2021 In Retrospective

Because it is a trend for me in January… this post should’ve been up two weeks ago when people still cared about 2021. But, since I am bad at adapting to change, I’m still reminiscing.

Hello, everybody! I hope January is treating all of you kindly and you’re having an amazing start to the year.

Today I am reminiscing on everything non-book related. From my life, to what I’ve been watching, to music and poetry – I’m looking back on the year 2021 and deciding if it was in the gutter or an improvement (though, in my personal opinion, everything is an improvement from 2020).

And the verdict is: It was actually a good year for me. While it had a bunch of ups and downs and it was quite eventful, it was one of the most interesting, exciting and reflective years of my life.

But let’s see things more in depth…

I feel like 2021 made my life take a bit of an unexpected turn and made more of a people person. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still an introvert and people are exhausting even though they don’t mean to be, but I found myself slowly moving towards the ambivert-middle of the scale. I’ve met so many great people last year and made some unexpected deep connections. I became comfortable around people I never thought I could be this relaxed around and became more outgoing even with people that weren’t necessarily on the same wave-length as me.

It was also a deeply reflective year, in which I took a look at my personality and the ways I do certain things and decided what works and what doesn’t, what is good for me and what’s not. A few years prior I had this whole idea of finding myself – which is something social media puts on a pedestal and pushes as a goal, when it’s actually nearly impossible. Our community, the people around us, our experiences, the media we consume – all has an effect on us and, as people, we are forever changing. And some things just stay hidden from us. Finding a definition for ourselves might just remove the possibility of change, and change is vital for growth.

Yes, I still want to find new things about myself. I still want to have new experiences and meet new people (which is something I never thought I’d say because I used to hate interacting with people I wasn’t familiar with). But now I understand growing is a life-long process and not a moment of catharsis.

I still had anxious days, I still had ugly days, I still had arguments with people and some bad experiences. But, now that the year has passed, I mostly remember the good. And that is mostly the effect of my friends who have been life-savers and life-changers. And I hope to bring along this good energy with me for the entirety of 2022 and have a great year, even though it is going to be mad stressful and busy.

Officially, I got back into poetry! I love reading it, writing it and even sharing with people. I’ve tried some new styles and topics. And, also, I’m as scared of showing my work to the world as I once was. It is still a daunting prospect but, after publishing one poem on the blog, I have gotten so many encouragements and nice responses that I’m motivated to write more and post more. So stay tuned for that!

In 2021 I got back into anime! And, gods, it’s so good to be back. Like in middle school, I was pushed from behind by my best friend – and she knows what she’s doing. She also got somebody else from our friend group into anime and he adores it, which makes for great conversations.

If I had to choose a favourite, I would have to say Bungou Stray Dogs. It has the perfect balance between supernatural, action and mystery. It has amazing vibes and the animation style is beautiful. Both the plot and the characters are complex and incredibly well thought-out. And it has my favourite dynamic ever from anime, which is the hate-love-deep trust relationship Dazai and Chuuya have. I could probably write a PhD thesis on these two (and, since I’m going to study psychology, I might).

Some other super cool animes I discovered last year are JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures, Haikyuu, Moriarty the Patriot. And, of course, Jujutsu Kaisen, which might become my favourite of all time if it continues to be as amazing as season one was.

I also finished Sherlock (me? finishing things? wow) and caught up with The Umbrella Academy (I seriously can’t wait until season three).

Also, something I haven’t mentioned before because I didn’t do a Life Update for November and December, but I finally tried a Chinese animation show. One of my favourite TikTokers that makes Soukoku content adores this show and I thought: “If they love this, I might two.” So I watched Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation. And I LOVED IT!

It has the most beautiful and ethereal animation I have ever seen, the magic system and the world are really interesting. And the romance is URGH! It had a open main m/m relationship and it’s the sweetest and funniest ever. I will never get over Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji. Never. They are the best couple in existence. (In an universe where we disregard Ronan and Adam because they are from a different medium.)

(I haven’t watched that many movies this year so I can’t really pick a favourite. One of my unwritten goals for 2022 is to try to watch more movies so let’s hope that happens.)

Because of my newly discovered passion for music the past year, this is going to be a long segment. So we’re going to talk about songs, artists and playlists.

Songs

• Brutal by Olivia Rodrigo – this song got me through the last few months of 2021, not gonna lie. I feel like it perfectly captures a lot of the emotions of a teenager and I personally still feel like one even though I’m graduating in 4 months. It still hits hard.
• IDK You Yet by Alexander 23 – another song that just hits hard. This made me honestly sob at one point.
• Achilles Come Down by Gang of Youths – this one wins the prize for coolest song. The arrangement of the melody, the lyrics, the French discourse and the vibes overall are just all stunning. This song haunts me.

Artists

Literally without any connection to my favourite songs, my top artists of the year were Måneskin and MARINA.

Måneskin is just addictive. I heard Zitti E Buoni once and the I only listened to them for two or three months straight. Their music just gives me life.

And MARINA (or Marina and The Diamonds) has just such well-written songs. This artist gets me on a spiritual level. She basically has a song for my every feeling and mood and I cannot wait to explore her discography further in 2022.

Playlists

I’m just going to recommend you two playlists that kept me alive all throughout 2021 and in which you can easily observe how messy, odd and honestly horrendous my taste in music is.

• Kubokai causing chaos and annoying Saiki
• Soukoku being my comfort ship

Podcasts

Podcasts have been my personal obsession in 2021. I just adore them. There are fiction podcasts that tell stories in super interesting and creative ways. There are podcasts on psychology and self-development and history and mythology. And some of them are just three friends chatting about different subjects and being really funny and insightful (aka Be The Serpent). There is a wide variety of podcasts and they are a great was to consume stories and information.

I plan to write a post in which I give you my podcast recommendations, but that will come when I have listened to more. However, if I had to pick a favourite of the year, King Falls AM still and will forever have a place in my heart.  I wouldn’t recommend it necessarily because it got canceled when the story was at a maximum point and there is a lot of controversy surrounding the creator (so maybe it is better that it stopped where it did). But I still love the story and the characters with my whole heart and it’s something that will stick with me, even though I have mixed feelings.

Webtoons

Webtoon honestly took over my life. There isn’t a day when I don’t read a chapter of a story. And they are so cool and complex and the art is gorgeous. I just love starting my day with a chapter of a webtoon and be hit with all kinds of emotions.

This was a fairly long post, but we’ve finally reached the end! Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed!

What are your conclusions on 2021? Was it a good year, a bad year or so-so?

Tell me all in the comments!