2023 Yearly Recap
In 2022, I wrote that the year went by in a blur but I don’t feel that way about 2023. Yes, it did go by quickly, but I never got the sense that it passed by too quickly. I feel as though I was able to stay present during 2023 more so than ever before and I believe it’s because 2023 was the first year that I wasn’t planning for anything. In every other year I have planned to move, or get a new job, or make some big decision that caused me to live in the future so much that the present passed me by before I realized it was gone.
While living in the present is most likely a good thing, the year definitely didn’t start out feeling that way. I started my January in Switzerland on the tail end of a winter trip and was still reeling from grief and guilt after my grandmother had passed away in December. Although I got to go skiing in Deer Valley, January and February were especially dark months for me as I had stopped feeling joy or satisfaction even in things I had always liked. I felt like I was going through the motions of my life without any real purpose and I contemplated my own mortality and my parents’ mortality with a microscope, logicking my way out of attempts to improve my mood.
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One activity that hadn’t lost its luster was spending time with friends so at the beginning of March I found myself in San Francisco staying with my good friends for a long weekend which turned out to be the exact right thing. A change of scenery and my friends’ perspective on my feelings felt like a turning point for the year where I started the climb out of my existential pit of despair. During this month I also got to celebrate my boyfriend’s birthday with him in Montreal and I took a pottery class where I learned that I am bad at pottery but do enjoy making things with my hands.
April and May held no travel but I was able to spend a lot of time with my family, exploring my home city, and trying new recipes. I also got my open water scuba certification in May. However, my stress spirals were renewed because my company started enforcing return to office in May and had also announced potential layoffs. The surface of this period was calm and serene but just below was the constant threat that it could be gone in an instant. Eventually, the dust settled and I’m still standing, but the anxiety of waiting for a company to decide my fate has left its mark on my overall stress levels.
In June, the travel really started to ramp up. I took two weeks off to explore Taiwan and South Korea which were the first brand new countries I had been to since 2019! The trip was slightly marred by a persistent heel pain I’d been experiencing since returning to a walking commute, but these countries were beautiful and were a perfect way to get fully out of my head and into the second half of the year. In July, I attended the only two weddings I had on my schedule for the year in Pittsburgh and then in Austin (two weekends in a row!). Even though I’m at the age where weddings are very common in my age group, I am still not tired of them and am really looking forward to more in 2024. In the same vein, my parents celebrated their 30 year wedding anniversary and I arranged for them to go to a Michelin star restaurant in Greece to celebrate as a gift. I’m really proud of myself for being able to do things like this for my parents now.
In August, I took a girls trip to Mexico City with my college girlfriends. This was the first year in ten years where I did not go to LA at all, so this was the only time I saw many of my friends. Looking back, it’s strange because I don’t feel out of touch with them in the same way as previous years but I also know spending time with friends is something I’m trying to do more of. After Mexico City, I met my boyfriend in Monterrey, Mexico to do some climbing and we did some of the biggest outdoor climbing we’ve ever done on our own!
At the end of August I headed off to Seattle for a work trip and work really picked up at this point. In October I spoke at a conference in Salt Lake City on a panel with executives from Uber, Google, and other big companies and then I headed to London at the end of the month for a conference that my team organized. In November, I headed to San Francisco again on a work trip (although I did squeeze in some friend time), and that concluded a whirlwind of work trips - the most travel I had done for work in a very long time! I wish it had been a little bit more dispersed but overall I enjoyed all of these opportunities and am hoping for more in 2024.
Towards the end of November, I headed to Arizona to spend time with my boyfriend’s family and then spent the Thanksgiving holiday back home in Chicago. December was a relatively slow month, and I got to spend more time with family, with my sister, and with friends after not socializing too much due to work. December also marked a financial milestone for me where I reached my goal for my emergency savings fund and investments. After the layoffs scare earlier in the year, I wanted to make sure I had a bit more money tucked away and I was able to reach my goal in one year! And then to cap off the year, my boyfriend and I headed to Colombia to spend Christmas and New Year’s in some warm weather. Colombia marked my second diving excursion since getting my certification (the first had been in Korea), and my third country for outdoor climbing this year. My birthday falls on the 27th, and usually I have some sort of crisis, a manifestation of my anxiety at how quickly time passes, but this year, my birthday managed to come and go without much incident. I finally ended a year feeling satisfied.
Looking back on this year, I feel like I’ve settled into myself a bit more. I have reached a point where I don’t feel the need to strive for the sake of striving and am being intentional with what I pursue. I’m also getting better at giving myself room to breathe and do things for enjoyment without always focusing on planning or productivity. In 2024, I’m trying to continue that energy and although I do have some goals for next year, I don’t intend on letting them disrupt what I’ve been able to build for myself this past year.
