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How was your year? Did you improve yourself, or achieve resolutions?

What do you hope to achieve or improve upon in 2014?

Fuck 2013 in the ass with a ghost pepper hot sauce covered spiny cactus.

2012 ended poorly for me and 2013 has definitely been better. I passed all my classes, got deans list both semesters, and got a great internship. On top of that, I leave for Europe in 3 days.

Hopefully in 2014 I graduate and get a job in my field so I can start living a normal adult life.

Ups and downs, ups and downs. Though it is ending on a high note so far...

For me, 2014 has a lot of potential. I hope to grab it by the horns and make that potential become a reality.

2013 has been pretty good. A few low points, but nothing earth-shattering. I finally feel like I've found myself again. Not looking forward to 2014 because it's probably going to mean moving and losing parts of what I've built on.

2013 started pretty miserably but I got into a new relationship, got back on my career track and such, so it's going out personally quite a bit brighter than it began.

2013 has been stressful as all hell, exceptionally trying, nearly soul-crushing... and the best year I've had in close to a decade. My wife and I are definitely in a better place at the end of the year than we were in the beginning; financially, emotionally, healthfully. But it took a damn lot of hard work and a few lucky breaks to get here. After losing my job, having some health scares, nearly becoming homeless from sheer inability to find a job or pay all of our bills while unemployed (there were several weeks there where we went to bed hungry more often than not), having multiple car problems, and everything else that happened this year, I'm kind of just happy to have made it this far alive.

On the other hand, I did finally get a job which came with a significant pay increase, my wife got a significant raise, and we now know how much strength the two of us have and how many tests we can succeed at in life. Plus, 2014 has a pretty good chance of bringing even better things. All in all, I have to chalk this year up as a success.

Meh. The last 2 months have been an unending train of suck and stress. The rest of the year was probably the most stable I've had in like 5+ years, which was nice.
But. I leave for 10 days of much needed vacation in 3 days, so yay!
Next year - I need a job! And assuming I can find one, it will result in moving some distance (could be just down the road, will likely be literally to the other end of the country), but also getting my professional designation (finally! and big f'ing yay there).

I started playing roller derby, and no longer feel like a lazy fatass so yay for me! Going into the new year, I basically want to become more awesome.

The Good: Got engaged to @dill616, moved in together, adopted our pet bunny Panda, job still going well

The bad: Grandmother passed away

It was a pretty good year, still.

Gared said:

On the other hand, I did finally get a job which came with a significant pay increase, my wife got a significant raise, and we now know how much strength the two of us have and how many tests we can succeed at in life. Plus, 2014 has a pretty good chance of bringing even better things. All in all, I have to chalk this year up as a success.

Click to expand...

The fact that your marriage survived that says a lot about the state of your relationship.

Hint: It's better than most

Well, I'm kind of pants wettingly terrified of 2014, but at the same time excited and optomistic. I just graduated, so I have my BS and that's something that no one can ever take away from me. On the flip side, I have to worry about getting into a grad school so I don't end up an over-educated phone monkey paying off student loans for the rest of my life.

blotsfan said:

2012 ended poorly for me and 2013 has definitely been better. I passed all my classes, got deans list both semesters, and got a great internship. On top of that, I leave for Europe in 3 days.

Hopefully in 2014 I graduate and get a job in my field so I can start living a normal adult life.

Click to expand...

Normal adult life is over-rated.

This year was going pretty good until July. Now, bar none, it's been the worst year of my life.

But I guess that means nowhere to go but up, right?

2012 was one of the most perfect years of my life, so 2013 had a lot to live up to. And it turned out a'ight, I guess. Some lows, but nothing life-shattering.

Now, this past weekend has been, "How much SUCK can we stuff into 2 days?", so I'm ready to throw myself into a holiday stupor and ignore real life until January 2nd.

