2023 in review

[Gloriosa Daisy]

So with 2023 being a few days from over, I'm making a 2023 retrospective thread for the third year running. I know we already had the "Your Best Experiences from 2023" but I feel that isn't quite the same topic as this, so I'm making it.

For the first year since I started doing these I think I'm voting no in this poll. It's mostly been a bad year for my life in a few ways, some of which I won't really share as they're very personal, although on the other hand there have been some good experiences in 2023, but the cons of this year definitely outweigh the pros. It's easily the worst year of my life since 2017 (when I was 13-14) and possibly the worst year since 2014 (when I was 10-11).

The bad:

• Bad for my romance life. I got rejected by a guy I really, really liked, and later had some bad experiences with dates, and as of now I'm still single although I no longer feel as bad about that as I used to.
• Not very good for friendship life, a lot of old friends I have fallen out of touch with or not had the opportunity to meet.
• I seem to have permanently lost contact with one friend who I had a very special relationship with, even though I hadn't been having regular contact with her anyway it still hurt a lot to know I'll likely never see her again. (I don't even know what happened to her either, her social media profile just vanished)
• University isn't going very well.
• I have been struggling hugely with mental health this year, especially with regret.
• Several things I won't share here because they're too personal
• I found Indiana Jones: The Dial of Destiny to be a disappointment, and the weakest Indiana Jones by far, which is a real shame as it is the last one after all these years since Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Though I'd still very gladly have a LEGO Indiana Jones 3 game
• My 20th birthday was relatively less good than the last two years, especially since I had to be at University and had a lot of obligatory classes on the actual day.
• It's been a bad year for the world, mostly in ways that don't impact me personally but still makes me unhappy to know they are happening in the world.
• Sticker Star and Paper jam

The good:

• Ever After High: I discovered this franchise earlier this year and it is an absolutely fantastic franchise. I adore the characters, the setting and story, the art style, the voice acting, and the writing and humour. I don't own any merch/dolls but the short episodes and specials are absolutely amazing. If only the franchise had more content, more full length episodes, and at least one movie, it would EASILY be my favourite TV series/franchise of all time, even above My Little Pony and Teen Titans Go. Unfortunately it has only about 68 short episodes (most of which are about 2-3 mins and a few are 8-9 mins), Thronecoming and Spring Unsprung at 45 mins, and Way Too Wonderland, Dragon Games, and Epic Winter each being about 4*24 mins. This is in part because it had to compete with Disney's Descendants, so EAH ended earlier than it should've. Sadly EAH only has 4 songs but they are all so good, particularly Live Your Dream (which annoyingly is the only one not on Spotify). All of my themes since March have been EAH-based because of this. I also think EAH is just a super underrated franchise? I had never even heard of it before this year and only found it out through fluke.
• I've really enjoyed my online friendship this year with @Toadettefan
• It's also really been a pleasure being friends with @Paper Mario this year
• I'm grateful to have gotten to know @MegaBowser64
• I built a PC for the first time this year and it's been a joy to play on it (although I kind of regret the money spent on it)
• I've still been enoying Linux a lot, and even managed to attend a Debian event this year. Although I don't actively play around with Linux as much anymore compared to 2022 since I'm very comfortably settled into Debian+Xfce now.
• I got my first job this year!
• I played some good games for the first time this year, including Super Princess Peach, Bug Fables, Super Mario RPG remake, Mario Kart 8 (especially with the Fawful mod), Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and Superstar Saga remake.
• Some good movies this year, most of all the Super Mario Bros. Movie, but also The Little Mermaid (2023 remake) and Elemental.
• I also saw some good movies that didn't come out this year, but which I hadn't previously seen, such as Hotel Transylvania 1 and The Terminator series.
• My step-second-nephew (my dad's sister's stepsons's son) was born in June this year.
• My sister was married this year, and my brother in-law is great.
• I've generally gotten closer and had good times with family
• I have at least a few IRL friends who I've had good experiences with this year.
• Christmas was moderately good
• My German is way better now than it was at the start of the year, but I still have a long way to go before I can be at a proper conversational level.
• I've learned a lot about my family history which has been very interesting.

 

[ClawgripFan9001]

I feel you on 2023 not being a good year, because 2023 hasn't been a very good year for me either. Mainly because I kept fucking things up for myself because of my abrupt manners and my fierce temper, and my depression has been acting up severely, especially towards the second half of the year. I'm really hoping that my life will start turning around for the better in 2024, and I'm sure that it will start turning around for the better as long as I treat other people the way I would want to be treated.

