2022
This is a bit late, but I thought it still worth the time to jot down a few thoughts on 2022.
Things that went really well.
Graduate school went really well in 2022. I finished my first spring semester and my last fall semester in the MA program at the University of Alabama. During that time, I wrote a seminar paper that is (really close!) to being finished. I had a lot of fun doing that research and was lucky enough to travel to Wisconsin (for free) and do research at the beautiful Wisconsin Historical Society Library and Archive. I hope to write more about that research here in the future. During those two semesters, I went through an American Literature graduate seminar (1865 to present) and a European Literature graduate seminar (Middle Ages). Both classes were a lot of fun and I was happy to finish them with good grades. I also declared my intention to go through the PhD program at the University of Alabama. I still have to pass my Masters comps, but hopefully that goes smoothly and I can keep going to school for a little while longer. Other than that, I had fun meeting more people in Tuscaloosa and getting more comfortable in the city I will be living in (at least for a little while longer).
My summer internship with the Center for the Study of Occupational Regulations went really well in 2022. I did a lot of research during my internship and was lucky to be funded by the center to do that research. I did two (maybe three?) trips to Montgomery at the Alabama Archives and one trip to Wisconsin. Research is a lot of fun and getting to do it for free is even better. I also started this Substack as a part of the internship so that I could quickly (without peer-review) put out interesting research that I was coming across. Beyond that, simply getting to talk and discuss the research with Dr. Timmons, Dr. Bae, and Connor Norris was invaluable.
My health went really well in 2022. I still have a long way to go and could be doing much more, but I’m happy with the progress I made towards being healthier in 2022. I swam some during undergrad, but this year was the first that I actually started working out (running, lifting weights, core workouts, row machine, stair climber, etc) regularly. As a result, I feel a lot better. I’ve had back pain pretty much regularly since high school (probably because of football) but that has almost gone away completely. I also lost some weight. I never tracked it closely, but I know one random day I woke up and weighed myself and was shocked to see a number I probably haven’t seen since before high school. I started trying to eat healthier as well. I could do much more, but I’ve been trying to eat less meat and consume less snack/junk food. I’m hoping that I can keep this all going and do even better in 2023.
Music was great in 2022. I started listening to music much more intently in 2022. I’ve always liked music, but my music habits sadly tended towards finding a handful of songs I really liked and listening to them on repeat until I got tired of them and then I would find new songs the next week. In 2022, I made a real effort to listen to new music almost daily. I went through a lot of artists and various genres, and really enjoyed it. I also think you can learn a lot just by listening to music. Listen to a good sampling of music from the 60s and then the 70s and you can hear the difference and better understand the period. I also went to more concerts in 2022. Off of the top of my head, I saw COIN, Mt. Joy, Govt. Mule, Blackberry Smoke, Whiskey Myers, Judah and the Lion, and The Head and the Heart. I might be missing an opener but those are the big ones at least. Don’t let people tell you that you can’t have fun during graduate school.
Music continued…I also started playing the electric guitar. As I became more interested in music, I decided I needed to be able to play the music that I was hearing. I definitely have a very long way to go, but I’ve made some progress and it’s been a lot of fun. I hope I can just keep practicing a little bit here and there until I’m able to play some of my favorite songs (even if it takes a lifetime).
Things that did not go well.
Reading did not go well in 2022. Really, I’m being dramatic, but I am unhappy with how much I read in 2022. In 2021, I read 65 books. In 2022, I only read…63. In my lofty pre-2022 thinking, I figured that I could perhaps hit 100 books. At the least, I would have liked to have read more than I did in 2021. Yet, that was not the case. Maybe the books this year were just longer, but I hope to read more in 2022. Maybe 70 as a goal is something I can achieve.
Substack at the end of the year did not go well. I was pretty proud of myself the first several months that I began writing this newsletter. I wasn’t paying too close attention to the readership and interaction—I mostly just wanted to keep myself accountable and force myself to write something every week. That went really well for a while. I put out a blog at least once a week until the dreaded end of the year when I basically stopped for (it hurts to say) roughly three months. Things just got busy, and I felt like the quality of the content I was putting out was suffering. So, nothing came out for a long time. I’m hoping to get back to posting once a week, or at the least once every two weeks or so. Balancing all the things I have to do, and want to do, is difficult but I don’t want this Substack to completely end or go away. So, if you enjoy reading this, you can look forward to more content in the future.
Concluding Thoughts
Overall, 2022 was a pretty great year—perhaps the best for me so far. Graduate school is going well and life in general is good. I don’t have any resolutions in 2023 besides continuing to do the things I think are beneficial and fun.