I'd say the most important events that have occurred this year were the birth of my daughter in February and my promotion to front desk manager in July. This is also the first full calendar year that
I've been married. Most of you know of the ups and downs of that particular situation. And in this year I would say that my wife has definitely improved when it comes to the way she reacts to me doing my own thing. We still have our fights of course. Sometimes they are manageable, a other times it's an insane mess that takes weeks to get over.

Pretty good year here. Raises, wife got a job as an instructor at a college here in houston, globetrotting business trips, karate brown belt, brother won his wife's wrongful death lawsuit. The bad part was my sister's transverse myelitis, which still may end up being MS. They're not sure yet. For 2014, I really need to start publishing more.

I've never thought of years in terms of January-December... I guess since I've sort always been in school in some way, a year for me is August-May. The first half of my "year" has bee fulfilling and fun.

The actual year's been pretty ok, just strange. First Christmas and thanksgiving without my grandpa. It felt wrong to watch someone else carve the turkey. And there are a lot of little changes happening with the family. This might be the first year I was truly aware that my life will not always revolve around the same family traditions. I guess I'm lucky to have had them for so long. So I've decided to focus on building more traditions based on what jake and if value.

2013 had various amounts of suckage and epic moments. The major suck, of course, happened earlier this month - only to be topped by what happened back in April (RIP Brookfield). The Epic Moments include the HHR, the new kitty, and getting a position in my institution that matched what I used to do down south at That Other Place.

Oh, and managing to get Christmas week off on vacation.

This past year has not been well for me. After dropping out of my teaching practicum in the fall of 2012, I've struggled with just figuring out what the hell to do with my life. This past fall, I went to a community college for Human Services, but dropped out for various reasons (depression, asshole and non-understanding professor, never even sure if I should be there in the first place, etc). Just before I dropped out of NBCC, I was back in the hospital for a weekend after an emotional breakdown and a suicide attempt.

Now, I feel just...broken. I feel like I have nothing and no one. I feel like I either let anyone down in my life, push them away, or they just let me down or disappoint me, anyway. I'm 35, living alone with my cat while my parents (well, Dad) helps pay for my rent and I'm struggling just to get out of bed some days. I can't seem to get a solid, full-time job where I could at least earn a self-sustaining living because my confidence and self-worth is at an all-time low and New Brunswick's unemployment rate is over 10%.

And you know the worst part? In February, I had my biggest dream come true: I'm a published author. But even that doesn't even make me feel happiness or accomplishment or feel anything at all. It just feels like an empty achievement because I can't seem to get any publicity for it, so the only people that know about are friends or family, a large percentage of whom wouldn't even read this book if I hadn't been the author. I can't even get the goddamm book into bookstores because it's a small press, print-on-demand publisher, so whenever people ask me where they can buy and I say Amazon, I'm just letting people down.

As for 2014? I don't even know. A large part of me doesn't even care. I feel like I've lost all hope. At this point, I feel like I've just given up because there's just nothing out there for me, either for a comfortable living or any kind of decent relationships or friendships. I constantly feel like I have nothing to offer anyone. My confidence and self-worth are at an all time low.

Err, I suppose mine was slightly better than Nick's, and obviously leaps and bounds better than Gas'. Other than that, not a year I'll be looking back fondly on.

All through the year it's been hard to motivate myself to do anything at all, with free days where "I put the dishes in the dishwasher and took a shower" are the days I have to look back on as the days I actually accomplished something, no matter how ridiculous and banal it is - still better than the days I spent lying in bed doing nothing and hating every second of it. The days I had to get out, all I wanted to do was go lie in my bed or some other dark warm corner to crawl up and hide in. The days I stayed in bed I hated every second of it and myself for not getting out - but couldn't.
Managed a whopping two job interviews, got rejected for both. The kitchen renovation were supposed to last a month, have been ongoing for 4 months now with no end in sight and a hundred little things just "taking over" and keeping me from completing it. The living room I hate but don't have money, will or interest to replace stuff or start over.
I also succeeded in alienating pretty much all my only ("real life") friends. Haven't seen any of them in 6 months, except those I happened to run into in public places where my girlfriend dragged me along. Oh, also, my girlfriend, wh was energetic, positive and social, is slowly but surely becoming more and more like me - a cynical pessimist who doesn't want to do anything with anyone and shuts people out. Instead of her helping me up, I'm dragging her down.

