Issue 89: 100 things that made my year (2024)

Welp, last year got away from me and I ended up taking a hiatus from this newsletter. I guess I inadvertently channeled Michaela Coel’s advice to disconnect: “don’t be afraid to disappear from it, from us, for a while and see what comes to you in the silence.”

In the last year, I settled into a demanding new job and began planning my wedding. I finished an amazing fellowship with The Center for Fiction, and am so grateful for the community, publishing resources, and opportunity to contribute to our fellows anthology. Most of all, I am grateful for the space and time to write. I wrote the first draft of a novel—118,000 words in ~8 months. I already have a substantial rewrite planned, but I’m trying to think of it as having created the lump of clay for a future sculpture.

I had a short story published in Epiphany called “What I Eat in a Day” about TikTok, neighborly obsession, and healing one’s relationship with food. I also did an interview with them about writing advice, practices, and recommendations. Last month, I published a short story about loneliness, “Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Often,” in the New England Review! You can get a discounted print copy or annual subscription here, or see if it’s stocked by your local bookstore.

While it’s been a year of many writing milestones, these also only represent a small fraction of what 2024 was actually like. Similar to last year, I thought I’d (belatedly) reflect on 2024 in the vein of Austin Kleon:

1. Beyoncé, always
2. Cowboy Carter, especially
3. Seeing friends make big, life-changing leaps
4. Getting into audiobooks
5. Looking up on the subway after a long day at work and seeing someone next to me playing Strands, a game I helped launch
6. Only focusing on a few big things for the year
7. Setting a wedding date!
8. Committing to the bit with themed parties: Costco for my mom’s birthday, Taskmaster for my birthday, and a Duolingo 1000th party
9. Writing at The Center for Fiction. Grabbing a coffee from the bodega before going to the writer’s studio, which is quiet on Saturdays. Seeing familiar faces over time on Thursday evenings and connecting over our projects.
10. Watching rereleases of movies in IMAX
11. Gomodoro sessions: 10 min working, 30 min chatting
12. Pesto the penguin
13. Leaving Post-It notes on the door to remind myself not to forget anything before I go into the office
14. Seasonal bucket lists
15. P.E. Moskowitz on a culture of introspective captivity: “Therapy should be, and often is, a way to realize this—to realize that you must enact your desires before they turn inward and wreak havoc on your psyche. But these days, I believe, we have forgotten what comes after therapy—that we must then act on these desires, not just understand them, for our energies to be released, and thus for us to feel healthy and happy.”
16. Improving my eyeshadow blending skills (thank you eyeshadow sticks)
17. High school friend reunions and feeling so grateful to have people who have loved so many versions of you
18. brat and brat remixes
19. A gift membership to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. It was fun to go multiple times during cherry blossom season.
20. Eating more protein! I have regrettably turned into a Protein Bro because it actually does a lot for my energy and satiety. Some high protein snacks I love that don’t taste like chalk: Chomps beef jerky, Oikos yogurt, Fairlife shakes, Quest protein chips.
21. The comfiest t-shirts from Super Yaki
22. Returning to my five year journal after 8 years and actually keeping up with it. (Sometimes retroactively, but better late than never.) Reflecting on how much has changed since then.
23. Lego sets, which have introduced me to a new kind of flow state even if my back always starts hurting after a few hours
24. Setting random Resy notifies—and snagging a few!
25. Returning to Chicago, the city where E and I met. Doing Chicago touristy things like the Art Institute and Pequod’s pizza. How had I never done the Architecture Boat Tour?
26. Anomia and Wavelength
27. Throwback concerts with bands I listened to in middle school like Switchfoot and The Fray. Remembering how so much of my music taste was shaped by teen dramas and Grey’s Anatomy.
28. “Good work is the art of giving a fuck about the living.” — I wrote this sentence by Mandy Brown on a Post-It note and put it above my desk as a constant reminder.
29. My parents flying to New York for my final Center for Fiction reading. Writing is so solitary and it was so meaningful to have friends and family show up.
30. Going back to weekly therapy sessions
31. Infinite Craft
32. Planning a sisters’ trip for the first time in years! Making candles, reading and writing, playing tennis, going on a goat hike, stargazing, and befriending “camp friends.”
33. Visiting Madrid for the first time and staying with E’s family
34. Playing It Takes Two with E
35. More live music! Symphony orchestras, jazz clubs, and hearing Hans Zimmer play “Time”
36. Still reading, but without the 52 books timeline
