2020. What a year. If I’m being honest though I wouldn’t change it exactly. But in where my life is currently to where it was 10 months ago. If you had told me in February how the year would have ended I wouldn’t have believed you. Because honestly lockdown started like any other day in March. Nothing had changed for me except for the outside world. I’ve been working from home for years so I was still doing that. Sure my vacation plans got delayed. But I was also grateful that I had been able to travel so much in 2019 cause planning a 3 week trip to 5 countries in the summer, then another 2 week road trip that same fall, I had done my big traveling for the decade a whole year before. And I was content with canceling 2020 plans. But like so many other people I turned to TikTok and Animal Crossing for when I got bored. (Message me on instagram for my switch friend code if you’d like)

But it was 2020 and every month brought a new obstacle cause the whole year was ruthless. I can probably count the exact times I was inside a store or around people during March-December and it’s less than 15. Everything else was delivered or picked up at curbside. Everything was ‘fine’ until it wasn’t. I finally hit the wall. And that’s also on living with senior parents and a sister who went to the ER twice and also had to get emergency surgery during a pandemic. She’s fine now I was just overly stressed those weeks cause there was so much going on. And while I never mentioned this I was not doing great. If you go back to my twitter or instagram or shop posts nothing looked out of the ordinary cause I threw myself into work. And that goes to show how much social media can hide everything. But that’s also cause I’d rather look on the brighter side of things. Things I can work on. Things I can change cause I could change them. It was not being able to be there that was the awful part. All I could do was sit at home anyway.

Writing everything down makes it seem like it was so long ago. Still there was one thing I didn’t even account for and that was starting school once again. Okay – I don’t even know if I can call it that. School via zoom is so weird and strange but it’s an experience to the crazy year I wouldn’t change. Originally I was just looking for one off classes but the more I looked into it I needed the ‘school’ setting. Also the classes I’m taking are fast paced and each class is only about two months long. And in case anyone is wondering, no I’m not changing my current plans on changing careers. Yet. But honestly software development goes hand in hand with graphic design and I was just looking towards the future like so many others. I’ll be done by September so a few months of school isn’t that bad. It’s challenging cause I’m totally out of my comfort zone I barely know anything about, but I do know more than I did two months ago so that’s a win in my book.

Anyway the current goals of 2021 are almost the same as last year with an added one that is to stress less. Stress less in the way that I am only one person so if I’m working on something that won’t get finished in time I need to take a step back from movable deadlines. Stress less from things out of my control cause stressing on it won’t change the outcome. But to do everything I can to actually change the outcome of things that can be changed.

I am so thankful for this year to give me a new perspective on things I didn’t notice before or rather forgot. I have always said to start things as soon as possible but I had lost that for a bit. Though to be honest some of my close friends always say I work too much. And while that may be true to an extent I sometimes get too caught up with my own personal deadlines that I put too much on my plate. I do work for myself, I set my own work schedule, do I need to be awake at 4 am working on things? No. Yet sometimes I do cause half the time I don’t realize what time it is. I like keeping busy. That will never change. I just need to learn when to step away for a while.

That day is not today though. Hello 2021 I have so much planned for this year that I’m excited to work on it. Actually have been for a few months already. Starting with blogs. I actually wanted to start blogging again forever ago. Will they be on a schedule? Probably not, but at this point if I put up a few a year it’s more than last year. YouTube? Yes. While I like filming plan with mes, editing them is another story. So goal is really to have other content for youtube. I actually started filming those a few months ago they all have to get edited though. TikTok, my quarantine friend, will also get more content cause I really love showing behind the scenes of the shop. Speaking of the shop, the schedule will still currently stay the same with new releases on Fridays and $2 Tuesday the second Tuesday of the month. Can’t change a schedule that currently works.

I’m beyond excited for the new year. While January 1st is just another day in lockdown it’s a fresh new beginning. It’s a new start after a very hard year. A new mindset on everything and to set new goals and figure out how to reach them. I hope that the new year treats you all more kindly. So here’s to new intentions and goals.

Happy new year, ❤ Gaby