2022: Hopes, Wishes, Dreams, Realities

[ShiraNoMai]

We all know these past few (several?) years have been quite hard on society, even more so within the past two years with the seemingly never-ending pandemic. But surely, this next year will bring some relief to this hellscape, right? 

What're you expecting with the incoming year? You can be as idealistic or realistic as you want, just be sure not to downplay others ideals too harshly. We're trying for a positive 2022, y'all.

[Moonface]

One hope I have is to actually get to go back to England to visit at last. I moved out in Summer 2017 and have yet to visit because Covid murdered those plans in cold blood back in 2020. I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high for it though because it only takes one country to stop travel from everywhere else for others to start following suit and if England and/or the US does that then I'm screwed again.

Another hope/wish I have which is rather corny is to be here in a year from now still talking to all of you folks. Not meaning I didn't die or something morbid, just that we're all still hanging out and shooting the shit about video games or whatever else we all like to talk about.

[Mr EliteL]

As much as I would like to see 2022 bring about a better year for everyone as soon as possible, I can still see it roughly being on the same track. 2020 being the worst, 2021 continuing on but a little better, then 2022 will hopefully be better than 2021 with signs of escape of lockdowns/rules and us most likely living with the virus still about like the flu.

I don't want to focus on that. Yeah so like everyone or mostly everyone, I'd like 2022 to be better than the last two years, even if it has to take until near the end for us to see improvements, but hope it'll be before that. Got my brother's wedding to prepare for and hope nothing goes wrong or see cancellations. Seeing some friends again would be cool.
I don't have a New Year's Resolution but I kinda want to get done what I'd expect was in my post for 2021 in that I'd be drawing again, exercising with weights and eating better. Also after seeing my sister do it and a friend do it, I'm going to purge some of my video game collection and dvds too. Got to look through them and decide what ones I know I will not play or no interest in any more. I won't do that for consoles though because there are some games on each I will keep so there's no point removing them. It'll be hard but it must be done. That and sorting out other belongings and my bedroom too. Cramped little space!

[Dragon Lord]

2022 is shaping up to be a pretty amazing year for game releases, so I'm super hyped for the year! 2020 and 2021 were fine for me, nothing changed in my life. The only thing that slightly ruined 2020 for me was the lack of game releases. 2021 was a little better, but still kind of meh.

2022 is going to have a lot of hype though, and now that I have a beastly gaming computer, I can really enjoy everything gaming is going to have to offer this year. Pretty excited for it.

Gonna kick of pretty sweetly with the 2nd anniversary celebrations for Arknights in about two weeks.

[Moonface]

Since you mentioned it DL the only thing I want from gaming this year first and foremost is the ability to get a PS5 so I can play all the new games. I know some are cross-gen with PS4 but I really don't want to do that.

And because I just got an email telling me one of my classes just went remote, I'm wishing that my other classes don't follow suit. I don't want to try and do drawing classes and stuff online when I waited until now in the first place because it was like that back in 2020 and the beginning on 2021. Especially because I still get charged for stuff like the labs and parking when I might not even get to use any of that.

[Karo]

For my 2022's I'm not really expecting much I"m not really feeling positive or negative? If you don't have expectations you can't be disappointed!

For my college courses I hope I do really well and make some work I'm proud of!

[Moonface]

Anyone have any resolutions or goals of that nature they want to try for this year? I personally really hope this year I can improve my physical care, since I don't take care of myself as well as I could or should. I've tried a few times to improve on some things in the past but I can never get it to stick and despite telling myself I'd do better this year I have to admit so far it hasn't gone well again. XD
But the year is obviously still young so I'm not giving up; I just need to figure out a plan to stick to things.

[Karo]

I'm with you there Moony I need to take better care of myself cause I certainly don't right now. XD The hard part is just keeping yourself motivated to keep doing it without stressing yourself out but I believe we can both do it!

[ShiraNoMai]

Forming habits are hard. Your brain has to basically create new neurons to start making new connections to certain parts of your brain, and then you have to repeat the actions to keep those connections strong and from falling apart. It's called neuroplasticity!

Of course, everyone has different reward systems, so one person's way of forming a habit can be ineffective to the next. Just gotta keep trying new things and when something starts to work, stick to it for life! Wishing you both luck on your journeys

For me, well I actually made a Vision Board with my therapist for this year!



In short:
1) Prioritize my happiness
2) Travelling! (COVID withstanding)
3) Make more time to see friends (COVID withstanding)
4) Switch jobs
5) Reach my body goals and maintain them
6) Make more time for my hobbies I've been neglecting (watching anime, reading manga/light novels, playing games)

[Moonface]

Since we're already almost 3/4 into the year, I'm curious if anyone has achieved any of the things they wanted to for this year yet or just how the year has been going for you in general.

I managed to get a PS5, so I at least achieved that. Not sure England is going to happen this year since money has been tight for the entire summer and I don't expect that to change going into the holidays, and my physical care has definitely not improved at all because I still struggle to remotely give a shit about my well being too much of the time.

Classes look like they'll still be a mix of online and in person so the hope all my classes will be in person isn't going to pan out but I'm not too fussed as long as the ones that I really want to do in person remain as such.

Not sure if I have anything new to add that I want from the year yet. I didn't expect to come into this thread but saw it when just browsing General Chat.

[Mr EliteL]

I have accomplished next to zero of what I hoped to do this year so far. Yes! *shot* Then again those "goals" if I can even call them that were rarely on my mind so I didn't care enough, apart from a couple things I wish I had accomplished by now. Only thing I have gotten done is start to get rid of some dvds and games, although they're still in the house, just not physically gone yet, and have more to go through which I may do when my sister goes away on holiday at the start of September.

Lockdown rules have gone now which is good, however there was a sudden rise in cases recently, but not enough to bring back rules.

[Moonface]

@Mr EliteL: You should maybe see if you can pick one or two of the things you still want to achieve this year and try making some progress on them before the year ends!

This one's a new one that came about today for me and Shira, which is to finally have an actual housewarming party because we have yet to do one and we've been in our new place for almost three years at this point (it doesn't feel like it, I swear it's actually two years...), and Covid stopped us from being able to have a big family gathering for a while so we just didn't even think of doing one. Shira thought it would be a smart idea to host Thanksgiving which is just completely insane, so I persuaded her to downgrade to a housewarming party instead so it's easier on us. XD

[ShiraNoMai]

Yeah I was going to say, you've still got time to accomplish everything, EL, if you really care to.

So far I've achieved nearly all my goals. Just two are still in progress and being worked on, being the job change and making more time for hobbies. The job change requires a lot more time and effort than I first imagined (considering I've been out of the job hunt game for...7 years?). The making more time for hobbies is also challenging when I'm trying to tackle all the other goal-stuff with that time. I'm still able to squeeze in Pokemon and such on occasion, but I'd like to more often.

[Moonface]

Another hope I have for the year is for money issues to stop being a consistent thorn in my side like it has been most of the year so far. We were fine for money at the start of the year, but then the following happened:

• Mars had to go to the vet which cost us $3000+
  
• Shira's car had to go to a repair shop on three different occasions
  
• Our upstairs toilet was constantly refilling with water 24/7 for months so our water bill was through the roof until we realised that was happening
  
• The cost of gas, food, and everything else going up because the world sucks
  
• Probably some other bullshit I can't remember happening
  

Every time we've begun to have a glimmer of getting back on track after the vet bill, one of those other things have come up to put us two steps back again. Shira just took $6000 out of her stock portfolio which will hopefully give us back the cushion we've been lacking this year so we can get through the last three months of the year without our bank account looking as barren as a desert.