From my last yearly retrospect on 2021...

"Fairly adequate year for me I believe, despite the miring of my work and moderate miring of my family relationships, discounting the improvement with my sister. Absolutely awful for the world, again, however. I truly do hope 2022 does something to finally break the mold of this dark age."

As much as I'd like to start with something optimistic, I don't want to jinx 2023 for you guys. Moving straight to recounting what this year was like for me personally, it was very...mid. 

I spent the entire first half of this year in quite the slog with my work, unable to get back to working full-time until July. With gas prices and food prices getting worse and worse, I did worry about not being able to break even with my finances at times during the first half of this year. However, once I did return to being full-time again, building up my savings again was no trouble. I met my goal again, which was slightly higher than last year's goal. Made five grand, an improvement over four grand. My job was disturbingly dead though during what should've been the busiest time of the year this year. Concerning as that was, I'm certainly not getting worn out making my money. 

When it came to personal relations, oh boy, did this year start off rough. Had a big falling out with someone who was my friend for years. I am not going to go into explicit detail about what happened, but it was certainly a trial. I don't hold anything against this person anymore, however, I was just very shocked and hurt by the way I was so abruptly shut out at the time. Still awful what this person did to another friend of mine, but that other friend is long over what happened and even invited me to a server with some really cool, positive people. Seeing family for the holidays this year left me with a lot of mixed emotions. My younger brother didn't get sick this time and talked to me a lot, I was honestly, pleasantly surprised by how many interests we share. Unfortunately, I learned that my sister's involved with someone sponging off of her and that my grandmother is likely going to pass away soon. Had to go out to Wisconsin last week in the freezing cold after that huge storm hit to see her. It was a lot of stress, but it was worth it. 

Petty achievements were very easy to obtain this year. Got twelve games done, took care of the entire Soulsborne library. Felt I made even more noticeable improvements with my art, finally drew a picture of an MLP:FiM character matching the style of the show. Didn't do too much with my writing in regards to stories, only released one, but I did do much with MLP fan theories this year. The theories I did this year all got more attention than I expected, one is even the second most viewed theory I've ever written. That doesn't mean I'm done with stories though, not by a long shot. I literally just finished one that I'm going to post when an old friend of mine finishes the cover art I've commissioned. 

Middle of the road year to me. I had some good stuff happen to me while getting hit by some demoralizing tribulations. Even as I don't foresee the worsening storm hitting the world blowing over any time soon, I'll always wish the best for you all. You guys are a good influence on me. I still don't want to jinx anything, but I do hope I influence you to stay positive during these brutal times.