2019 and this decade in review.

Dr. Peach

Rest in Peace Walkazo 1991-2016
Banned User
With 2019 and this decade coming to an end, it's about time we look over this year and this entire whole decade.

This year I've gotten past Grade 10 Applied Math and had a nice time at my tech job. I've gotten my first set of wisdom tooth pulled and I had a root canal. I've gotten myself a Switch with some games. I went to Saudi Arabia for a second time and to India for a third time. I got myself a Surface Laptop, which is my first Surface product.

Throughout this decade I went from being a kid into a man. I went to to Middle School and High School throughout this decade. I became a big part of the Internet over the years.

I've also witnessed the loss of my grandmother, my grandfather's youngest brother, my paternal uncle, my great grandmother, as well as the loss of Walkazo, David Bowie, and Prince.

We've lost Etika this year which is also sad.
 
The decade had way too many disasters. The tsunami in Japan. Me being in three hurricanes Matthew, Florence, and Dorian. Too much wars and stuff. I had four deaths that negatively affected me. My uncle back in 2011, my father, and my country music idol, George Jones in 2013, and my dog of 14 years that passed away on the second of this month.

But the good stuff always outways the bad stuff. I had visited my grandparents dozens of times. I found new stuff, I got my permit to drive, got the best games I have played. I graduated from High School back in June I had became friends with my neighbours despite hanging around in my room almost all the time. I went back to church. I made friends here, and the good atmosphere here when it comes to my birthday makes them the best I have. Most importantly I have a great time with my family which is one of the meanings of life.
 
There was another thread like this, but I assume this thread is more about my life as a whole in the decade.

I'm only 16 so I've gone from 6 to 16. I'm basically a completely different person now. Same at my core, but hugely different on the outside. I went from being a weird-ish young girl to being a lot more grown up woman taking life much more into my own responsibility.

I did a year-by year comparison on that other thread which wasn't Mario focused but I'll do another one here for my life overall:

2010: Eh, too far into the past, I can hardly remember it aside from getting my DS.

2011: My school decided I didn't have enough friends so put me with some people who I stayed with for a few years. They eventually got me into soccer and I started playing that a lot more. I haven't played soccer in like 5 years now but I enjoyed myself while it lasted.

2012: Huge year for my gaming life. Pretty good with the London Olympics happening - the only one I went to see myself was a diving event but it was still really cool.

2013: Moved up to a new section of the school, and I became a bit more socially outcasted, but I kept with the friends I had been given. Still pretty good overall.

2014: I became a lot more socially popular. I was really into soccer at one point but later I moved away to some more quieter people who I would play some less sporty games with. I got into computer coding as well.

2015: This year pretty much marked the transition from my younger self to my older self. I had begun suffering mental health problems in late 2014 to early 2015 and I would beat myself a little. My parents helped me a little and I started getting a lot more support from the school so I got better and took more care of myself. By the summer I was very satisfied with my life and wished it would never change. Later on I started seeing things differently and I was a little nervous about growing up and everything but over time I got to become a lot more confident in myself. Also I discovered Minecraft in the summer this year and got it for Xmas which was amazing too.

2016: Awesome. I changed schools in Year 9 and I found out I passed for my first choice which was a huge relief and to this day I'm extremely grateful I didn't fail the test. I got to enjoy Minecraft a lot more after getting it for Xmas and I became even more happy with my life and myself as a person. When I finally did change schools it was an unwelcome change for me but I got through it alright and I was academically very successful.

2017: My social life was getting better. I gave my first Maths speech on my 14th birthday. Then things went downhill. I lost all my confidence in myself. I became even more unhappy than I had been in 2015. It was hard for a few months but after that I decided to get my life back on track. Then I realised where I'd been going wrong socially and made changes for the better. 2017 was a big year for my gaming life as well because I finally took my passion for the Mario franchise to the internet.

2018: I decided to finally grow my hair long, a decision I definitely don't regret. My social life repaired itself over time. I did a really good thing for a lot of people, I was proud of myself at the time for it, nowadays, I don't regret doing it but I'd prefer to just leave it in the past now because I've changed so much and I don't really identify with who I was then and why I wanted to do that good thing, but I still did do a good thing. Then, I just continued managing a comfortable life with no big changes. Mid 2018- mid 2019 was also like a transition period, in that I didn't do much remarkable, just exploring who I am and becoming a better person.

2019: Hard time studying for GCSEs but other than that pretty good. I got into video game emulation but eventually a part of me didn't like it so I stopped. Eventually I got back to emulation, but I only use it for a few ROM hacks since I'm still a bit paranoid about console modding and I don't feel bad about it. After my GCSEs I finalised my philosophy essay that I had been writing which was recieved well. My summer was pretty cool. Returning to school now in sixth form college feels a lot better than it did before as I'm grown up and I can make my own independent decisions. I've been exploring more in the last few months about what I'll do with the long future ahead of me and I'm excited for it.

Sorry that this is all so vague but there are some things I don't want to disclose about my life but still feel comfortable to share the emotional journey I've had.
 
I began this decade in elementary school. I'm now a senior in high school. Pretty crazy to think about. I don't know exact years for many of these things, but here is a list of notable things that have happened this decade (in no particular order).