 

[Teedgee]

This year was fucking bonkers for me, in that some amazing stuff happened, but at the same time, some prettttty bad things came with that. With that being said, it was easily my best year since I dunno, 2018 (mainly because it's right after that that everything started going to shit)

Mainly, I graduated from high school and managed to get accepted into a good college, which still feels surreal since school has lasted my whole life up until this year. On top of that, I turned 18 this year (and I'm turning 19 in like 2 weeks), and adulthood really hits you like a TRUCK, like, not much has changed in terms of how i live and go about my day, but I get the feeling that whenever I walk down the street, people no longer see me as a kid, rather a random dude. In general, I've matured a lot this year (or so i feel); I'm considering being a writer as a path I might take in the distant future, something I didn't even THINK of last year.

With all that in the way however, it all felt really overwhelming, especially when it came to college. I used to rely on other people helping me with things, but I know I've done that too much, because I found myself feeling truly DEFEATED on so many occasions. Because of that, I went through a lot of depression, maybe even suicidal thoughts on some occasions, because I kept feeling like I truly fucked up somewhere (which I still feel tbh) and that ruined my chances of achieving plenty of things. I get a lot of compliments for people I know irl, telling me I'm smart and clever, and I have plenty of potential, but those compliments typically just put me in a bad mood because they just made me think "what the FUCK have I been doing the past few years I've achieved NOTHING". I have hope all those thoughts will fade away next year, I mean I've started working on some things I've been considering for a long time, like my fiction I've posted some of in my art thread, and I'll take driving lessons after I'm back from a trip I'm on right now.

Uhhhhhh other than all that, idk I played a ton of games since I got a gaming laptop for passing my exams, havent been playing too much as of late since again, I'm on a trip, but I did give some big iconic games a shot, like skyrim, gta 5, and bioshock. havent beaten any of them, but I'll definitely play more skyrim in my spare time it's giving good first impressions. favorite game of the year? most likely pizza tower, genuinely a 10/10 game, although when it comes to the goty nominees, id pick tears of the kingdom. Didn't watch a whole lot of movies this year since there just wasn't that much that interested me, and 2024 looks even MORE lame, but guardians 3 and barbie were certainly bangers, i guess so was across the spiderverse, buuuuuut idk i prefer the first movie, even if it's pretty close.

that's kind of it really, i have no idea what 2024 holds for me; part of me is worried about college, but at the same time, I've already adapted and gotten used to this next step in my life, so all I can really do is keep moving forward

 

[Veneer]

i learned alot and got my mental health in good order tbh! i've learned from tracking that i have really abnormal dips and highs in my emotional state that aren't me and are prob some sort of bipolar that i will need checked out later but just knowing its not me and is just my brain being a lil bitch helps so much.

i will have 59.5 college credits when i graduate high school in 2024! an associates degree before i even step foot into anything is actually crazy.

my friend group has become much more tight knit and feels more genuine than ever. rather have quality over quantity.

trolls world tour. I MEANT BAND TOGETHER FUCK just... yeah

mario wonder got me thru suicidal idealation. stupid i know but goddamnit i ain't fucking dying when new mario coming out i have yet to experience.

love life is... something lmao i am thriving but in a way most people would not agree to (i have five fictional boyfriends who love me very much x3)

35000 luigi images collected as well YIPPEE

 

[The Koopa Eating Dragon]

Before this year closes, I'll post about it. This year was not a good one. (By the way, 2022 went okay for the first half at least)

(I'll try not to make this too negative).
-Got laid off from full time, work at home, IT job at the beginning of the year. It seemed like the first step forward towards finally being fully independent, but now I'm back at zero again. (It was only 11$ an hour, but still). Getting another tech job also proved difficult. I did recently get a job at the same place, but it's only part time with not much hours and it sucks. I definitely need to find something else.
-I thought just getting a degree in Information Technology would be enough, but now there's also certification tests to take, which so far haven't been going well. I probably should have made connections while I was in college.
-Judging from how I am during job interviews, I haven't quite been able to get my nerves in check which I'm pretty sure hinders my chances to getting a job. That's something I really want to seriously work on.
-Grandmother on my mother's side, who has dementia for a couple of years now, has been staying with us since the second half of last year. She's now at a point where it's very easy for her to get angry and try to fight us. Without going too much into detail, she now requires assistance with taking care of herself, but will usually get angry and cuss us out for trying to help her. It's frustrating, but I feel even worse for my mother having to deal with this. Especially since 3 of her siblings are pretty much taking advantage of this. One of them got upset cause they wanted to take her for only a week, and my mother decided against it since it's not a good idea to constantly move her around like that since they live hours away. (They had got her before for July originally for only 2 weeks, but ended up getting covid and stayed there the whole month. When she came back, she was super confused and angry). Even my sister setting up group chats with the whole extended family to discuss what to do next only just led them to start slandering my sister.

