2018: Year in Review

Real talk – 2018 wasn’t one of my fave years. It wasn’t just the countless and shocking incidences of racial injustice, or the spike in violence in Toronto, or even the amount of hatred that reared its ugly head throughout the year (it definitely played a part though). It was a blah year because I was incredibly disappointed in myself. This was the first year ever where I let my writing take a back seat, and I didn’t take the time to blog as much as I wanted. I was trying desperately to balance work, life, and writing, – and in my eyes, it was an epic fail. (Sidebar: I have noooo idea how working moms do it! I am single with no kids and I wanted to chill on the couch every night after work!)

I was reassured by supportive friends and family that I was doing a good job with everything, but deep down I felt terrible for not writing. I once felt proud of calling myself a writer, but by mid year, I felt it was a lie.

In early December I started to look back at the past 12 months, and I was able to identify the changes I wanted to make, and eliminate anything unnecessary that wasn’t making me happy. So even though I felt this year was not the best productively, I am so grateful that I was able to pinpoint where I need to make some adjustments.

As 2018 comes to a close (or is over – depending when you read this post!) I would love to take this moment to thank all my readers for joining me on this journey. Thanks for reading my blog, thanks for sharing my link, and thanks for the support and your patience. Much appreciated.

Okay, this wouldn’t be a Words With Michelle Year in Review without sharing a few highlights. Here are a couple things that made this year special.

Highlights of 2018

I got the travel bug!

I was able to take not one but two fun vacations this year. My first trip was a tour of Milan and northern Italy this past July, which was NEXT LEVEL. It reignited my love affair with Italy (*I previously visited in 2014) and I fell deeper in love with the country – the architecture, the food, wine, EVERYTHING. I can legit say that this vacation was the best so far of my life, and it has inspired me to learn the language. I have just enrolled in a continuing education course where I am going to learn how to speak Italian. #yasss

My second trip was a Caribbean cruise where my family and I celebrated my mom’s monumental birthday, as well as enjoying a mini family reunion. I enjoyed it immensely as I was able to get to know family I only heard about.

Film

Black Panther

Yes, this was huge. I’m not even a fan of superhero movies, but this movie changed all that.

Watching a predominantly all-black cast in a highly anticipated movie was something I never witnessed in all my life. Outside of “urban comedies and dramas” (I hate the word urban), I never saw this much attention given to any black film.

I realize that the movie was set in the fictional African country of Wakanda, but I love that it brought attention to Africa and showed it in all its glory (representation matters). But what I treasured the most about this movie is that it made a lot of money and showed Hollywood that an all-black cast can bring in audiences and be very profitable.

Music

Truthfully, I wasn’t a huge fan of any music this year. I was impressed with Childish Gambino’s This is America video, though. It took a couple of times for me to take it all in, but over all, it was stunning and very much thought provoking.

So all in all, it wasn’t a totally bad year. I am happily looking forward to all the blessings 2019 has to offer! Happy New Year!

Okay, before I end the post, I wanted to share with you the FANTASTIC people and events that I featured on Words With Michelle. Click onto the titles to read the post.