The negatives:
- A bunch of people died in my family, notably my paternal grandfather in 2010, my cousin in 2012, and my maternal grandmother just this June.
- My brother went through a really rough patch of depression, causing him to come home from college and set back his degree.
- The person I thought was my best friend abandoned me for an online friend, causing me to doubt myself. I felt isolated and alone throughout an entire summer.
- Some of my pets died. My cat Pounce and dog Coco, both of whom I had for as long as I could remember, passed away from old age. Although he wasn't my pet, a stray cat that was very friendly named Charlie Anderson got sick and died before we could get him to the vet.

The positives:
- I found three stray kittens in 2016, and I somehow managed to convince my mother to let me keep two of them. They are so cute and I love them both so much (especially Richard, he's a total sweetheart ❤ ). The third kitten was given to my mom's coworker, and his family absolutely adores her.
- My brother has improved so much from when he first came home from college. He was able to tackle his demons, finish up his degree, and get multiple jobs. I'm very proud of him.
- I have met so many cool people in the past 10 years. In the summer before middle school, I became friends with the best friend I've ever had. Middle school and high school introduced me to a ton of great new friends that I still have today.
- I achieved a lot in high school. I proved to myself that I actually was capable of being at the top. I am currently ranked second in my class, and I'm proud of the work I've done to get there.
- I got a few jobs, and although working sucks, I gained a lot of experience (and money). I've been working at my first job for nearly 3 years now, and it's a blast. My coworkers consist of a bunch of my friends from school and my brother, so every day is fun.
- I visited a bunch of cool places. New York, London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto, Niagara Falls, Yellowstone, and many more. It's been awesome to get out of my hometown and see a bit of the world.
- I got into Mario and Nintendo as a whole. Man, I freaking love this series. I appreciate it for so many reasons, but mainly because it has refined my gaming skills, which has inspired me to play a bigger variety of games.

There are so many more positives, but I'm sick of typing. All in all, I've had a great decade. I'm ready to see what the 2020's have in store for me, and the world.
 
Add a third trans girl darling to the mix!

I entered this decade without a plan. Now I have one, at least. Still don't know what to do with living though.

I also... Had a sister before this decade. I still can't believe I don't anymore.
 
:birdo: Make that 4.

I must have been.. 17, at the start of the decade. THAT IS WEIRD TO THINK ABOUT. Usually when I think "beginning of decade" I assume I must have been 10, but then I remember I'm 26 not 20.
Contrary, I personally view my decade to have begun at 20y, 6 or 7 years ago.

But I'll start at,
17y-19y old: I was couch surfing at a rich friend-group's home in Florida. We had fun. We watched the live action Death Note in theater, we went to beaches and a gym together, and played basketball and mmo's. One was a DJ and we got to sit behind the scenes of her sessions. One had a fancy shmancy sports car we got to ride in. We ate a lot of ice-cream, practically lived on it.
At 19 I had to leave. I was technically living with my conservative grandpa who hated me, and he kicked me out of his house for having long hair and wearing basketball shorts, and taking his passive-aggressive sarcasm literally. He kicked me out 2 days before school started. I maybe could have lived with the friend group, but chose to go back to Mass instead, because I was honestly a little scared of the guy that owned the sports car, he had an inflated ego and had a hobby of making people upset on purpose.

20y-22y: I got my own apartment! Peace alas. It was here that I decided to work on my mental health, go to college, and explore my identity as an autistic closeted transfem. I joined a queer group, and it felt like the first time I had ever truly experienced kindness & understanding. At 22 I had to leave the apartment, my downstairs neighbor was a physically abusive drunk and I felt unsafe and every time I reported him the cops didn't help. Luckily a queer friend took me in,

Leading to,
23-24: Now living at a queer friend's parents house. I decided to come out to my family, it went well for the most part. Admittingly, 20-24 I was in culture shock, I dropped my own interests to explore the interests of my new friends. Again, a lot of fun. They introduced me to the leftist world: Undertale, Steven Universe, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Hamilton, Marvel, a bunch of queer music artists.
And to the weird of the world: B Movies, Musical Movies, Gravity Falls, Cryptids, Fairy lore, X-files.
They also introduced me to the concept of fandoms, which I hadn't the ability to grasp back then. But I did enjoy hearing all their headcanons & fanfics on Gravity Falls and Portal, etc.
We often played simply by doing improv fanfics & headcanons all day.
They also introduced me to witchcraft, sometimes we would take hikes in the woods and collect rocks, come back and do some magic/energy work with various objects and drawings and deities. It was a lot of fun.

25-26: I moved into a polyromantic group's home. They're my ex's now. But before the hard times were good times. We played a lot of DnD and Magic the Gathering. They also did witchcraft. I watched a lot of Marvel with them too. We went to scenic locations a lot, one example being a field of fireflies atop a mountain. At 26y, We moved to a big city together (sound familiar?), it was amazing, there were businesses of everything imaginable right in walking distance. I joined a Pokemon Go group, and bought Nintendo merchandise at a local hobby store that was like FYE but 2x bigger & 10x better. We had a lot of bubble tea dates.
At one point, my culture shock went away. I felt I had a grasp on my own life again. And decided to rejoin my interests.
And so I joined this very site, and found comfort here. Comfort I wasn't getting at home, because one of the members of the polyrelationship had a hate for me. Tension rose, and I broke up.
Now I'm back at my parents again, saving up for a 1br apartment. But I feel overall happier now. I have a stable sense of identity now. I finally feel like I get who I am ^ w ^.
Also, remember when I said I couldn't grasp fandoms? Ha-ha, being on this site, is my first time participating in a fandom! Crazy, right?
 
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