I'm still stuck in the same rut I've been in since, oh, 2010 or 2011. My work hinders my social life, my lack of free time makes me not want to spend the time I have with friends because I need alone time to recuperate. Any time I somehow manage to get some energy somewhere and try to move out of it, my fear of change drags me back, or I get pushed back down and get reinforced in thinking it'll never change anyway.

Eh. 2014? If I manage to either get a new job which I like better, or finally get around to therapy, or figure out how to do without other people and happiness, I guess it might go ok/good. If I stay where I am now, and just hang around some more without a big change up, I'll probably look back on yet another wasted year.

Oh, and especially the last few months, people around me have been having the shittiest years possible, which doesn't exactly help any, either.

blotsfan said:

2012 ended poorly for me and 2013 has definitely been better. I passed all my classes, got deans list both semesters, and got a great internship. On top of that, I leave for Europe in 3 days.

Hopefully in 2014 I graduate and get a job in my field so I can start living a normal adult life.

Click to expand...

Don't settle for normal...

11 months of 2013 were pretty good for me, but December has been terrible.

Divorced. Now dating hot younger woman.

Changed careers. Enjoy new job immensely more.

Has been a rough road but as of today, it appears to be pretty good going forward.

2013 was an emotional roller coaster where it was mostly a giant shoot downwards. Went to Japan to be with my girlfriend of 4.5 years twice, but we couldn't handle the stress of the relationship, so I broke it off, which was emotionally devastating for both of us. She's already moved on and gotten another boyfriend, and I'm sitting here still loving her and trying my damndest to move on. I think I'm about 2/3rds there. Sigh.

Crippling emotional trauma aside, Japan was fun and a huge new experience. The convention we run boosted its attendance levels considerably, and our next one should be amazing. (Cowboy Bebop Reunion! Sailor Moon mini-reunion! www.kamicon.net!) We ran our first con in Mississippi which was a success.

I've lost a lot of weight, started exercising every day, and have been working on several skills to improve myself.

All in all, I'd call this a devastating year, but I'll try to optimistically say that it sets the stage for a year where I have NO IDEA what can happen.

Pessimistically, I'm sitting here thinking that exactly one year ago I was in Japan opening presents with the girl I love. But, I know that there are a lot of people out there that have it so much worse, and despite all that, I still have friends and family that love me, and that's good.

Fuck this year. Fuck it up the goat-ass.

$2000 tax debt, 2 miscarriages, car accident, patrol car accident, other stuff at home... and of course, Mikko. The only thing that's come about from this year positive is my son, to be born in January.

So ready for this year to be done.

I don't know.

A lot of stress, battles with depression. There are evolving struggles with my family as I feel less and less close to them; I see friends drifting away.

I have on the other hand, made new friendships, ones that have become important and special already.

I've read more. I've seen the benefits of (finally) finding the right medication to help with my depression. I have become more patient.

For the past three months, I've been dating an intelligent, beautiful, and wonderfully sarcastic girl, who I am falling for more every day.

The year began pretty miserably and I'm still lost in many things... I am not an optimistic person, but I am going into 2014 with more ... positivity than I can remember facing any future in a long time. I suppose that isn't nothing.

Stress, more stress, with a side order of stress. Money and time continue to be the biggest problems, probably will be for quite a while to come.
Things are happening which will probably help with the time (and by extension, with the money), but we are going to have to invest an uncomfortable amount of time and money (that we don't have) NOW in the short term in order to facilitate these things. Everybody involved is ready and willing for all this stuff to happen, but it's going to cost money and time that we won't get back until a month or so later, at the earliest.

