Hot Takes, Gossip, & Highlights from 2022
hot girl reflection
Each year contains multitudes. In 2022, I found a pair of overalls that fit me. Clayton unsuccessfully tried to find love on the Bachelor. Miles Teller starred in Top Gun, cementing my forever lust for him. I became obsessed with candles. My best friend, Makena, bought a puppy. Elon Musk decided to be awful more than once. 2022 was great and weird and wild and anxious and tiring and magical.
New Years is my favorite holiday. I rarely stay up until midnight and am usually sober on December 31st, but the holiday marks a time to reflect and reassess. I’ve always been goal-obsessed, constantly setting myself up for the next round of goals. New Year’s Resolutions fit the bill perfectly for me. But as I get older, I’ve moved away from goals, especially as a major measure of success. Instead, New Years has become this beautiful opportunity for me to set intentions for the year and see where I can integrate my values more seamlessly. I didn’t have formal resolutions for 2022, but I did create a vision board.
When I look at this vision board as we near the end of 2022, I’m overwhelmed with how accurately it portrays my year. The Rupi Kaur poem in the corner is one of my favorites. I had forgotten I put it on my 2022 vision board, but ironically (or not so ironically) Ryan and I had talked about reading it at our wedding after we got engaged this year. I spent a significant amount of time in the mountains and maybe most importantly booked a wedding date for next summer half-way up Mammoth Mountain at 10,000 ft elevation. I started a new job which made me feel exactly like the girl jumping off the cliff in the bottom right. But my new position has given me even more opportunities to connect with students in meaningful ways and has empowered me to set boundaries and work through my “reliability complex” with work. The bottom left tweet feels particularly relevant given my newsletter a few weeks ago about accepting my introverted qualities as I age.
While on a plane heading to California for the holidays, I jotted down some of my biggest highlights, things of note, and/or relevant 2022 news. I’ve titled it “Hot Takes, Gossip, & Highlights from 2022.”
Started indoor rock climbing (and became obsessed to the point where I may or may not buy a climbing knot wedding band)
Taught my first academic class: “Fitness, Technology, & Society”
Got engaged to a pretty cool guy on a fun hike in Boulder, CO with my best friends
Started a new full-time job with GW
Completed my LYT Yoga certification and started aggressively correcting all my coworker’s posture
Watched Miles Teller in Top Gun and still have not recovered
Realized I’m really good at niche sports like darts, bowling, and bocce ball
Started reading mostly smut (or, more accurately, all of Emily Henry’s books)
Ryan admitted I’m funny sometimes
Befriended a cohort of middle-aged Arlington women that frequent the county group fitness classes
Perfected the homemade London Fog
Related: Cursed Compass Coffee for no longer selling their vanilla simple syrup
Realized Soludos sneakers might be cute enough to outweigh the pain of wearing them (a very unusual Mal take)
Decided tights were created by the devil and banned them from my wardrobe
I remain conflicted over biker shorts as a style trend
Found a pair of overalls that fits me
I’m tempted to say here that “time is flying” but truthfully time is just time. Almost 365 days have passed since the end of 2021 and I’m still not as successful as Meghan Trainor. That’s alright. The same 365 days we had in 2020, though I’m pretty sure time was different then? We’ll have another 365 days next year and I’m unbelievably excited to utilize them watching the new season of Emily in Paris, reading more “grumpy hot man meets pretty city girl” smut, and trying to figure out why people like bell peppers.
Everyone has their own way of reflecting on the year. Ezra Klein, my favorite journalist, said on his podcast last week that his yearly “reflection” looks like a dimly-lit room, whiskey, and chatting with his best friend. New Years is totally a construct, but my take is that we should utilize it to check-in. Dare we call it, Hot Girl Reflection? My wish for everyone reading this newsletter is that your 2023 is a year of outstanding firsts, just like picking Zach for the Bachelor was the first time the show’s lead was a white, cis man… oh wait. Ok, let me try again. My wish for you is that you are able to connect and communicate with your loved ones on platforms like Twitter… wait no. Not that one. Ok one more time. My wish is that you get a full year without a new Nicholas Cage movie, that there are no avocado shortages because of climate change, and that PHILZ COFFEE IS NOT SHUTTING DOWN NATIONALLY (even if they are closing most of their stores in DC, RIP). Ok maybe those are wishes for me, but my prefrontal cortex JUST finished developing like 3 years ago, so give me some slack. I’m handling health insurance on my own, it’s a lot ok! Enjoy the holidays, eggnog is gross, love u all!
Sneak peak of my 2023 vision board:
(Pictures and content featuring Huck Phinn Outpost, Jules Acree, Camille Styles & Lisa Olivera, I didn’t specifically credit them in the vision board so here are the links to their amazing stuff)
