been struggling for years to get even a modicum of something on your resolution list done, and it finally happened. Keep at it, friend. And don't forget to reach out for help. We're not built to deal with everything ourselves, especially when we're at a disadvantage to begin with.

Same to you, Moony. It wasn't a 100% success, but also not 0%--things happened! Progress was made and done. Just keep jabbing at it and it'll whittle away til you've begun to master things. Can't master a hundred things at once, it turns out! Proud of you, my dude.

My main goal is to be less tired. There are many ways I can go about fixing that, including getting myself out of this life-draining job, fixing my habits, and cleaning up health-wise, so I can see the path: just gotta... do it.

I have to say, it's amazing that I've found that there are entirely new ways to get tired. Did you know that? Wild huh? Anyway, I managed to enact the fixing policies by indeed quitting my life-draining job in April, identified and targeted my habits to fix and began altering thusly, and... well, cleaning up health-wise came with some other unforeseen issues. Thanks, being old and insurance-less.

It turns out trying to balance all of the things, including maintaining your sanity, your partner's sanity, the state of the world, your relationships, your professional growth, physical health maintenance, and everything else you need to take care of or it will implode in your face? A tad hard to do. It's amazing what trying a new routine in life does. That new brand of tired rears its head


2025 is a trepidatious year. Just hoping the prognosis of the year leads into a positive 2026 cuz that's when the real shit begins. Hoping for good life RNG this year. Please. 

[paintbucket]

my year was terrible all the way through. i'll give 2024 credit only during the latter half for starting a new (better) job than my older, soul-sucking one... only for this one to turn out to be slightly more of the same, just less awful. slightly.

but unfortunately, that's kind of how my years tend to go. i don't think i've ever really had a good year since like... 2011? every year after that was some degree of mid or outright bad, so i'm kinda numb to years not working out as planned, because they almost never really do. it's not for lack of trying either, because i really do try to set goals for that year, only for something in my life to eventually blow it all up to pieces and then i'd have to start all over, and rinse and repeat. 2025 may very well be more of the same, or it may be different. for the sake of keeping my expectations low, i'm expecting it to be the same because there's very little reason to believe otherwise.

[Moonface]

In a way mine isn't so "Happy" although with circumstances, we managed to do at least a little something towards making it be slightly enjoyable. Family friend stayed over for the night, albeit sleeping arrangements had to be sorted out as we don't have 4 bedrooms, but we managed. Then just eaten out yesterday, ate in today.

Late to this and you've probably mentioned it before, but what room in your house got changed because I know at one time four of the rooms upstairs were being used as bedrooms until your brother moved out.

I'm still at a job I'd rather wish I wasn't still in, though still has it's benefits for now being only a 5 min walk away.

Yeah and unless a job outside of town pays well enough to offset the travel cost and still come out better off than what you get paid now, it's challenging to figure out where else to get a job. I know some of the people who were in our tutor group at school got jobs in London but although the pay was good on paper, they were spending so much on the train to get there that they were almost if not fully on-par to what we were getting at Asda back when I was still there.
Not to discourage you from job hunting of course; rather just commenting on the pros and cons of each side of the job coin.

You know what, EL? That list wasn't zero. You actually did quite a bit last year. It wasn't everything, but it also wasn't nothing. Great job, my dude. You've been struggling for years to get even a modicum of something on your resolution list done, and it finally happened. Keep at it, friend. And don't forget to reach out for help. We're not built to deal with everything ourselves, especially when we're at a disadvantage to begin with.

Same to you, Moony. It wasn't a 100% success, but also not 0%--things happened! Progress was made and done. Just keep jabbing at it and it'll whittle away til you've begun to master things. Can't master a hundred things at once, it turns out! Proud of you, my dude.  

True, although I know for me the problem is I'll focus more on what I didn't do over what I did do or think more about what could be better because I can't just draw a line in the sand and move on easily.

Just hoping the prognosis of the year leads into a positive 2026 cuz that's when the real shit begins. Hoping for good life RNG this year. Please. 

Apparently a rock exists in our household that I unknowingly live under because I don't have a pissing clue what is on the cards for 2026 except me hopefully heading into that year with a degree.

my year was terrible all the way through. i'll give 2024 credit only during the latter half for starting a new (better) job than my older, soul-sucking one... only for this one to turn out to be slightly more of the same, just less awful. slightly.

but unfortunately, that's kind of how my years tend to go. i don't think i've ever really had a good year since like... 2011? every year after that was some degree of mid or outright bad, so i'm kinda numb to years not working out as planned, because they almost never really do. it's not for lack of trying either, because i really do try to set goals for that year, only for something in my life to eventually blow it all up to pieces and then i'd have to start all over, and rinse and repeat. 2025 may very well be more of the same, or it may be different. for the sake of keeping my expectations low, i'm expecting it to be the same because there's very little reason to believe otherwise.

Aww, I'm sorry to hear that. I guess at least you know that things going wrong is from things outside of your control so as much as it sucks it happens you don't need to feel like you're at fault for it. If this year ends up being another repeat I at least hope that you get through it knowing that trying and coming up short because of things outside your control doesn't mean it should be a bad reflection of yourself (if that make sense).