37. Getting free shots at a neighborhood bar because we knew all the words to “Ultimate” from the Freaky Friday (2003) soundtrack
38. Strength training
39. Rediscovering my love of word searches
40. Wearing daily instead of monthly contacts so my eyes aren’t as, my doctor says, “bone dry”
41. Learning all the ways to spend your FSA money: pimple patches, Supergoop, massage gun, high index lenses
42. Gifting clothes and bags on my local and company Buy Nothing groups
43. Weike Wang on the complicated nature of friendship: “I was reminded that, though most friendships are temporary, they are very beautiful in bloom.”
44. Going to my first WNBA game (go Liberty!)
45. Getting a Canon Ivy 2 Mini Photo Printer, which has been so useful to add photo stickers to birthday cards
46. My parents busy social calendar
47. Organizing my gift ideas into something I can easily refer back to in the future
48. Elena Dudum’s writing, and the importance of archives: “It’s endlessly depressing to have to write yourself and your people into existence. But writing about Palestine no longer feels like a choice. It feels like a compulsion.”
49. Constructing an elaborate dino nugget and mashed potato landscape
50. Visiting friends’ islands on Animal Crossing! Finally getting all the types of fruit!
51. Going to Jami Attenberg’s book launch for 1000 Words. It has helped me through multiple novel drafts and short stories over the years, and it was so fun to do a write-along with other attendees.
52. Seeing my sister lug the Dune popcorn bucket through the airport and getting stopped by TSA for it
53. The reopened Yu & Me Books! Lucy is an incredible person and the bookstore is even cozier for people to gather and read.
54. E leaving me messages by changing the background of his computer, which for some reason is always on
55. Finally using an electric toothbrush
56. Some outstanding dinners I booked months in advance at Alinea and Gymkhana
57. Bringing Austin Kleon’s Thanksgiving zine to a family reunion
58. Celebrating friends’ book launches
59. Abercrombie renaissance (their jean dresses are a summer staple)
60. How NYPL memed its way out of budget cuts
61. An interactive theater / high-tea experience for E’s birthday that my coworker recommended
62. Taking author headshots
63. Making a “want to go” list on Google Maps
64. Preserving self-belief
65. Seeing all the Oscar-nominated animated short films at IFC with a friend
66. Beyoncé-themed dance party, which was not only packed with true Beyhive fans, but also ended by midnight
67. Catching a glimpse of Timothee Chalamet IRL at the Dune 2 premiere
68. Playing beer pong with my parents
69. Tracking daily steps and word counts in a Muji calendar notebook
70. Shrek-themed movie night, complete with meatloaf, green Jello shots, and “swamp” pudding
71. Seeing all the art at Storm King
72. TikTok recs that were worth it: cute stickers and stationery at Greenwich Letterpress, chai affogatos at Amai Ba, and carnitas tacos at La Taq
73. A new work backpack (thanks Katie!)
74. Casual creativity: blackout poetry workshops, holiday singalongs, the Met After Dark, art cafes like Brooklyn Renaissance
75. Working with an editor who really brings out the best in your story and is always willing to have a conversation about your creative choices
76. Suni Lee’s lip liner/gloss combo, which is my go-to lip look
77. Stereogum’s The Number Ones column
78. Helping launch two NYT beta games!
79. Celebrating Lunar New Year with family for the first time in a few years
80. A story acceptance after two years of rejections
81. Seasonal comfortable shoes: Tevas and Blundstones
82. Boy Movies
83. Walking tours! Green-Wood Cemetery Tour is a great one in New York, and we did one in Madrid that allowed us to see a lot around Plaza Mayor
84. Taking more intermediate dance classes
85. Thanksgiving hot dogs which are extremely easy to make: turkey dog, stuffing, cranberry sauce
86. The Cut’s “Summer of Smut” package and the romance bookstore boom
87. Doing a family sip & paint (of course, my dad completely disregarded the instructions yet somehow painted something Basquiat-esque)
88. The Challengers soundtrack
89. Cooking more with Home Chef
90. Learning that a priest got the boot because he allowed Sabrina Carpenter to film in a church, which in turn uncovered shady dealings with Eric Adams
91. My sister doing an engagement shoot for E and I around the city
92. Trying the new Din Tai Fung in New York which is in the old space for Mars 2112, an alien themed restaurant
93. Doing exercises for stronger knees
94. Making trips out of friends’ weddings
95. Cleaning out my old Gmail account and discovering the extremely bad claymation videos I made in middle school called Kurious Kow (it’s giving “could a depressed person make this”)
96. Wearing necklaces and becoming more of a hat person
97. Spending less time on social media (except erm, TikTok)
98. Mini Diet Cokes as an afternoon treat
99. Perfect Days and its depiction of contentment rather than ambition
100. 100 ways to share your work + life that aren’t social media

