The year is coming to a close, and so it’s time for me to look over the past year and assess what things went well, and what things need improvement.

There’s definitely a lot to celebrate in both my personal and work life! This time last year, I moved to Vermont and began living somewhere that has truly felt like a home. Before, I was living in downtown Bridgeport, CT, in a ~200 square foot studio, with a “kitchen” about 3 feet from my bed and a fridge behind my work desk, struggling to afford food on a weekly basis. The threat of missing rent and becoming homeless was a genuine possibility every month. I didn’t talk about it much at the time; It felt like there wasn’t really a point in going into it, or like I’d be pitied I guess, I dunno. But now that it’s a year behind me, I feel ready to reflect more on the things I survived and how far I’ve come since then. I plan on writing a more detailed journal about my life and the ordeals I’ve overcome in the future, but for now I’ll leave it brief, since the point of talking about it today is just to provide context for how far I’ve come in one short year.

This year, I’ve found great success in streaming and scheduling. I’ve gotten better and better at estimating how long a project takes me to make thanks to my time-keeping records, and have finally found a balance between pricing and time spent! I live in a condo that is downright spacious, and I even have a dedicated room to do art in (this has been a dream of mine for my whole life!). I can go on walks during the day and night without fear of being in a bad neighborhood, and have even made friends with our neighbors. And perhaps most of all, I’ve been able to make progress on my main queue of art that I first took at the start of 2020, when Covid hit and I was forced to leave my retail job.

As for things that need improving, I think the obvious one is that while I’ve made progress on that main queue, it’s been very slow progress. Working on both current and past commissions while trying to stay afloat financially has been challenging and slow-going I also have found little time for personal art and projects, and there hasn’t been enough income to get back into the convention circuit (since it costs so much upfront for registration, hotel rooms, travel and supplies). My income has been stable enough, but pretty bare bones with no room for savings or growth of business.

I gave myself this year to get things situated and see how I’d do, and now that we’re at the end of that year, I’ve come to the decision that it’s once again time for me to get a non-freelance job for a while. It was a tough decision, but I think that it’s necessary if I ever want to catch up on my main art queue and save up for convention opportunities. My plan is to take one last round of the photo-style commissions in the month of January while I apply for jobs, and after that I’ll be relying on that income while I finish all owed art. The owed art queue will be completed either through completion of the project, or by refund, depending on the specific circumstance. By my plans, I should be entirely done with this process by April 2024. I’m nervous about joining a more traditional workforce again, but I think this will be a hugely beneficial move to make for a while. So yeah, that’s one hell of a change coming up!

So with all that official stuff said, all that’s left in my mind is to wish you all a happy holiday season, and invite you all to take time for yourself to look back and reflect on the year past. What things went well for you? Where do you see room for growth? How can you make that growth a reality in the coming year? I’d love to hear.