How was your 2012?

Things could have been better but they were by no means bad; let's face it, no year where I get to sing with aero at an opera house is going to be a bad year for me.

In the context of a poll like this, I feel somewhat chagrined to say my year was pretty fantastic. Certainly I've had my share of horrific ones, so maybe that could take a bit of the sting out of it a bit for those of you who had to eat the meager bread of bitterness and toil this year. I am proof that it need not be a permanent condition.

Gonna say "eh" though there are time when i say "can't end soon enough". Feels like it's been one long series of let-downs where i was watching a much better year happen in a parallel universe and occasionally the two timelines met up and I was given a brief glimpse of hope.

Worst year of my life. I lost my job, my wife became terminally ill and I am fighting a hopeless battle to get my autistic son into a proper school. I don't do self pity though and thinking maybe things will change this year. That is the only way you can think.

funeral #3 is friday morning. maybe hindsight will make it seem better but right now i'm feeling the last option. excited to switch coasts and get started on new shit.

Now i just feel like a whiner. Best of luck to everyone in 2013. It will definitely be a better year than this year.

no it won't

true

doh

DSP, that kind of year would oppress anyone's spirit, like being repeatedly hammered in the tenderest spots of your psyche. I've been in similar (but obv not identical) straits and all I can say is, keep looking for those moments of release, however brief, where you can recoup a bit of the energy you are pouring into this struggle. Too much darkness, too relentlessly, and you will forget what light is, like a cave-dwelling salamander. Even tiny scintillas of light and hope are worth seeking. Good luck.

i'm gonna say "eh" -- i've had shittier years, and everyone i love is alive and okay and very nice to me, and my depression hasn't eaten me alive the way it's tried to in the past, but. eh.

lmbo at djp and i having the same login name.

Thanks for for that Aimless. It really is appreciated.

Mom died. My backache turned out to be myeloma.

Things can always get worse.

I feel like I'm starting my 12th year of house arrest. The number at the top of the calendar isn't the problem.

ha! if only, rite?

this year can bite me

i'm gonna say "eh" -- i've had shittier years, and everyone i love is alive and okay and very nice to me, and my depression hasn't eaten me alive the way it's tried to in the past, but. eh.

also: music. it is a thing that has kept me going. it has been a good year for my relationship with it.

up and down, but recency bias makes me feel pretty good about 2012. Docking points for my relationship going back to long-distance.

This was actually one of my favorite years in recent memory. Wish I could share some of that happiness with people everywhere (but especially on ilx) who lacked it these last twelve months. *hugs you guys*

lack of stability but overall best year since 2006 for me

#4

sister inlaw got MS
mother inlaw got cancer
mr veg lost his job
my company lost my account

but I got to go home for my birthday my little bro got engaged & my family back home are healthy & happy, and within myself I feel strangely good? like, i feel a lot stronger mentally than i have felt at any other time in my life. prepared, or something.

i feel a lot stronger mentally than i have felt at any other time in my life. prepared, or something.

Yeah, me too! I couldn't pinpoint specific events to make it so, but I feel like I found some peace and resolution this year I'd been searching for in the past.

me too.

It's been pretty good, started off doing counselling and that was quite intense and uprooted some bad feelings from the past, but even 12 weeks of it seems to have given me a real sense of strength.

I've managed to do a short drama course and then got a part in a play. I also got into a night diploma which starts in January, and I'm loving the buzz I get from this, and the sense of having a really serious hobby.

Also lost a lot of weight and am way fitter than I've ever been. I feel very focussed and determined in a way I haven't before, and given I've had chronic illness for 7 years it suddenly feels like that every achievement or step forward is natural and deserved, even if it took longer. Really feel I'm reaching a new level of maturity as a person and lots of other boring stuff like that.

Rough work year, lots of shoestringing it when we didn't have jobs but for most of the year I dated a great and kind woman and when that ended I got another reminder in how amazing my friends are.
OTOH, I feel like the relationship led to complacency - it was a year where I don't feel like I did anything important. Aiming to change that in 2013.