One positive is that one of my mother's friends recently started to help out for a few hours each weekday. Our grandmother is much more cooperative with her so that reduces the amount of angry outbursts.

Unfortunately, I don't really see this whole situation improving anytime soon until some major changes happen. One thing is for sure, I'm definitely cutting ties with some of those family members altogether. (Although I never really talked to them to begin with, as they never really cared what I had to say anyway).


That was a lot to unpack, now on to the good things of this year.

-Going to a water park in July. It was the first good thing to happen all year. The month of July in general was much less stressful.
-Arranged Miami weekend trip in July. After the first 6 months of constant mayhem, it was a nice refreshing change of pace to go somewhere. I've been in Miami before though, but that was still an experience.
-I didn't really play much video games this year, but I will say I'm liking SMBW so far.
-Being in this forum is still fun, although I'm not a super frequent poster.

Well, that was this year.

 

[Ray Trace]

Vast majority of my days in 2023 were spent as a CCA as the post office so it went something like this:

• Cried inside LLV
• Wanted Uline to get crushed by a meteorite.
• Wanted Amazon to get melted by a volcano, is now boycotting Amazon, I'm so tired of delivering their giant and heavy parcels.
• Had sweet customers who get Trump/Republican mail
• Got written up for hitting a basketball hoop.
• Slammed thumb against mailbox and the blood is still there.
• Delivered 200 parcels in one Sunday.
• Swore off against using Spectrum's service.
• Broke two LLV keys.
• Broke the scanner stylus.
• Got forced in during my day off.
• Got harassed by dogs.
• Now has dogs has least favorite animal ever.
• Baked inside 100+ degree LLV in the summer.

• Got a lot of gifts and customers who love me in the holiday season.
• Work me out of my depression where I thought I was a failure with no paying job, but I work too much hours!!!!
• Now financing a beautiful 2023 red Mazda 3 Hatchback and paying for it.
• Identified a Swinhoe's White Eye, a new invasive birb species introduced in 2018.
• I will never get fired or laid off because job security is the absolute best.

 

[Chuckles17]

• we got the Mario movie
• we got some good games this year, such as Mario RPG remake, TOTK, wonder, and Pokémon, for example
• I'm (somehow) still alive to make your life worse, cry about it
• learned how to play smash bros (I still suck)
• beat Mario wonder, sonic superstars, deltarune, Undertale (neutral and pacifist route), and sonic frontiers,
• didn't have to see any of the baby characters in a game other than Mario kart (they still invaded the Mario movie)
•enjoyed Mario booster pass courses
• made an oc (it's literally just a normal character with a hat and tie)
• I read the shroom ( for a minimal of 4 seconds)
• joined the Mario boards (to make your life's worse)

 

[Ray Trace]

didn't have to see any of the baby characters in a game other than Mario kart (they still invaded the Mario movie)

That's a bad thing and then being in the Mario movie is a good thing

 

[Chuckles17]

That's a bad thing and then being in the Mario movie is a good thing

um yeah...sure...lets go with that...that's 100% what i meant.

 

[Nate Jacobs]

Alrighty, this might be marginally late but I'll give my thoughts on 2023. 2023 I'd say, right now was in the really good but not quite phenomenal area. Compared to 2022, as of right now I'd say it was slightly better, with 2022 having a good second half but being brought down by probably the weakest 6-month stretch out of the 2020s so far due to a below average college semester. Compared to how drastically I preferred one half of 2022 over another, 2023 was probably more even between its two halves, with the second half having more freedom still than the first half but also introducing my least favorite aspects of the year. I'm saying "right now" some for reasons I'll get to later on.

