2025 wrap-up, and looking forward to the future!
I am writing this from an interstate hotel, where I'm recovering from the norovirus I caught from my newest (and extremely cute) niece. It feels weird to write this while feeling not-quite-myself, but maybe it will make me feel a little more myself.
2025 Accomplishments:
- I moved! It was about this time last year that we went up north to house-hunt in Baltimore. It was snowing on that trip when we visited the house we ended up buying, which felt auspicious.
- I left my community in my red state college town, which was bittersweet. I had my dream job - making art with hospitalized patients and immunocompromised folks in my community. College towns are like company towns, and when the big bosses are political hacks trying to wreck everything that makes learning and academia worthwhile, it's depressing. Screws were being turned on bosses and friends. I was banned from acknowledging racism in my undergraduate course. A book deal fell apart with the university press, probably because my social media was being monitored. I will never know, but it was all so painful that we needed to leave and ensure my spouse has continued access to medication they're trying to ban back home. There are incredible southern people fighting all of this and they are the biggest badasses I know. I still feel guilty some days for not staying and fighting.
- I started rebuilding my community in Baltimore with both old and new friends. I feel grateful to know so many people in this city from past lives, and that people are just so friendly here. Hanging out is just so... easy here.
- I started a new career in public education. I was a private school art teacher in a past life, before I quit due to long covid. This is my first time having only one job - not four gigs - and being able to sustain myself due to our incredible union and state's value on education. I teach middle school as a white person in a majority-Black community that has been burned by peppy, energetic white teachers like me in the past. I have worked my tail off to build trust and relationships and knock off the endless middle school nonsense (we love a superglue prank, apparently). It's kicking my butt every day but I am happy.
- I paused my 11-year-old letterpress business. I moved my presses up here (terrifying!!!), but paused online and brick and mortar sales as well as linocut classes, which I taught on weekends to adults for years. I love this career I made for myself! But I also don't need it to sustain me financially, and I have a very different body of work I am working through mentally. I am also, really tired after middle school all day.
- I made a print edition for a big deal author before I paused my business. She was a great client to work with and she'll be giving them our with pre-orders of her books. It pushed me into new subject matter and forced me to get my shop together.
- I celebrated 5 years of sobriety. I went to some AA meetings - I'm not trans but I've been the the specifically trans-centered meetings (it's open) because this year has had me shaking with rage and I didn't need gaslighting that the world is fine. I've only been to a handful before I moved so that was really good for me. I've been steady in my sobriety from alcohol - I don't think about it really - but not the way I've consumed news. There's always work to do.
... and in 2026
- I celebrate ten years with my spouse! Ten years of a really beautiful monogamous relationship with the last two as married folks. We're finally taking our honeymoon this coming year!
- I am going to relaunch my business. It will live in in-person markets (because I love them), a newsletter/RSS feed, a website, and Mastodon. It already is those things, but it was really built on and through social media and nixing that requires me to reconfigure my website and do some very deep thinking about that my imprint ("brand" in the letterpress world) is really about in 2026.
- I am going to apply for residencies for 2027. I've done three so far, and I've really loved the thinking I could do in another studio around other letterpress people. There are some new-to-me funded ones as a public school educator, which is really thoughtful.
- I am going to host friends over for dinners and games more. I have an extremely reactive dog who has kept me from feeding my extrovert need to pull people together and feed them. At this house we have multiple stories and he can safely/happily be in another room without hearing us and stressing. I also want to introduce him (a whole thing with a 120 lb reactive dog!) to new people so I can have more friends get to know him. He loves every person who has ever bribed him with food and is my most affectionate, needy guy.
- I am going to continue committing to a life of living my values. Through my pedagogy with kids, my internet sovereignty, art and commerce, and building community I will try to be one of many shining a light on new ways of being.
I will be resting deep the next few days before the new year - I love fresh starts and revisiting my systems. I have two potentially cringy traits - I'm pretty woo woo with card pulls, writing, and meditation and I low-key love to read productivity books to motivate for a new start to the year, so I have a lot of fun visioning the year ahead so I don't get sucked down into day to day needs as the year rolls in.