Best of 2021 Recap – Offline(ish)

You’re probably seeing a lot of this trend on Instagram and TikTok right now – it’s a Bruno Mars/Adele mashup with super quick cuts of different video clips from the past year. The vibe is upbeat and happy because it’s the ultimate highlight reel of your year!

FULLY admitting right now that I do kinda like this trend, so I did it, but I changed it up a little. The original video is supposed to be a longer video (3.4 seconds) and then a bunch of SUPER QUICK video clips at .1 or .2 seconds each.

I’d also like to point out that it took me about 2 hours to pull together the video, and then my app crashed and erased everything. So that was cool. I wanted to throw my phone out the window. But I sucked it up and finished it, if you want to take a look here on TikTok:

Anyway, when I first saw the trend I remember thinking two things:

1- I wonder what my “year” looked like in this format…

2- Do I need a catscan?

I feel like it can’t be good for anyone’s brain to watch that shit moving so fast, over and over. Seriously just goes to show you how little time (and attention span) we have for others. We crave content from the internet but we never want it to take up too much of our day. Weird paradox, isn’t it?

So anyway, I wanted to approach this “recap” from a slightly different point of view on the ol’ blog. Because a lot of the moments I had this year that were truly joyful were not captured on my phone. Some of them were, but as I’ve continued my work as a content creator through one of the toughest years of my life (car accident included), I really find significance in not taking out my phone when I’m with friends or doing something I love.

The below is a brief list of things that I loved this year, undocumented. Or maybe you saw them for 15 seconds on my story and forgot about it the next day. I wanted to share them because I started out this year on a really shitty note (blindsided breakup, feel free to read that beautiful tale here), and in January I asked all of you for your “feel-good” recommendations for TV shows/movies. That spun out into books eventually too, so I thought I’d round some of them up here as a confirmed list of things that make you feel good and do better for yourself. Maybe they’ll make it to your Best of 2022 Recap on TikStaChat or whatever the fuck new platform we’ll be obsessing over by then.

See you tomorrow/next year. Happy New Year!

Books I loved:

Creativity – John Cleese. This super short and simple book is easy to read and take away from. A gift from photographer Melanie Dunea, thank you for this!

Atomic Habits – James Clear. If you’re an entrepreneur, I cannot recommend this book enough. Even if you’re not, it has a ton of great advice and actionable steps you can take to create good habits.

Love Warrior – Glennon Doyle. Really moving book, and she’s a great writer. Coming out of a breakup it was a bit of a tear jerker but in a good way.

Attached – Amir Levine, MD and Rachel S.F. Heller, MA. Ever heard of attachment theory? You should. Even if you’re not going through a breakup, this is a VERY important book to read about how we “attach” to others, specifically in relationships.

Bad Luck Bridesmaid – Allison Rose Greenberg. This is a super fun and sexy read, I plowed through it in about 3 days. Allison is a friend of mine and I seriously devoured this book. So witty and funny, as well as powerful for women who don’t conform to “the norm.”

Breakup Bootcamp – Amy Chan. Another breakup book, but still great and I’ve mentioned it before in my blog posts about my breakup. Amy is also a great content creator with helpful advice videos on IG and TikTok, so give her a follow if you’re looking to work on your behaviors in relationships.

Brain on Fire – Susannah Cahalan. Ok so this isn’t really a feel-good book, but it’s a crazy story that was actually made into a movie starring Chloe Grace Moretz. After I watched the movie I had to read the book. It made me feel grateful for what I have, especially my mental health.

PS – I have many more recommendations in the book space for entrepreneurs/thinkers, so stay tuned for that!

Shows/Movies:

Ted Lasso – you guys were BEYOND right about this one. So wonderful, funny, and sweet. The 20 Emmy nominations probably agree.

Modern Love – if you’re going through a breakup, this can make you both happy and sad, BUT I encourage you to watch Season 2, Episode 7 called “How Do You Remember Me?” It’s very eye-opening in the sense of how two people can perceive the same relationship very differently.

The Good Place – really funny and well-written, and the characters are enjoyable to watch.

Love Life – I could NOT watch this right after my breakup, but eventually I got into it and loved it. There’s also 2 seasons now, and I really enjoyed the second one even more. It goes to show you how much can change over time within our hearts.

Inside Out – I love a Disney/Pixar movie and this one is seriously great, even for adults. It’s all about how our brain processes emotions/how we cope with them. Highly recommend. I cried my eyes out.

Soul – another Disney/Pixar but I’m here for it. These movies are all surprisingly deep and cut to my damn core.

Veep – some of the best joke writing I’ve seen on TV. This show is highly underrated.

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