But of course, let’s move on to the data part. I still enjoy tracking my habits, my media consumption and favorite products.
Language: I studied language an average of 27.8 days per month this year which is pretty much on track with last year. I did flashcards or language apps nearly every day and this year, many of my trips were to places that aligned with my language experience which allowed for some immersion. Last year, I had wanted to take an HSK exam to validate my mandarin practice and this will be a rollover goal to 2024!
Workouts: I worked out an average of 24.4 days per month. This is slightly up from last year but still not as high as in 2022. I experienced persistent pain in my foot starting in June which hindered my fitness goals and my mentality around working out. As a result, my workouts changed over the course of the year. I had been doing pilates, which I stopped, and a lot of running and lifting, but have lately been doing a more varied mix of low intensity cardio, weights, yoga, climbing, and physical therapy.
Stretching: Stretching is also up to 19.5 days per month. This habit is strongly tied to my workout habit - where I usually only stretch if I worked out. Again, I want to do more stretching but I may need to peg this habit to a different one if I am going to make progress here.
Water: My water goal is to drink 2L of water per day and I hit this an average of 24 days per month. A lot of travel definitely made this one a bit harder to hit than in years past but I’m not unhappy with this number.
Climbing: This year, I climbed an average of 5 days per month. This dropped from 7 last year which dropped from 9 in 2021. Because I do most of my climbing on weekends, and was traveling for many weekends this year, this number took a big hit. I’d like to get it back up to 7 for 2024 so I don’t lose all the progress I’ve made.
Writing/Content: As you might have noticed, I only wrote two articles in this past year. I went through a really big creative rut and started to feel as if I didn’t have anything relevant to say anymore. I also wondered if writing was a proper creative outlet for me. I still kept this section on my habit tracker though as a reminder to continue to think about what I wanted to do going forward. I don’t have it figured out yet, but I am feeling better about what is to come for me in this space.
Media
Starting in 2020, I tracked all the media I consumed and I’m so glad I started, I LOVE going back over these lists. In 2023, I read 35 books (ten less than last year), watched 60 new movies (one more than last year), and watched 33 new shows or new seasons of shows (9 less than last year). My reading habit was dominated by Brandon Sanderson this year. I discovered his Cosmere books and made it my mission to read them all. However there are nearly 20 books in this endeavor, some of them are over 1000 pages and most are over 500. By the end, I felt like that kid in Matilda who has to eat chocolate cake as punishment. As a result, when I would take a break from Sanderson, I wanted to read something wildly different which resulted in me reading a lot of long form fan fiction, which I did record as part of this list because these fan fics are equal to books that are hundreds of pages! I still read every day and am definitely going to be taking a break from Sanderson to work my way through my to-read list that I’ve been building over this past year.
Movies remained relatively the same for me. I’ve definitely lost passion in this area as there are so many bad movies nowadays so you’ll mostly find movies from years past on my list that I’m only just getting around to watching, in addition to a couple new ones I felt safe to take a chance on.
TV watching was down for me this year. I found it difficult to commit to new shows so while there are a few new ones there, the list is dominated by watching new seasons of shows I already like. However, my favorite pieces of media I consumed this year are overwhelmingly on this side of the list. Some truly great TV came out this year.
I do want to note that I watched substantially less movies and TV this year because I went through a three month period of being absolutely obsessed with Legend of Zelda - Breath of the Wild and played it during every free moment I had which resulted in a lot less TV and movie consumption. I’m still not done with the game but playing it was a great outlet for me and I liked getting better at something that had absolutely no bearing on my life for once.
You can find the full list of everything I watched or read below.
Finance data
Last but not least - I tracked my finances. I made roughly the same amount of money as last year but allocated it a lot differently. My biggest accomplishment was able to save or invest nearly 40k on top of my 401k allocation. Secondly, I did improve my spending with regards to eating out which was a big area of opportunity last year. Everything else remained at stasis and I felt I was still able to indulge on trips and in a few luxury purchases this year.
INDEX:
Top Picks
Favorite Books: Mistborn Saga (Brandon Sanderson), Remain Nameless (HeyJude19), Tress and the Emerald Sea (Brandon Sanderson), Yuma & the Nightmare Painter (Brandon Sanderson), 101 Essays to Change the Way You Think (Brianna Wiest), Gideon the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir)
Favorite Movies: Decision to Leave, John Wick 1-4, Up On Poppy Hill, The Tale of Princess Kaguya, Puss in Boots the Last Wish, Past Lives, Joyride, The Descent, Sinister
Favorite TV Shows: Erased, Cyberpunk Edgerunners, The Glory, Marvelous Mrs. Maisel S5, Black Sails, The Great S3, The Bear S2, Eighty Six, Blue Eye Samurai, Beef
Favorite Products: Pom Pom London Purse, Hobonichi Planner, Mediheal Green Tea Masks, Rom&nd Melting Balm, Beauty of Joseon sunscreen
Favorite Restaurants: Malatang (SF), Apolonia, Sun Wah BBQ, Club Lucky, Daisies, Handshake Speakeasy (CDMX), Boxcar Butcher’s (LND), El Cielo (MDE)
Number One picks if you held a knife to my throat?
