New Year, (Kind of) New Me

Hello, blog that I have not written in since October 2022!

I just got an email saying that my domain name has been renewed, which was a stark reminder that I haven’t felt compelled to publish something here in over a year. Part of me has felt overwhelmed by the amount of things that have happened in the last year, which makes the thought of updating my blog with everything that’s happened feel… overwhelming!

Instead of recapping, I’m looking forward to the upcoming year. I am a big fan of New Year’s Resolutions, so here are mine for 2024:

Monthly Trivia Night

This is my favorite resolution and the one that I’m looking forward to the most!

Over the last few months, I’ve realized that I have formed so many new connections and relationships that I’d like to grow further, and I’m excited by the possibilities! However, I have also fallen into the mental trap of thinking that nobody wants to hang out with me because nobody is inviting me out, and letting these thoughts discourage me from inviting people out myself.

To get around these mental hurdles, I’ve decided that I want to go to trivia night at least once a month. I love trivia, but, more importantly, I love having an external force (or better put, excuse) to invite people out.

I’ve floated the idea to some circles already and have received a lot of positive responses (including offers to connect me to other trivia-savvy people, which is exciting!), but I still definitely feel the need to close the loop and actually finalize plans. That’s always the obstacle, right?

No New Books

I own a lot of books. I have a full, four-shelf bookshelf as well as a rapidly-growing collection on my Kindle and Audible accounts. Everything is growing because I am constantly on the lookout for sales and good deals, especially in the book section of my local Goodwill. I get a very specific sense of accomplishment from collecting books – again, the possibility! the thrill of the find! etc! – but this feeling has very rarely been followed-up with the sense of accomplishment that comes from actually… finishing… these… books…

Because of this, I have declared that I will not buy any new books in 2024, and instead, take this year to work through my current queues and bookshelves.

I have, however, decided to make one exception to this rule. I am part of a book club with a few friends from college, and I definitely want to keep participating, as it’s been a great way to continue feeling connected with them – so I’ll buy whatever book we’re talking about, even if it’s not already on my bookshelf. Anything for connection, right? (See above!)

The Year of Heavy Weights (and – gasp – No Running Goals)

This is a complicated one!

I ran my last race, for the foreseeable future, at the beginning of last November. I haven’t run a step (on purpose) since then!

I have a lot of thoughts about this change that I will probably pour into another blog post in the future! (Content!) For today’s post, I want to focus on my new fitness regimen instead: lifting heavy weights!

I’ve wanted to lift heavier weights for a long time, but had trouble balancing my time between lifting and running, and because I kept signing up for races, running had to take precedence for a long time. After my last race, however, I decided to follow my heart and sign up for a gym membership.

Things have been going great so far and, honestly, and my former race training mentality (read: consistency) has mapped itself well to getting myself into the gym on a regular basis. Here’s to a stronger year!

New Year, New Me: Mental

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A post shared by trisha (@tserquina) on Dec 31, 2017 at 9:09pm PST

Taking better care of my mental health isn’t really a “new year’s resolution.” It’s more of a thing that I’ve known I had to take care of for years but didn’t, for many different reasons. Like finances, it’s become important to me to be more open about my mental health because it currently isn’t something that I talk to anyone about.

For example, I only told my mom that I was going to therapy after nearly 5 months of seeing my therapist – and even then, I was nervous to tell her! Nervous! I am very proud to work with a lot of mental health providers, and I respect their work immensely, but I’m still a bit shy to discuss my own mental health with others. Why am I so nervous about talking about mental health?

There’s a ton of reasons – social judgement being the big one – but part of my mental self-care has been adopting a “fuck it” attitude, and this feels like a great place to start.

I’m planning much more in-depth posts throughout October about my mental health care journey, but there are a couple of lessons that I’ve specifically learned during quarantine that I want to bring with me into the rest of this “new year” – read about them after the break!

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New Year, New Me: Finances

I’ve always considered myself pretty “on top” of my money. As you’ll read below, I’ve meticulously tracked my income and expenses ever since I got my first job 9 years ago, and have never let more than a week or two pass without auditing my money.

Very thankfully!, quarantine has given me some breathing room within my budget. Because of this, I’ve started to ask myself some more questions about what I want to do with my money in the long term. Though I’ve been great with my money in the moment, I’ve never been quite as good at planning for the future. Read ahead for some of my current money management practices, as well as goals that I have for the future!

(And before you read on, I just wanna stress again: I’m in a good financial place right now! In keeping with the theme of this series, I am very fortunate to be able to make more lofty goals with my money in the coming year, and I’d like to share them. I totally acknowledge that other people are in the total opposite situation, and I know that talking about my own relatively secure situation comes off as tone-deaf. But it is also becoming more important to me about being open about my own financial goals and habits – so I’m doing this anyway! Let’s go!)

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