I feel more satisfied about 2022 than I have about any year since 2018. I would not yet say I'm in top form yet, but I'm closer than I was.
This year, I...
- choreographed 24 pieces. My goal for 2022 was 14. I literally doubled my output from 2021.
- got 35k into revising Kyrie. The thing I'm most glad about here is how not-overwhelmed I feel about it. For eight years, I would try to revise this novel but my brain would go into nuclear-meltdown mode within literally ten minutes. This year I spent three months making a timeline, then started rewriting entirely from scratch. And we're still going.
- made a Ko-fi page for artistic income... and got my first donation.
- wrote my first poem since before my cousin died in early 2015.
- took an online tap class in which I learned some historical repertoire AND took a summer dance intensive.
- did live improv tap dance for the first time ever and loved it.
- wrote a 50k novel in November.
- performed in two theatre shows.
- got my first paid acting gig.
In many ways, I feel like I didn't do much of anything this year. These were all small changes that (aside from the dance classes) took maybe twenty minutes out of my day, but that was the point. I knew I didn't yet have the mental strength to overhaul my entire life, so I dedicated myself to shoehorning artmaking into my days as they already were, just enough so that I wouldn't lose my skills. It really doesn't feel like I've done much, but I look at this list of things I accomplished in just 365 days and I'm surprised at how big some of these things really are. A full novel? A paid gig? 35k into a project that stymied me for nearly a decade? Twenty-four pieces -- over an hour and a half -- of choreography? At least half of the things I accomplished here were not on my original list of goals for 2022, and all of the rest -- save NaNoWriMo -- were achieved in ways or to an extent I very much had not expected.
All I hope for is for this to double again in 2023. I would be completely happy with that.
No comments:
Post a Comment