2022: a year in review
Life
For me personally, it’s been a hell of a year in the best way possible. I reconnected with old friends, went skiing, finally landed my dream job 2,5 years after applying first, took a shit ton of interesting courses to expand my knowledge as a physio, went on a tropical holiday with my family for the first time in almost 15 years, spent a week reading in the sun on my windowsill after catching covid for the second time, managed to crank out my first two pull-ups, lost this skill again after travelling through northern Italy for 2 weeks and having all the pasta a person could want in a lifetime, got certified as a dry needling therapist and overall felt pretty great most of the time.
Favourites
Books
Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa: a Palestinian woman imprisoned for terrorism narrates her life story from a cell in an Israeli maximum security prison. A stunning tale of love, family, rebellion and strength.
The Man who Died Twice by Richard Osman: the sequel to The Thurday Murder Club, and the only light read in my top five. I enjoyed this every bit as much as the first instalment: it’s funny, wholesome, suspenseful in places and very very clever.
Little Scratch by Rebecca Watson: an experimental stream of consciousness documenting a sexual abuse survivor’s every thought over 24 hours. Creative, emotional, erratic & heartbreakingly human.
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett: two twin sisters suddenly disappear from their southern black community and make drastically different decisions about the rest of their lives: one continues living as a woman of colour, while the other decides to pass for white. A gripping family history about identity and internalised racism in the 20th century.
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh: a privileged young woman struggling with her mental health decides she’s over everything and goes into a medically-induced hibernation for a year. It’s odd, dark, funny and sad at the same time.
TV shows
My Brilliant Friend: no need to sing its praise again since I dedicated an entire blog post to this.
Euphoria: very late to the party, buy my having to stay at home for a week with covid gave me the push I needed. Thoroughly enjoyed it, still have the soundtrack on repeat.
Chernobyl: binged this during that same week. I expected this to be absolutely harrowing, and it delivered.
Playlist
Music is always a very mixed bag for me, since my taste is super eclectic. I compiled a list of my most listened songs of the year, but don’t expect it to flow nicely. If you feel like listening to an auditory hodgepodge of lo-fi danceable tunes, the occasional dancefloor banger, some indie guitars and a whiff of angry stuff, enjoy!
Purchases
Waterpik flosser. A sexy purchase it is not, but it’s the one I use every day. This sparks joy, trust and believe.
Bottines lammy slippers. These are new since I only just received them as a Christmas present, but when I’m away I look forward to putting them on when I get home, which says enough.
BVLA Latchmi ring. This ring was the reason I had my daith pierced many years ago, and I finally managed to save up for the real deal.
Dedicated Boden puffer jacket in burnt orange. Not my absolute favourite style-wise, but when temperatures drop, this is the only jacket that keeps me toasty.
Ecological footprint in 2022
This is of course tricky to calculate. I chose to do this via mijnverborgenimpact.nl, because this is a companion site to the book De Verborgen Impact which I read and found very well researched. Verdict: if the entire world population had my lifestyle, we would need 3 earths in order to have sufficient resources for everyone… so, not great. In order to look into this a bit deeper, I screengrabbed the graphic depicting my results and translated them:
When it comes to consumption of animal products, I’m doing pretty great: I don’t eat meat, fish only sparingly, and hardly any dairy apart from cheese. This has been my diet since I was 15, so I’m keeping it up.
Transport is a disaster. Nowadays I car commute (11 km single trip) and also use my car when I take a course (between 25 and 100 km single trip) or visit my family (40 km single trip). Moreover, this year I travelled by plane for the first time in years, which of course doesn’t help.
I should cut back on shower time.
Apart from these things, I’m doing okay when compared to the average (which is still 3 earths, mind). I enjoy buying stuff and clothes but do tend to make them last as long as possible so I’m not buying ridiculous amounts. I also calculated in my work expenses, which are just a necessary evil. Additionally, living in an apartment has a lower impact. I don’t feel too bad about these numbers, but am curious to see how much I can dial back my impact in the following year, since the average is still 2 earths too many.
Resolutions for 2023
Reducing my eco footprint
I should revert back to commuting by bike. Realistically speaking I won’t be doing this every day, but I should at least manage regularly during spring/summer. I also have no plans to travel by plane in the following year.
I’ll be keeping more accurate track of my car’s mileage, since this year’s calculation was based on many educated guesses added up.
I might experiment with timing my showers. I won’t go down to military showers but should be able to shave off a minute or two.
Personal/professional
I want to get fit again! I did well in 2022 up until August, and I’m sure I can do it again. 6B, I’m coming for you.
More free time spent doing things that make me happy (reading, climbing, DIY’ing, …), less time mindlessly browsing pointless content.
I should take better care of my houseplants…
I’ve been talking to some people here and there about teaching climbing related physio workshops/courses. Love the idea, I want to make it official this year.
The only course I really want to take this year would require me to travel internationally, on my own. I have always found this idea a bit daunting, but let’s give it a try.
A final word
Thank you for reading my humble blog and keeping the medium alive in these times of fast disposable content. No matter how your year has been, I hope 2023 will provide you with some good memories, exciting opportunities and/or change if that’s what you need.