Book: Mistborn Saga
Movie: Past Lives
Show: Blue Eye Samurai (I’m OBSESSED, If you do nothing else from this list, watch this!!)
Product: Beauty of Joseon Sunscreen
Restaurant: For fine dining: El Cielo, for casual: Sun Wah BBQ
Would love any comments with your top picks for the year! I’m always looking to try new media, restaurants, and products!
Books: The title of the book is followed by the author, the page count, and the date of completion. I read 19,314 pages this year which is nearly 3000 more words than 2022 despite a lower book count.
A Death in Tokyo - Keigo Higashino (359) 1/3
Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson (633) 1/10
The Well Of Ascension - Brandon Sanderson (764) 1/17
The Hero of Ages - Brandon Sanderson (557) 1/24
Alloy of Law - Brandon Sanderson (326) 1/26
Shadows of Self - Brandon Sanderson (384) 1/31
Bands of Mourning - Brandon Sanderson (432) 2/6
Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson (1124) 2/17
Words of Radiance - Brandon Sanderson (1081) 2/26
Edgedancer - Brandon Sanderson (136) 2/27
Remain Nameless - HeyJude19 (~620) 3/10
Draco malfoy and the mortifying ordeal of being in love - isthisselfcare (~600) 3/16
The Tempest Bride - Kiki Moussetis (280) 3/25
Measure of a Man - inadaze22 (~1000)
Art & Fear - David Bayles, Ted Orland (122)
Strange weather in Tokyo - Hiromi Kawakami (179) 4/29
Oathbringer - Brandon Sanderson (1233) 5/4
Who cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner - Saskia Vogel (230) 5/10
Elantris - Brandon Sanderson (616) 5/30
101 essays that will change the way you think - Brianna Wiest (441) 6/4
Rhythm of War - Brandon Sanderson (1219) 8/7
Storyworthy - Matthew Dicks (351) 8/20
Warbreaker - Brandon Sanderson (656) 9/10
Dawnshard - Brandon Sanderson (171) 9/17
Four thousand weeks - Oliver Burkeman (265) 9/28
The Lost Metal - Brandon Sanderson (507) 10/10
Tress of the Emerald Sea - Brandon Sanderson (480) 10/18
Yumi and the Nightmare Painter - Brandon Sanderson (480) 10/22
Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus (391) 10/31
Gideon The Ninth - Tamsyn Muir (479) 11/4
The Auction - LovesBitca8 (724) 11/16
Harrow The Ninth - Tamsyn Muir (556) 11/26
Nona The Ninth - Tamsyn Muir (479) 12/15
Hunter Hunter Volumes 33-36(37) 12/24 (1000)
The Sunlit Man - Brandon Sanderson (448) 12/29
Movies
The Swimmers
Call Me By Your Name
Three Men & A Baby
Three Men & A Little Lady
Avatar: The Way of Water
Decision To Leave
Weathering with You
Margin Call
John Wick
John Wick 2
John Wick 3: Parabellum
Banshees of Inisherin
The Butterfly Effect
Up on Poppy Hill
Castle in the Sky
Tale of Princess Kaguya
L.A. Confidential
Akira
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Suzume no Tanjiro
Bros
Heat
John Wick 4
You People
Search Party
Better Man
Primal Fear
A Perfect Stranger
Bama Rush
The Outlaws
Past Lives
Barbie
Oppenheimer
The Break-Up
The Jerk
The Negotiator
The General’s Daughter
Memory (Asesino sin Memoria)
The Devil’s Own
The Departed
Wargames
No Hard Feelings
Scream
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3
Scream 2
Scream 3
Scream [4]
Scream 5
Scream 6
2001: A Space Odyssey
When A Stranger Calls (1979)
Joyride
Forgotten (Korean)
The Ritual
The Descent
Polite Society
Are you there god? It’s Me Margaret
Sinister
For Your Eyes Only
Pain Hustlers
TV Shows
Emily In Paris S3
Erased
The Last Of Us
Ginny & Georgia S2
YOU S4