Voted 'eh' but probably should have gone with 'could've been better but on balance happy'.

Reading this thread/ilx in general reconfirms the fact that it's just down to good fortune that I haven't had anything bad to contend with this year, or for as long as I can remember, be it health or finances.
On the other hand a really great year would involve taking v positive steps and changes in behaviour such as Ronan has obviously done which isn't something I can ever imagine bothering to do.

I dislike my job but would dislike looking for a new one far more. As long as I can pay my bills and sit at home listening to music and watching football I'm pretty happy tbh.

Very difficult year for me emotionally, and from where I stand next year looks like it will be even worse. I'll have to make some huge changes to even have a shot at things getting better, but I have so much to overcome by this point that it likely won't matter what I do. Most of my old dreams can't even theoretically come true anymore.

Financially I'm much better off than a year ago, but I'd trade most of my money to have my feelings back.

nobody got sick or died, pretty much everyone is still working, so can't complain too much on the big issues. on a personal level zero progress on anything professionally or developmentally, tho i did move to a location where i now struggle to raise the cost of a good shite. but i've spent much of the year in good company and i'm eating a decent breakfast so i should probably have voted 'on balance, happy'. but i voted before breakfast so went with 'eh'. obviously other people's woes are a sobering influence- good wishes to all.

It could have been been better, but on balance I'm happy with it.

the big plus for me was going back to work and liking no LOVING my job. where it will go next year - whether my contract will be renewed - is an open question and will no doubt be the cause of major 2013 stress but for now I'm happier on some levels than I've been, well, since I started posting here. the big minus was my father in law passing away after a long illness, he was a good guy and a true patriarch, the family is taking it hard but they're strong people who won't crack under the strain, all I can really do is "be there" for my wife, whatever that means, mourning just takes time. the mixed plus/minus is our son, fast approaching college age and all that entails. he's come a long way, still wrestling with learning issues but there are moments when I see glimmers of a functioning adult beginning to emerge from his gawky teenage shell. exciting and scary. he's taller than me now :-/

and yes, best wishes to everybody

after a horrific 12 month battle with cancer my wife died 8 months ago making 2012 the worst year of my life.

however, life goes on, and me and the lads have coped far better than i actually expected, and thanks to some very special friends, we've even begun to have fun again.

still really looking forward to the NYE rollover into a different year so i can say 'get the fuck out of here' to all that 2012 represents.

<3 best hopes and wishes for you and the lads.

easily one of the worst years of my life (some of which was out of my control and some of which was self-inflicted), with one of the best things that ever happened to me showing up unexpectedly in the fourth quarter. so no matter what, i will remember 2012 as a good year, especially once enough time has passed that i can comfortably forget the bad shit and view it through a layer of pure nostalgia.

still voted for the last option, though. and hoping for better things for all ilxors in 2013.

Love to mark, Morbs, and anyone else who was bereaved this year. Our next-door neighbours recently lost their 16-year-old grandson in a building site accident and since then my assorted complaints and disappointments have felt like irrelevant bullshit.

life: amazing
work: straight garbage

call it a draw

similar enough for me, actually. tho both a little less extreme than amazing/straight garbage. a little.

Voted "can't end soon enough", but to be honest I can't see next year being any better at all, so what the fuck does it matter, right?

good year overall, traveled, got engaged. did lose most of my summer to amazingly stressful project at work but oh well

big year, bought a house and lots of musical things came to fruition (first time pressing vinyl, first time playing nyc solo, met lots of amazing people). a back injury affected everything in the last quarter of the year (for the worse duh), hoping it won't hold me back for too much of 2013.

xps to ronan

yeah – I’m exaggerating a bit. in a lot of ways my job is really great (well paid, low stress, really easy, 9-5 w/no facetime or business dev) but in other ways it sucks balls (no training, development, or ~arc~, unpopular w/colleagues, repetitive, dull, w/no boss to motivate and ultimately just not v.rewarding)

Achieved and maintained 'healthy weight' and got a hell of a lot more active through mainly walking at least 5 miles a day. This felt like a major project which made me feel more confident about tackling other challenges.

