This year has been challenging for many but with the year wrapping up I am curious what your 2020 highlight has been. Whether it is personal, professional or something roleplaying related I’m curious what sort of growth or a good thing that has happened to you this year.

For me it would be the growth I’ve had with my husband during the stay at home mandate. I’ve heard that this extended time has sped up relationships either in a positive or negative way and I’ve definitely have seen a huge positive growth. We’ve explored new hobbies to do together, learned our quirks at work with both of us transitioning to working at home this year and with the commute and any evening obligations being cut out of our week we’ve been able to slow down our fast paced life and focus more on each other.

I managed to finish a novel and a novella, and edited/revised both. That and I've learned more about the publishing industry. Other than that and working on other parts of my career, I think the highlight of 2020 is being able to say I've never gotten COVID-19 or harmed in anyway. Luckier than most

I've had some huge change this year. When I look back at where I was this time last year, the difference is night and day.

I've grown to be more confident, assertive, and comfortable with that too. I've had a few job changes, but I ultimately took a leap of faith away from a job that had become far too comfortable that I didn't realise how toxic it was. I'm now probably the happiest, and most fulfilled I've ever been work-wise.

I also got my first pet this year! Well, I've had pets before but this is the first one I've gotten for myself as an adult with my own house. She has been the most joyful part of 2020, and I'm so thankful to have her. She's my absolute most adored and best friend.

I learned that I don't need to pretend to be somebody I'm not in order to make friends. I also learnt not everybody will like you no matter how hard you try. It is important to be kind to yourself as well as others instead of ignoring your own needs.

I didn't die.

I didn't die.

This, but without any irony?

Well, uh. I certainly did the things that I tasked myself to do. Thus, I was more productive and optimistic person than I was last year in almost every way. (Not that it amounted to very much in the end.)

Though through my wasted efforts, Christmas went better than last year. (And many other things were going better until recently too.) So I won't lie, my highlights kind of got drowned out by everything and everybody else. But um...at least I had a few this time?

And I'm sure that I'll be having an enjoyable/extended time with a friend of mine tomorrow. So there's something to look forward to, at least.

Plus, unlike many years prior, I won't have to worry about moving in the most inconvenient season. So there's one burden that I avoided. But then again, I suppose there's still a few more days for something to come along and burn it to the ground.

(Oh, and my dark sense of humor is still intact. Does that count for something?)

I joined this site which means returning to the hobby after something like a decade. Also I've been working from home for once and loving it. So much so that I have decided to only seek out such jobs in the future. Why anyone would ever prefer human contact over this is beyond me. Also I've NOT died of the plague. So that's good, I guess?

I graduated university this year (no ceremony which was A-okay for me, not having to spend 6 hours waiting for my name to be called sounds like a win in my book), then spent the summer studying for the LSAT. Ended up getting a 94th percentile score and am currently awaiting a response from my law school of choice ^^

I also got into the habit of exercising more and got a slightly better handle on my health, although work starting back up has put another pause on that. Had some health issues too, but nothing too serious thankfully. I suppose that's a highlight in that even though it all happened right in the middle of my LSAT studying, it didn't seem to hurt my score!

I spent a lot of time with family (both my immediate family and extended), played a LOT of crib, and had a lot of fun with that. I love seeing my relatives and I was happy we found more excuses to do that this year that'll hopefully extend into the future. We also had an absolutely bitchin' Christmas, I think because people had a little more time to spend getting ready for it, and I'm super happy about that.

I also worked on some hobbies, including some marked improvement in my watercolour painting, which I'm really excited about. And I joined a raid static, woo!

I'm glad I had the LSAT to focus on once school was done, because without some structure in my life I find I'm totally aimless and go a little crazy. You'd think having more free time would allow you to invest more time into hobbies and personal projects, but that's not how it turns out at all for me; I just end up aimlessly clicking around youtube all day. With a bit of structure though, things didn't get too stir crazy.

This was honestly a pretty good year for me, all things considered. Yeah I know it was shitty for many, but every single year is shitty for many for different reasons, so if we all hedge our memories on how the world at large found a certain period of time then we'll all be miserable forever. I'm glad this thread is here, cause it's okay for people to have good things happen even with bad things happening in the world. It's okay! And it's important to focus on the good things that happened, because focusing on the bad will only make you miserable.

Have a happy new year!

I got a PS5 and a 3080 so I'm pretty sure I've used up all my luck for the decade. Silver linings!