Early & Alone #75: Bright Spots of 2022

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

I keep getting confused as to what year it is. Last night, I posted an Instagram story in response to a prompt to post a photo of you five years ago—I posted a photo from December 2018. That’s four years ago. Math! (I deleted it when I realized my mistake.) Sometimes I feel as though it’s still 2019. Others, I’m stuck in the miasma of 2020. A lot of the time, I still believe the 80s were 20 years ago and the 90s were yesterday. Mostly, I think it’s still 2021 and 2022 is the future. What is time?

2022 was quite a year. I turned 40, I cultivated the first long-term relationship I’ve had since my divorce, I thought about what I really want and need in my life going forward. I went to Puerto Rico and Minnesota and New York and Maine. I sang karaoke with some of my best friends on the deck of a lake house in Upstate New York. I watched fireworks from a boat for the Fourth of July. I took a course on entrepreneurship. I got Covid and faced rejection. I took a few chances. I failed and procrastinated and persevered and hoped and succeeded.

There’s a famous Zora Neale Hurston quote that goes “There are years that ask questions, and years that answer.” For me, 2022 was a year of asking questions. It was about taking stock of the things in my life that are working and those that aren’t. Hopefully, these questions will yield some answers in 2023.

Of course, 2022 was also a year of consumption. I watched a lot of TV, read a lot of books, and saw some movies. Here are a few of the things I enjoyed consuming in 2022.

Best Books

1. Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

2. I Came All This Way to Meet You by Jami Attenberg

3. Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

4. The Book of Delights by Ross Gay

5. Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe

6. This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub

7. Liberation Day by George Saunders

8. The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

9. Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday

10. The Library Book by Susan Orlean

Best Podcasts

1. Longform

2. Normal Gossip

3. Maintenance Phase

4. If Books Could Kill

5. You Are Good

6. Celebrity Memoir Book Club

7. Heavyweight

8. 60 Songs That Defined the 90s

9. Love to See It with Emma and Claire

10. Weird Island

Best TV Shows (Dark)

1. Station 11

2. Normal People

3. Severance

4. Stranger Things S4

5. Twin Peaks

6. The Leftovers

7. Andor

8. The Bear

9. Watchmen

10. The White Lotus S2

Best TV Shows (Light)

1. Love Is Blind (both seasons 2 and 3)

2. The Sex Lives of College Girls

3. Somebody Somewhere

4. Abbott Elementary

5. The Other Two

6. Only Murders in the Building

7. Insecure (final season)

8. Schitt’s Creek (final season)

9. Sex and the City rewatch

10. Real World New Orleans Reunion

11. Better Things S4

12. The Rehearsal

13. Glow S3

Best Movies

1. The Lost Daughter

2. Can You Ever Forgive Me?

3. King Richard

4. Everything Everywhere All at Once

5. Turning Red

6. Fire Island

7. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

8. Let Them All Talk

9. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

10. Wakanda Forever

I’ve spent the past few weeks taking little chunks of time here and there to work on the Unravel Your Year workbooks. They are long and comprehensive, but I found it a useful exercise in reflecting on 2022 and thinking about what I want for 2023.

Here’s my “more/less” list for 2023:

And my word of the year for 2023 is IGNITE.

Do you have a word of the year or do you have any particular New Years rituals of reflection or looking ahead?

No matter what your NYE plans are (mine is to eat snacks and watch the ball drop with Jeff and the kids) or what year you feel like it is, I wish you a happy and healthy one.

See you in the new year.