Honestly, 2017 was not a good year for me. It was far from my worst year, but it’s up there. If I had to rank them, I’d say this was probably like the 4th or 5th worst. It would probably be 2nd or 3rd if I hadn’t gotten a new job by the end of it. There were really only two main bad things that happened, but they affected my mental state enormously. I don’t know if I’ve ever felt so much like a different person at the end of a year as I do this year.

I could write about those things. But A) some of those things are very personal and I’m not comfortable sharing them, and B) I don’t feel that’s productive at this point.

Instead I’d rather focus on the good things that happened in my life this year, however small they might be, and the things that brought me joy during this difficult time.

It would make me happy if you shared some of your favourite moments and things of the year in the comments, too. Let’s celebrate positivity – the rest of the internet will “celebrate” the negative enough for all of us.

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Nice things that happened this year

• Thinking of an idea for a book that I still like a lot
• I did a panel on depression and anxiety in young adults in January and got some really nice comments afterwards, including one girl who was crying because she said I helped her feel less alone
• Finding things and characters I actually love about League, rather than just things I could tolerate (which is what I expected)
• My boss let me go home from work early to get ready on Valentine’s Day and said I could use my work Visa to take tect out for drinks (I didn’t though)
• Being able to attend the Beauty and the Beast movie event at Casa Loma
• The Beauty and the Beast remake which I felt was so beautifully done, and getting to see Emma Watson play Belle and talk about what the movie means
• One of the people conducting a strategic review at my former workplace was really nice to me and gave me some great advice
• Finally bonding with some of our interns at my former workplace
• My parents invited me to tag along on my dad’s work/leisure trip to LA and Disneyland
• While at Disneyland, we found out that we wouldn’t be able to see the fireworks because they only did them on certain days, and my dad tried so hard to rearrange our tickets and plans so that we could see them. It didn’t work, but it was really touching anyway.
• Finally being able to buy the Pegasus plushie that I’ve wanted for years
• Also while at Disneyland, I got a really bad cold which was terrible but my parents did a really good job of taking care of me
• Learning how good it feels to let go of possessions that no longer serve you and cutting down my wardrobe and collection of books substantially – that’s not saying much but for me it was huge and I’ll probably do it again soon
• Having the financial ability to straight up just quit the job I wasn’t happy in without another one lined up
• Being able to get a zillion pairs of contacts and an eye exam 100% covered by my insurance before I left my job
• Having a month and a half of extra coverage on my insurance after I left
• The fact that tect and I made it to one year
• The delicious steak that I had at dinner on our anniversary, which I (clearly) still think about
• Having the financial ability to make tect happy with gifts and support his goals (most notably, the $500 towards his new laptop I gave him for our anniversary, which enabled him to stream)
• How happy and excited tect was about me learning League after it finally all hit him, he looked at me like I was brand new and suddenly the most interesting person he’d ever met in his life. It was beautiful
• Going semi-viral on Reddit with this project. Sure, a small handful of people were mean, but the vast majority were nice, and it was so nice to see others be so appreciative of what I had done even if I didn’t always feel very appreciated in real life.
• The fact that we were able to catch our dog, Navi, after she tried to run away into a massive crowd/the street when we took her to see fireworks on Canada Day
• Starting ballet (previously I was only doing floor barre) and actually getting pretty okay at it – okay enough that I am able to move up to the next level of classes, and feeling better about myself and my body and more graceful
• Learning that I have low blood pressure and therefore I need to eat more salty foods, which is the most awesome health concern ever, and knowing this enabled me to improve my performance in ballet
• My parents being so supportive about me leaving my job
• Having the freedom to get halfway through the first draft of my book over the summer.
• My friend Charlotte helping me with said book.
• Gaining so much video editing and design experience from the League of Love project
• tect’s mom taking us to Costco and buying us hundreds of dollars worth of stuff we really needed, which we are still working our way through months later
• Finding lots of nice sweaters at H&M that I’m still happy with
• Being invited to the Twitch Affiliate program
• Making friends with some of you guys
• My friend Melissa helping me and checking in on me around my birthday when I was sad
• Making it to Silver 5 in League
• tect surprising me on my birthday by buying expensive tickets for us and 5 of my friends to see a play
• tect getting me Airpods for my birthday which have truly changed my life (even though for some reason they don’t work very well with League)
• Making huge amounts of progress in physiotherapy with a physical issue I’ve been dealing with
• Taylor Swift’s return (yes, this is something good that happened to me personally)
• Learning that one of tect’s closest friends is a Swiftie
• Finding new winter boots that I (mostly) like for a good price without having to shop around for 84 years
• Making enough progress on Taylor Swift Tix to get a second day pre-sale code and being able to get floor seats for myself and better seats for tect’s friend than he would have been able to get on his own
• Being able to (sort of) afford said floor seats
• Making the SwiftSend feed on The Swift Life app and gaining over 2500 followers
• My dad emailing someone at RBC trying to find me a job
• A few people from RBC taking a chance on me and giving me a job even though I’m not really qualified for it, and offering to reimburse me for the courses I need to take in order to get qualified, and just being ridiculously nice to me over the course of the whole process in general
• My mom gave me a skirt of hers from the 80s and it actually fits perfectly and I love it, along with an epic hot pink blazer with shoulder pads that I’ll probably never wear but I’m never letting it go because it’s awesome
• Being able to celebrate the holidays with my family, even though I chose not to do gifts this year (for financial reasons, not because I didn’t want to – I fucking love presents and wrapping presents and shopping)
• The fact that my parents got me presents anyway without expecting anything in return
• My dad pretending that some of said presents came from “Santa” so that I wouldn’t feel as bad, even going as far as to put them all in a garbage bag by the fireplace and wrap them in “Santa’s” wrapping paper that they used to use when we were kids
• The fact that my dad actually picked out all the Santa presents himself (normally my mom does all that stuff)
• How much our dog Navi loves the new bed she got for Christmas
• The fact that tect and I will be spending New Year’s Eve just the two of us, watching Justin Timberlake’s Netflix special and making ice cream sundaes.

Favourite book  – Turtles All The Way Down, John Green

Favourite album – reputation, Taylor Swift

Favourite songs – Call It What You Want, Taylor Swift; 26, Paramore; 5 Days In May, Blue Rodeo

Favourite TV Show – Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Favourite movie – Beauty And The Beast 

Favourite video game (other than League) – Tales of Symphonia; The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Favourite apps – The Swift Life; Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp; Fire Emblem Heroes

We both look forward to seeing you all in the new year – I hope everyone has a fantastic long weekend and stays safe!

We will be back on stream on Tuesday at 8pm EST, and if you need a reminder of our new schedule you can check it out here. See you then!

Death snack of the year – Doritos (notable mentions: BBQ chips and Ritz crackers)