Last year was a marathon year of writing. This year, I’m focusing on slowing down a bit as I move into revision (and continue to plan my wedding lol). I’m excited to share more of my writing journey in monthly letters again! As always, feel free to hit reply—I’d love to hear from you and respond to any questions about creativity that are on your mind.

Creative resources

• Sign up for 100 Days of Creative Resistance by Writing Co-Lab to receive daily emails of “encouragement, opposition, and commiseration” from an amazing slate of writers during the first 100 days of the 47th president’s regime.
• “There’s No Shortcut To Publishing A Book” by Kelsey McKinney
• Sundress Academy for the Arts is accepting applications for short-term writing residencies in all genres for their summer residency period (May 12th to August 16th).
• Start off the new year with 31 Days of Creative Resilience by my friend, Carolyn! She’s been exploring different topics related to creativity and sending daily prompts and exercises. Some of my favorites are making a creative time menu and mind mapping your secret interests.
• Jillian Anthony on the transformative power of journaling

Recent reads & other media

This was my first year in a decade not reading 52 books in 52 weeks! I still ended up reading 31 books, with more audiobooks this year. Here were some of my favorites:

• Bliss Montage by Ling Ma
• Oye by Melissa Mogollon
• I'm Telling the Truth, but I'm Lying by Bassey Ikpi
• Sea Change by Gina Chung
• Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
• How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang

In preparation for the long-awaited release of Severance season 2, I’ve been rewatching season 1 and pairing it with Ben Stiller and Adam Scott’s episode-by-episode podcast. E and I saw The Nickel Boys, a phenomenal adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. It’s quite experimental—its cinematography is shot in first-person and uses a nonlinear structure—but these elements lend themselves well to an important narrative reveal in the book. For some levity, we watched Ronny Chieng’s new Netflix comedy special and Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (I aspire to Feathers McGraw’s hacking skills).

Recently read short stories: “Split Tongue” by Niv Sekar, “Prophecy” by Kanak Kapur, “Drapetomania” by William Lohier

Note: Book links are connected to my Bookshop affiliate page. If you purchase a book from there, you'll be supporting my work and local independent bookstores!

~ meme myself and i ~

Every AI company in 2025. How a cat deals with winter. The funniest, most melodic snore. The tension when I see notebooks in a bookstore… I couldn’t stop laughing at turtles taking breaths. Low budget A24 horror movie trailer soundtrack.