My Year in Review
- Lyss Ku
- Dec 31, 2022
- 6 min read
Updated: May 11, 2023
In my final post for 2022, and my holiday blog series (yes, it is still the holidays even though Christmas is over. The song has 12 days of Christmas, but I only made it to ten), I will be looking back on how the entire year went for me. I had my ups and downs, but I still managed to survive all 12 months. Hopefully, next year will be better for me, and I hope the same for you as well. It will also be my birthday once January 1st of next year hits, so it is more like a double-edged sword as I become one year older. Even though a new year means great things up ahead, I am a little worried because that means my life will be more difficult as an adult.
Overall, this entire year was not the best because I was unemployed after getting fired from my last job the year prior. I tried my best to search and apply for jobs, but I was not getting anywhere. Most of the time, I didn’t feel motivated to do job searching because honestly, it takes a lot of work filling out an application, then working on your resume and cover letter, and submitting it. There is also the process of waiting for a response that you got invited to an interview. Either you get invited to an interview, hoping you get the job, or you get rejected before the interview process or after a couple rounds. There are also times where you hear no response at all, and get ghosted. It was very frustrating, and most of the time I was very unproductive. I was also worried that my next job will be like my last job where I was stressed out all the time, and had unsupportive managers. Therefore, I was spending a lot of time looking for jobs that didn’t look stressful and fit my skills. Because I was unemployed for the entire year, I was worried that my parents would be disappointed in me because they expected me to have a job after graduating from college. However, that didn’t end up happening because of two reasons: one the ongoing COVID-19 shutdowns, and the fact I was fired from a job with a toxic work environment. Fortunately, I was able to get a temporary job with my state’s legislative session that will start next year. Again, I am just hoping this job is not stressful, and I will be able to find purpose in it. The only problem is that after this job ends, I have to find another job meaning I will be in the job search cycle all over again. For now, I am going to focus on getting used to the job and doing my best.
In addition to being unemployed, I also faced other issues involving my family. First, my brother “moved” out, and lived in one of the student apartments for his final semester of college. It wasn’t really practical because his apartment was a few blocks away from my parent’s home, so he came home a bunch of times. While he was gone, I had to take over his responsibilities in addition to mine. Plus, he didn’t end up liking the apartment, so he ended up living in my grandma’s old house (she has passed, so no one is living in it currently, but it was given to my mom’s name in her will). That also wasn’t a good idea because he doesn’t pay rent for the house, and it is not in good condition since it is very old. While that happened, my dad went to the hospital twice. The first time, he was diagnosed with pneumonia but after he got admitted the second time, he got diagnosed with heart failure. He is feeling better now, but the first few days he was back home it was difficult. He couldn’t go back to work for a while, so there no income coming in especially since I still didn’t have a job. There was also this one time where he yelled at me because I didn’t respond and come to him immediately. He thought I was ignoring him on purpose, but I was actually watching the Emmy Awards and was waiting until the commercials. Then he lashed out at me for not caring about him, and it was terrible. He was being an asshole that time even though he was the one with a medical condition. I just hate it when my dad blows up and gets angry which is why my relationship between him is isolated. It is not just me that is impacted by this type of behavior, the rest of my family don’t enjoy it either. He even gets mad at the pettiest things.
As if things didn’t get worse, my brother got into legal trouble after he yelled at someone at a bar. It made the police come over to our house looking for him, and that made my dad really pissed. Then he got summoned for a court hearing earlier this month a week after he graduated from college. The police also came over another time trying to serve my brother a TRO (temporary restraining order) for the same issue. That created more tension between my brother and dad, who thought he was going to end up in jail or on parole. Fortunately, the case ended getting dismissed, but my dad thought my brother should’ve plead guilty. This all happened at a bad time around the Thanksgiving and holiday seasons. Speaking of which, now that COVID restrictions are nearly gone, I had to deal with my extended family again. My concern about this was that one: I had to be in close contact in a large gathering especially since COVID is still present (along with other viral diseases), and two: I didn’t really want them to know how much of a big disappointment I’ve become since they have high expectations of me succeeding. Luckily, no one asked about what I was up to recently during Thanksgiving dinner, and I am fortunate to have secured a job. This is why the holidays are so stressful for a lot of people.
Even though the entire year wasn’t my best, there were still some good things that happened. Getting fired from my last job seemed to be a blessing in disguise because it gave me more time to do whatever I want which is also good for my mental health. I ended up doing some of the things I enjoyed. This year, I ended up seeing two musicals, 6 Marvel Disney Plus shows and special presentations, and 3 Marvel movies. Even though I will be working again, I hope I still have time to see more great movies next year, including Marvel's first Phase 5 movies, the Super Mario Bros. movie, and Disney's live-action version of The Little Mermaid. To top it all off, I created this blog and included posts that discussed topics that I am passionate about. Even though it doesn’t get a lot of views (and Instagram followers), I never stopped writing blog posts. I have written on pretty interesting topics (that weren't about my career) like, Elphaba and the Scarlet Witch, a review on Billie Eilish’s Happier than Ever album, Hamilton on Broadway and Disney Plus, and reviews on the first two phases of the MCU. I know I said this a couple times before, but I made this blog so I can share my passions and struggles with everyone. I am sure there are many other people out there who have been through the same challenges I’ve been in and have similar interests, so I could be an inspiration. I will continue to write more posts in 2023, and I will focus more on quality on quantity. With that being said, this month was the first time I’ve written more than 2 blog posts. I thought it was a fun idea, but it was a lot of work and I had to cut down on the number of posts in this series. Next time, I will limit the number of posts just so I don’t stress out since this is only a hobby and not a full-time job. However, this possibly could open up to a job opportunity, but I don’t know since I am still figuring what to do as a future career.
That is my 2022 year in review, and even though it didn’t look great, I still made some great memories. Honestly, the last few years in this decade so far have been difficult. I hope 2023 things start to look up, but I am just going to take that with a grain of salt. Even when I start my new job, I still hope I can make time to work on my blog. I have some pretty cool ideas on what to write about. If you have suggestions on a future blog post, please DM me on Instagram @pressure.shock or contact me here. I am grateful for those of you who viewed my blog posts, and here is hoping to get even more viewers in the coming year. Have a happy and healthy New Year!
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