Positives of 2023
-I completed my Associates in Arts at my community college during the summer semester, and was able to get an Honors on it. My classes finishing off community college ranged from average to great, but it was not an intolerably hard workload and gave me a fairly good amount of free time. I also got accepted into the college that was my first choice, and the quality of most my teachers here has been good, but all of them I at least liked personally.
-My roommates are very stable for this school year so far so having to share a common area with 3 other people has not been too much of a detriment.
-I started my plan to not buy any more video games for at least ten years as of late April and so far, though that's only 8 months out of 120, have kept it. I've also done a good job cutting back on video games for school, and am glad I made the call not to play any more Ace Attorney until 2026, as that series can really immerse me in once I've started playing a case.
-I finished two fictional series I've had an interest in for a very long time, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic in June and the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney trilogy in October. Season 9 of MLP was worthwhile with a competent feel of substance and closure throughout its episodes, which was pretty refreshing after Season 8 was the only season of the show that I didn't like. Common Ground, The Big Mac Question, and The Last Problem were especially episodes I liked. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations I felt similarly on as a game, it was good without being amazing as the case quality was pretty consistent with every case in the game I at least felt positive-leaning towards, despite my favorite case in the game still not being as good as my favorite cases in the first two games (I do think it's better than the second game Justice For All, though.)
-In terms of other fiction I've experienced this year, I at least slightly liked about everything. I loved the Percy Jackson book The Sun and the Star despite it having an occasional weak point (a poor climax) but it really has a great heart, message, and characters and an interesting atmosphere. So far I like Percy Jackson 6 but not as much. Finishing Season 2 of Danny Phantom it was a good season, personally I marginally preferred the first but the second still had most of its episodes be more good than bad, with even the only two episodes I disliked having redeeming qualities. Right now I've seen all but two episodes of the third and final season. The list of movies I watched last year was in the better shade of meh summarily; a majority of the movies having more good than bad with some standout positives (especially Psycho), but I also hated my least favorite movie I saw, not going to say why. Like I don't "regret seeing" any movie solely because every one of them has something to analyze, but boy there's some really abysmal stuff to analyze in it.
-I still talked to the people I really liked when finishing up being at the dorm I was at later in community college. Some of them were foreign exchange students who moved back though. But I still have some more people I'm friendly with due to my sophomore-year dorm, and hung out with one of them in November. I also met some new people I like at my dining hall and at my two Political Science clubs in the fall semester. One of the people who goes to my college was one of the people I talked to the most in middle school but I had almost never talked to him for six years since then.
-I cut off a couple of people my age I knew who I really saw red flags in, including someone who I consistently wasn't enjoying being friends with since the end of 2019.
-Summer in particular was relaxing; I had some petsitting that really went well as I got to stay by myself at the person's house, along with the pool going even better than the previous year as I like all the lifeguards there and got to talk to some of them who were already there more. Going to France was fun with some good art museums, although Iceland I'd say is definitely my favorite out of the three foreign countries I've gone to.
-Now that I'm not at my old job anymore I'm completely able to stay at my dorm as much as I want without having to have my parents drive me around to go anywhere.
- I turned 21; I wasn't as interested in that I could drink as some people at first, though that I can drink alcoholic lemonade has grown on me.
-I worked to monitor my diet this year by limiting my restaurant food during diets in some parts of the year, such as in January and September through December.
-I decided I was done with my parents' restrictions on my devices and bought my own computer and phone with a phone plan.

Negatives of 2023
-There's one habit I really want to break but that because my parents have tried to force me to break themselves, my motivation to break it decreased and caused me to relapse into it more because of the subconscious feeling of spiting them whenever I do it. Especially in 2022 I fully relapsed into the habit for some time. There's one part of the habit that I did a lot less last year compared to 2022, though another part of it I did more, though I'd say 2023 was marginally better in terms of the habit because at least I'm not doing the first part of the habit so much. This is the main area where 2023 was weaker than 2021 because in 2021 I had completely stopped the habit for I think over half the year.
-One off thing happened to me in August which I definitely will not say.
-My parents are getting separated which I guess could be argued needed to happen for my mom, but it's still getting frustrating when my parents keep promising to take me somewhere at a certain time but then postpone it by like an extra hour to get into conflict about something. The situation just feels edgy in general too, and being the middle person in it gets very tiring.
-I got laid off from my job in December; my employer said it wasn't because of me but because the restaurant wasn't doing well on money, and promised he'd respond to emails about if there were new types of shifts I could have, but then ghosted me when I did email him. I at least was able to donate to a blood center for some gift cards, stopping my money situation from being more weak than already, and am probably about to start a new job at my campus, but that still annoyed me as I was being paid pretty adequately.

I will say I feel like it is a bit more… tentative about what this year's quality was, compared to 2022 in the beginning of 2023. That's because while the worst parts of 2022 were a bit worse than anything I listed in the negatives in 2023, there's one phase that also could have started around much later in 2023 that if it did would be listed under the negatives as well. And if it lasted permanently would be as bad as any of the bad parts in 2022 and would definitely cut last year's quality by an amount.
Idk 2020-2022 were all years that I'd classify as "mostly good except for one part specific to the year I really don't like" and while 2023 would have the least bad lows otherwise. If that phase really ends up having started to a worst-case scenario extent that could cut 2023 into having as bad lows as the decade's first three years. But I'll get to that if it does persist throughout 2024, probably in a "2024 in review" thread. Sorry for being vague I just don't want to get into it just now, especially because it could end up not being as bad as possible. but idk.

 

[khaoticnoize187]

Simply put uneventful like it has been for me since i left school.