Devilman Crybaby
Cyberpunk Edgerunners
Shadow and Bone S2
The Glory
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel S5
Demon Slayer S3
Black Sails
Succession S4
Hell’s Paradise
TriGun Stampede
Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story
Abbott Elementary S2
Selling Sunset S6
Samurai Champloo
The Witcher S3
The Great S3
Jujutsu Kaisen S2
The Bear S2
The Summer I Turned Pretty S2
King The Land
Sex Education S4
Beckham
Eighty - Six
Lessons in Chemistry
Blue Eye Samurai
SpyxFamily S2
Selling Sunset S7
Beef
Restaurants
Four Seasons Geneva
Pasta People
Le Boccalino
Olió Basílico
West Loop market
Little Saigon (SLC)
Wasatch Brew Pub (Park City)
Five5eeds (Park City)
Tamarind (SLC)
Proxi
Damaojia
Mako
Sepia
Kokkari Estiatorio (SF)
Malatang (SF)
Marco Polo (SF)
Pho Huynh Hiep (SF)
Angelica’s (Redwood City)
Just For You (SF)
Le Petit Sao (Montreal)
Tiramisu (Montreal)
La Finca Cafe (Montreal)
DonDonYa (Montreal)
Bouillon Bilk (Montreal)
Crew Collective (Montreal)
Cafe Leo (Montreal)
Bar Mar
Hide & Seek
Farm Bar
Matcha Cita
Sun Wah BBQ
Groundswell Coffee
Tsukiji Fish Market
Viaggio
Apolonia
Bar Takito
Taipei Cafe
Edie’s All Day Cafe
Jeong
Bavette’s
Dendri Cafe
Restaurant Jeuen
- 62. 20+ Restaurants in Korea & Taiwan
20+ Restaurants in Korea & Taiwan
20+ Restaurants in Korea & Taiwan
20+ Restaurants in Korea & Taiwan
20+ Restaurants in Korea & Taiwan
20+ Restaurants in Korea & Taiwan
20+ Restaurants in Korea & Taiwan
20+ Restaurants in Korea & Taiwan
20+ Restaurants in Korea & Taiwan
20+ Restaurants in Korea & Taiwan
20+ Restaurants in Korea & Taiwan
20+ Restaurants in Korea & Taiwan
20+ Restaurants in Korea & Taiwan
20+ Restaurants in Korea & Taiwan
20+ Restaurants in Korea & Taiwan
20+ Restaurants in Korea & Taiwan
20+ Restaurants in Korea & Taiwan
20+ Restaurants in Korea & Taiwan
20+ Restaurants in Korea & Taiwan
20+ Restaurants in Korea & Taiwan
20+ Restaurants in Korea & Taiwan
20+ Restaurants in Korea & Taiwan
Mozart’s Coffee (Austin)
Sushi Junai (Austin)
Nine Bar
Brindille
Club Lucky
Daisies
Odette (CDMX)
La Casa de Toño (CDMX)
Tortas Al Fuego (CDMX)
Filigrana (CDMX)Contramar (CDMX)
Pujol (CDMX)
El Moro (CDMX)
Handshake Speakeasy (CDMX)
Tacos Javi (Protrero Chico)
Sierra Madre Brewing (Monterrey)
Pangea (Monterrey)
Nana’s Green Tea (Seattle)
Mr West (Seattle)
Tutta Bella (Seattle)
Dough Zone (Seattle)
Cinque Terre (Seattle)
Wild Ginger (Seattle)
Deep Dive (Seattle)
Bombo (Seattle)
Provisions (Seattle)
The Runaway (Seattle)
Holu
Uncle Mike’s Cafe
Mild 2 Spicy
Mindy’s Bakehouse
The Allis at Soho House
Pasta Veneta
Yokocho
Portobello (London)
Cheeky Scone (London)
Duck Soup (London)
BoxcarButcher’s (London)
Bosco (Bath)
Bao (London)
Kybelle (London)
Dishoom (London)
Bar 100 (London)
German Gymnasium (London)
Swinger’s City (London)
Light Bar (London)
KOBA (London)
Found (London)
Cracked & Battered (SF)
Noe (SF)
Saap Ver (SF)
ILCHA (SF)
Barcha (SF)
Uno Dos Tacos (SF)
Lao Table (SF)
Per Diem (SF)
King Pineapple Bakery (SF)
All American Modern Sports Grill (Scottsdale)
Liberty Station (Scottsdale)
Pinnacle Grill (Scottsdale)
Juno Sushi
Colombia Craft Brewing (MDE)
El Botánico (MDE)
Hotel Islas Baru (BARU)
Pergamino (MDE)
Campesino (MDE)
La Cande (CTG)
Libertario (CTG)
Casa Cruxada (CTG)
Soloio (CTG)
El Bololo (CTG)
El Cielo (MDE)
Cafe Noir (MDE)
Mistura Provenza (MDE)
Guatape Restaurant (MDE)
Hotel Du Parc (MDE)