--Patrick

Three things happened that I did not expect from this time last year:

1. The cat that roams around my apartment tonight is not the same one I had a year ago. (Sadly, I should have expected this to happen at some point, but when it happened it hit me rather hard.)
2. The work site within my workplace is not the same one as where I was assigned a year ago. (This was kinda planned, as our institution was heading towards a complete reorganization under a new schedule. That I was able to get the position I wanted several months early was a bonus.)
3. The car that I drive is definitely not the same one as the one I was driving a year ago. (This is actually something I could have said a year ago, too. I didn't have the Buick for two full years.)

Three things I hope will happen in the new year:

1. The state of Wisconsin will wake up and discover that the Emperor has no clothes - and vote Scottie Dubya out of the governor's mansion.
2. My alma mater won't be the only state team to win a championship in 2014.
3. The issues with health care insurance won't be as bad as everyone thinks it will be.

Three things I would like to do in 2014:

1. Get a chance to travel out to Arizona to visit my dad before he comes back for the summer - and meet the various people that I know out there.
2. Head down to Milwaukee or Nashville for a hockey game. I haven't been at a live hockey game in like forever.
3. Actually meet one of the many webcomic artists that put forth the various strips and comics that I read on a regular basis.

I need to stop being so lazy this year! In 2012 I did a lot of baking, made a few costumes, did some light workouts, and just had a grand 'ol time! That was the year I proclaimed I would not be lazy!
In 2013 I barely baked, made no new costumes (started a couple projects though) and stayed in a lot. However, this year also had some big moments including a promotion and wedding! So while it wasn't by any means a bad year, I just didn't do a lot between the big stuff.
For 2014 I would pretty much just love to get back into my 2012 routine. I have a daily cupcake calendar that I can use for new recipes, lots of new baking equipment, new pots and pans to learn how to make real food, an inspired Twiggy who wants to get into cosplaying(!!!), and no big events to worry about! I'll be picking up a little recipe box this week to start planning some dinners and sort out my mess of cupcake/cookie recipes in the kitchen drawers, I picked up a notebook today to note any light workouts I do each day (or else I just won't care...) and Friday is my big cleaning house day to give myself space to do stuff (namely crafting ALL THE THINGS). :3 This is going to be a GREAT year!!

I think this sums it up pretty well.

My year - as every year - has been up & down. All I ever do is look around and say, "Well, I've had it worse and come out the other side, this ain't that bad."

2013 was amazing and sad at the same time.

1. I made it a challenge to finish my manuscript. Once this was done, I started querying and came SO close to getting an agent. I got more than one constructive personal reply telling me the agent loved what I was doing, but they wanted a different genre. One even said she could see my book being taught in schools.
2. Three partial MS requests from big time agencies by December.
3. We adopted our sweet bunny rabbit, Panda Bear! He had his first real Christmas.
4. I found a migraine treatment that works. They numb my brain!
5. I broke away from my toxic family once and for all. I got a new family by getting engaged to the General!
6. We planned ~75% of our wedding.
7. I'm still alive. Some days, that's a big thing to be thankful for. WOOT!
8. Connected with a lot of great writers and agents on Twitter.
9. Still have a job even if I don't like it.
10. I have health insurance and have been able to pay all of my bills every month. After being broke for so long, that's been one of the best things about this year. Work a crappy job to pay for stuffs. What can you do, eh?

2013 was pretty good!

Well, 2011 was a fucking shitfest where I made terrible decisions, gained a lot of weight and was incredibly depressed.
2012 was the hangover year where I just kind of curled up into a ball and was a steaming pile of rubble living at home.
2013 was definitely a rebuilding year. I lost a lot of weight, moved back tot he city, got a lot of things in order financially and, except an incident where I was being set up with a vet I wept uncontrollably because my dog had been just put to sleep that night, I definitely started feeling like a person again.

Anyway, 2014 is the year I move out of Chicago. Plans are in motion and budgets have been set up so I can move to Los Angeles. I'm 26, single and I have no reason not to. I also have a few contacts that can help shimmy my way into a P.A. position when I first move.

So, hey. In July I'm out of the midwest!