2024 goals
12.30.2023
i have a mirror of this list on my scrapbook page, but i wanted a place where i can write a bit more at length about my goals for 2024, have all my notes for those goals in one place, & do more in-depth check-ins on them throughout the year!
2023 was not my best year in many ways — though i definitely did some cool stuff, my mental health has taken a bit of a nosedive in the latter half of the year. my hope is that setting some goals (and having the accountability of them being somewhat public like this) will help me feel a bit more in control of things in the new year & give me some concrete things to work towards!
october
june
may
april
february
january
end of 2023 (starting point & initial thoughts!)
personal
- move to a new city once my lease is up (august)
i've been wanting to do this for a while; i've lived in my current city for a year and a half (and grew up near here, too) and i'm, frankly, sort of miserable here. i lived in nyc previously, and i miss it very badly, but it's impossible to convince new york landlords to rent to you if you aren't a millionaire. this means i need to explore some new cities and see if i can see myself in any of them! my plan currently is to visit philly, pittsburgh, and providence; i might also look into things that are along the metro north line so it would be easy to get to nyc to visit friends. my main requirements for a city are good public transit, decent gay bars (/generally safe to be openly gay in), a good art scene (bonus points if i have comics friends living there already), and not too terribly cold in the winter.
- keep a daily journal
i've already bought a planner to use for this! i'm the sort of person who gets really into one method of cataloguing my days / tracking moods / etc etc etc for a few months and then falls off of it completely. i had an elaborate notion set-up going for about half of 2023, and did some bullet journaling before that. this is... not going to be any of those things. i need a place to just write down anything i'm thinking about, or do little doodles of dreams i've had, or just to put stickers in when i don't feel like writing things. i can jot down my mood or the weather or what i ate, but i'm not going to force myself to keep to any rigid habit/mood-tracking formats, since i think that's what's burnt me out on journaling in the past.
- start going on dates again?
i haven't really dated since i moved to my current city. i came out while living in nyc, which made it really easy to find other lesbians, since there's 2 lesbian bars in manhattan — and the downside of this is that i have no clue how gay people meet each other in states that don't have those pre-established places. i've been too afraid to try flirting with women just in case they end up being straight. (i also had a pretty bad relationship that lasted most of my time in college, so i feel like i wasted the years most people spend figuring out how to date, a little bit?) i don't know if i'll succeed in getting out there in person, so to speak, but maybe swiping on the apps again will lead somewhere, and i want to be open to that possibility. a side effect of this goal is that, hopefully, it'll mean getting some low-stakes practice in remembering to respond to messages in a timely fashion, which is something i've always been awful at.
- finally get a cat
i've been meaning to do this for ages. i've only ever had cats wander into my life on their own, so i think there's been sort of a mental block on the concept of going to an animal shelter and adopting one because that's just not something i've done before — but i think having a lil guy to take care of might help my mental health some, and i miss having a weird creature in my home.
- take more selfies
i used to feel a lot more present in my body, and i think having photographic evidence of my existence was part of the reason why. i want to start putting effort into having cute outfits again, maybe get all dolled up for events every once in a while, and mostly regain some of that confidence in how i look & that feeling of being in my body, instead of somewhere off to the side of it.
- try 1 new recipe every month
i love living alone, but it was much easier to cook when i had a roommate and was cooking for somebody else. it never quite seems worth the effort when i'm cooking just for myself — but i need to remember that making food for someone is a love language, and i can and should love myself enough to make myself some nice meals.
career
- get an agent
this one's been on my to-do list for the past few years, and i keep getting overwhelmed by the prospect. 2024 is the year that i, at the very least, make a super detailed list of potential agents to reach out to when i have a good project for them.
- pitch at least one graphic novel
as i write this, i've got two in early stages — one with a writer friend, and one that's just mine. i'm prioritizing the one with my friend first, but i'd like to get both of them at pitch-ready stages in 2024, so i can pitch the solo one next!
- table 3+ conventions
i have 1 planned & several more i need to apply to! in 2023 i got into several cons that i ended up not being able to attend, so i'm hoping i can get some of those on my list for '24 and visit some cool new places.
- experiment with new mediums
or old-but-haven't-played-with-them-in-a-while mediums. things to return to: gouache, embroidery, quilting, screenprinting. new things to try: ceramics, toy-making.
- finish revamping my portfolio site
this one will be a pretty easy win; it's almost entirely done, and all i have left to do is cleaning up some of the css & finishing a few illustrations to put in various places on it.
hobbies
- read 30 books
i'm at 39 for 2023, so i think 30 is a super achievable goal to start with! (in 2022 i read 26 books, and in 2021 i read 21; i could probably bump this goal up to 40 to keep the upwards trajectory there, but i'm going to stick with 30 as a goal and see if i can get even more than that!)
- go to at least 1 event, lecture, class, etc per month (online or in person)
i have a bad habit of, every once in a while, scouring the 'events' pages of every cafe or bookstore in my area, jotting down a billion things in my calendar, and then... not actually going to any of them. i'd like to change that in 2024! there's plenty of free things to go to, and it could be a chance to meet people with shared interests, or just a chance for me to sit with my sketchbook and take notes on whatever the subject is. (online things count, too, but i'd like to make at least half of these be in-person things.)
- sew at least 1 item of clothing i can actually wear
the side goal here is to get proficient in using a sewing machine. i have a skirt halfway finished at my grandma's house, so hopefully i can finish that soon (and move onto other projects!) i also need to remember to actually post stuff on my sewing page.
- post 10 more songs on my music page
i'm super proud of my progress on guitar playing in 2023, and equally proud of posting some of that on this website, so i want to keep both of those going! the 'hard mode' of this goal is to go to an open mic night or something irl.
- only buy clothes secondhand or handmade
this one has been on my resolutions list for the past couple years. i haven't quite stuck to it, but i definitely keep it in the back of my mind whenever i feel like shopping, and i think it's definitely improved the urge to buy things i don't need — because yes, i could probably find jeans or a sweater or etc online, but if i have to go hunting for the perfect item in a thrift store it makes it a bit of a game, and fights just a little bit against fast fashion, and makes me more intentional about what items i'm adding to my closet.