The year went by really quickly, being super-busy in new areas work-wise. I actually failed to take any time off work apart from one week in June, so better planning needed for 2013.

Work was absorbing, but also stressful (due to crap team dynamics) - but my mantra for 2012 was 'You gotta take the bum trip with the high'.

life: amazing
work: straight garbage

call it a draw

― (ू˃̣̣̣̣̣̣o˂̣̣̣̣̣̣ ू)⁼³₌₃ (cozen), Thursday, December 27, 2012 8:10 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah this is about how i feel.

The homefront is stable, the presidential election didn't destroy my life, and work is alright. Overall grade: B

my father lost his tightly contested presidential election, spent the rest of the year telling people he didn't want to win it anyway, feel so sad inside, brothers don't understand, voted bring on 2016

my father won his election
sorry bout yr dad

Got promoted, mother in law died

So: "eh"

#2, which is shocking since the 2011 was one of the worst years of my life (and the bulk of this largely-blah year was dedicated to dealing with the fallout from last year). But the last couple of months have been so good and such a complete 180 from what came before that I can't help but feel good and hopeful about the year to come. It's a huge deal to be able to say that after a long stretch filled mostly with days where I wanted to stop being alive.

My sympathy/empathy to everyone who had it rough this year. Stuff can definitely turn around for you, and I hope it does.

good year

First ten months were good to fucking awesome the the fucking floor dropped out from under me just in time for the heaviest workload of my year and I seriously spent every day in the worst state I'd been in since the dark horrible days of 2008 but still I can see daylight and I got a lot of shit done and some big great things happened early on that if I'm honest offset some of the therapy-necessitating trauma of the latter quarter so I gotta be honest it was a good one even if proximity to the bad part makes me wanna say "no it sucked"

and let's face it no year in which DJP arranges and performs something as badass as his arrangement of "With Their Flesh, He'll Create" is going to be a bad one

maybe i need to hire him to arrange something for me

entrance music for my shitty job every morning or something

As long as I have a steady job, steady relationship, relatively good health, and minimal family drama -- all of which I've been lucky to have had for a while -- individual years rarely feel significantly better or worse than others. Perhaps 2011 was an especially good one, since I got married, but 2012 suffers only in contrast.

as someone with a death-y year, y'all don't have to feel sobered or "maybe it wasn't so bad" like that. i'd probably rather re-live this year than '11, where nothing too bad happened but i spent the year in a job i hated and had a minor breakdown wrt money and kept being a lazy ass. but i also graduated! but i still felt like shit by december and that was legit.

09-10 were fucking rad though.

Voted could've been better, but overall happy. On a personal level, best year ever, we had a baby, not sure what we ever did without her! On the other hand, 2 good friends were diagnosed with frickin cancer. One has the same thing as Dr. M. said above. So despite the awesomest thing ever that happened, on the balance it ends up just north of 'eh'.

First half of the year was suuuuper crappy, but things started looking up in September. On balance I'm happy - I see the positive turn in the 4th q largely as a foundation for even better things coming down the road. And as get bent put it "everyone i love is alive and okay and very nice to me," all of which is cause for optimism and gratitude.

on the + side i did meet la lechera

!!! And you lived to tell about it !!

is that rare?

The dead cannot scream for they have no voice.

(no! I'm totes normal!!)

This was the first year that I felt that weeks were flying by and that I wasn't getting anything done
I would then add shit up and realize I'd actually been working my butt off, with results
But I generally felt lazy this year despite working long hours every day
Maybe it was the focus on computer work (spiked with boarding)
Or just "no boyfriend, no life", that might've contributed

man, remember back in late summer/early fall when it felt like ilx was going to completely disintegrate in its butthurtedness?

every year?

"...and yea a great butthurtedness did fall upon the land..."

^ Lawl.

On balance a good year. Coulda been better, but that's on me. (Still a hell of a contrast to 2011, one of the worst years I've ever had if not thee worst.) Hope to continue the upswing in 2013.

