2023 is the first full year I’ve had to live without a huge goal to work towards, such as graduation, new house, or wedding.
Health and well-being
2023 has been the worst kind of banner year for me in terms of health. I don’t follow horoscopes, whether Chinese or western, but I can’t help but wonder if mine predicted a rough health year.
I rang in the new year with a rough cold, passed on by my dear husband. While visiting a friend in Seattle in January, I had terrible food poisoning, leaving me sweaty, shivering, and shitty for a few days. Throughout the year I’ve had a few colds from husband and other family. I’ve beat personal records in the amount of chicken noodle soup and airborne supplements consumed in 2023.
This year I blew past my 3k deductible for my health insurance. I spent over $3000 on health costs. Major contributors were my first colonoscopy, my first UTI, and a dislodged IUD. I closed out the year with a second UTI, lip freckle removal (cosmetic), and a bacterial infection abscess. It was also a record year in consumption of antibiotics. Oh and I had a toenail fungal infection, and when I went to go pick up the treatment the pharmacist said that this stuff is really bad for you and will fuck up your liver so be careful.
that feeling when you’d rather not face the world
In the second half of the year, I decided to take action on my mental health and started therapy and medication. The medication seemed to start off well but then gave me severe apathy and an unsightly, uncomfortable, anxiety-inducing face rash. Since the side effects didn’t outweigh the to-be-perceived benefits, I started my third prescription right around the end of the year with cautiously high hopes.
Travel
2023 has been a great year in terms of travel. I’ve visited more friends and hiked more miles than I had in any previous year. This year has taken me to the following places:
- Seattle to visit my friend M
- Chicago with husband
- North Carolina to visit my friend E
- Sequoia, Kings Canyon, and Yosemite national parks with sister
- Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Glacier national parks with M
- Vietnam with family
- Thailand with husband
- Sequoia and Kings Canyon (again) with my friend A and husband
- Bahamas cruise with my friend S
Other smaller trips included Lake Arrowhead to give a professional development talk, Mendocino for husband’s friend’s wedding, and a local area tour and staycation with my brother and sister-in-law.
Relationships
I think husband and I had our best year yet! We had more fun and fewer fights, also the conflict we did have was more intense than ever. They say “happy wife, happy life” and some of that rings true this year. Adventuring gives me joy and excitement and I return that to husband with greater love, appreciation, and attraction. The more people I meet, the more I realize how much of a perfect fit he is for me.
It was also a good year in terms of friendships! I started monthly phone calls with two friends, which typically go for 1-2 hours. I’ve traveled with several friends I’ve never traveled with, and would be happy to do it again with any of them. Finally also building friendships with local friends and family.
House and home
This year we spruced up our home and lifestyle in a number of ways! Most notably we got a digital piano and a new old pool table, both of which we’ve made prodigious use of. We made our guest room nicer with an actual guest bed and wall decorations. We added some pizzazz to our sunroom with some silk lanterns. Hopefully we’ll remodel our outdated kitchen next year!
I was also unreasonably excited about dropping $750 for a full yard cleanup, transforming our weed-controlled, overgrown property into something somewhat sightly again. By the time they were done, our yard waste bin was overflowing, not to mention the truckload of vegetation they hauled away. I never thought I’d be so happy to be able to walk from one end of the backyard to the other again.
Finances
I’ve spent a lot of money this year. You could probably have guessed that after reading the health and travel sections. I don’t really want to total my expenditures, because I’m sure it’ll cause me anxiety and stress. Not that I can’t afford it, but I think I should rein it in when possible.
On the other hand, I feel like I’m actually doing things and living more this year than before. I’ll just lock some money away in CDs and prevent myself from overspending 😅
Areas that need improvement
Things within my control that I feel like I didn’t do a great job on:
Following through on issues before they get worse: cat mats, yard and weed overgrowth, ants and aphids in fruit trees.
Self-improvement and learning: I’d like to see myself focus on a specific area in life and learning at work that I commit to improving every day.
A few other things that went well
Not lumped into any particular category, but I’m really happy about these aspects from the year.
Communication during difficult times
It takes bravery to address interpersonal conflict head on instead of ignoring the issue and brushing conversation aside. I’m glad I was able to do with my sister and with a local friend. With my sister, we now have a conflict resolution plan for future travels. With my friend, the future is murky. The best I can hope for is that my own direct communication can lead them to do the same, whether towards me or with others in their life.
Playing piano
Spurred by that old piano in the Larnach Castle in New Zealand, I realized I miss playing music, and restarted playing after I got my digital piano birthday present. It’s the first time I’ve played consistently since taking lessons as a kid, having stopped in middle or high school. Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters was the first piece I worked on towards mastery.
Reading
I’ve done the most reading this year since I left grad school! Partly spurred by the advent of a work book club and partly by inspiration from my life accountability group. Some favorites: The Culture Map, Central Places, Attached
Closing
It’s hard to boil down a year in a single reflection post, but these are my major low and highlights of 2023! I hope to move through 2024 with intentionality and mindfulness and am excited for what’s in store.
Cover photo taken by me at Grand Teton National Park