Same as the last one, and the one before that.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

2012 was fucking shithouse and can die in a fire

2003: terrible
2004: not bad
2005–2007: excellent
2008: bad
2009–2011: excellent
2012: suck it

Much sympathy to all who had a rough year, and best wishes for the next. This one was great for me -- first year in a new job that's worked out really well, celebrated 1 year with my girlfriend by going to Spain and then moving in together later into a great house, kids both happy and healthy. I've had enough bad years to know not to take the good ones for granted, so I feel very fortunate. Happy New Year to all.

such a weird, weird year

Pretty good year overall.

Its been one of the better ones. The '10's have been great in general for me compared to the previous decade. I'm broke as shit but theres hope to do a PHD once I finish college this summer and Im really excited about that. Im in a relationship with a very kind and loving woman for a year now as well. There was a bad falling out between her and my best friend which isnt going to be rectified (not any time soon for sure) and that wasnt easy but he was being a douche so maybe its for the best that we go our separate ways.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Kept my job which kept being a decent place to spend 45 hours a week. No one close to me died or got a dire diagnosis (I had throat surgery but it was nbd). A nice edition of my work came out and people said nice things about it. But it feels like the year was chock full of anxiety, tail-chasing and daily fretting. I think I'm having a problem with the internet. Reading has always been at the core of my mental health but reading the internet seems to have the opposite effect. I think my only resolution this year is to be offline more. Might even ban everything except email, my blog, and ILX.

i am not reading nearly enough and it's definitely dragging me down.

One for the ballers

More of the same for 13

Sucked.

And I just found out my ex-wife, who I'm pretty much still in love with, is starting a new relationship. So fuck you, too, 2013.

Wait, nevermind. Realized that shit has been holding my life back for two years now, so fuck 2012. But 2013, YOUR ASS IS MINE.

If I take out of the equation the fact that I devoted 40 hours of each week to doing something I have no passion for, 2012 was a pretty good year.

aside from ilx, tho, it was all good?

It was alright, massive work stress throughout the spring and early summer really took the shine off those months, once that had cleared, from July onwards, things were pretty great. Been an excellent year for holidays if nothing else, I must have spent a month out of the country at least, which is more than I've managed for a very long time. General air of mild work disgruntlement throughout, but that's what everyone needs once in a while to persuade them to actually change things.

Everything except for my day-to-day was fantastic: first ATP, lotsa great weddings, cycle touring in France, impulse weekend trips to see friends. The things I spend most of my time focusing on though - work, also running - stalled, even went backwards and I think I'm going to get frustrated and hit some sort of big decision point in the next year or two.

And I just found out my ex-wife, who I'm pretty much still in love with, is starting a new relationship. So fuck you, too, 2013.

― Yo Leon, what's this all about? (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Wednesday, January 2, 2013 4:22 AM (11 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Wait, nevermind. Realized that shit has been holding my life back for two years now, so fuck 2012. But 2013, YOUR ASS IS MINE.

― Yo Leon, what's this all about? (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Wednesday, January 2, 2013 6:10 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

HIGH FUCKIN FIVE

i had a great 2012, mostly due to changing jobs. the job i had from 2007-early 2012 made it really hard to appreciate everything else i have in my life, and i was constantly stressed/anxious about it. so, changing to a really positive situation made an enormous difference, making me feel overall very happy about 2012. best wishes to ilxors whose years didn't go so well too.

HIGH FUCKIN FIVE

THX BRO

Everyone else please have a good year!

IT SUCKED. Mainly because I miss my dad, and my family doesn't talk to me about it.

Just remembered my 2012 started on day one with someone rear-ending my car and it ending up being totaled, which was actually the second time that happened on the same street in a matter of years. Yeah eff 2012.

In 2012 I experienced horrific heart break twice, had a horrible summer full of angst and woe, had an awesome trip to Europe in September, and the last quarter of 2012 really turned it around. I saw a psychic last spring and she said my life would be tumultuous until November and she was pretty much spot on. It was a year wherein I really emotionally matured, I think.