Let’s be honest. I spent a lot of time reflecting on the difficulties of this year professionally and for us as a society, but the truth is there were some incredible moments, too. There was resilience. There was community. I don’t want to negate the difficult moments, but I also don’t want the good times to get lost as we’re reflecting on 2023.
I looked back on my goals for the year earlier this week and it really made me reframe my thinking. I met two of my six longterm goals without even realizing it. It’s a reminder that we might not achieve things in the way we envisioned, but that doesn’t make it any less of a success.
Here’s a look back at my professional year for anyone who is interested:
My Year In Numbers
I created and published 37 pieces of written journalism this year.
I produced and hosted 17 podcast episodes of The Boom for WABE.
I had two permalance gigs, including working as the interim managing editor for Teen Vogue earlier in the year and as the southeast democracy reporter for The Guardian later in the year.
Outside of my permalance work, Billboard was the client I worked for the most, contributing 7 pieces of content (this includes several mini-profiles for some of their annual lists).
Some of my new clients were Oxford American, ALT Press, and Complex.
60 percent of my income came from permalance work and longterm projects.
Roughly 39 percent of my income this year came from one-off articles. (Reducing this percentage to about 30 percent has been an ongoing goal of mine for the past few years because if one-off journalism assignments make up a large chunk of my income, I typically have to increase the volume of work I do significantly to meet my financial goals.)
No. of meltdowns over a light workload and decreased amount of assignments: Countless
My Favorite Bylines
The tale (and tension) of Atlanta’s two Carnivals for Atlanta Magazine
Amber Riley Is In Her Element for XoNecole
How Atlanta became the center of the rap universe for NPR Music
‘He’s going to be very surprised’: Georgia DA Fani Willis prepares to face off with Trump for The Guardian
Coco Jones Faced Rejection as a Child Star. Now, She’s a 5-Time Grammy-Nominated Performer for Teen Vogue
Jewelry Gardens by the numbers:
Successes: 2 cabbage plants (farrao and nappa), 2 collard green plants, 2 broccoli plants, 10 kale plants (curly and dino), 1 scallion plant, 1 jalapeño plant, 2 bell pepper plants (green and purple), Chinese long beans
Fails: cherry tomatoes, lemon tree, baby potatoes, red onion
There’s a trend on TikTok where people post the “Ins and Outs” for the year. People seem to have really resonated with mine on Instagram so I’m sharing them here, too:
Happy New Year, friends!
Very cool reflection for the year, thanks for sharing!
Writing out our milestones and achievements seem to help paint a better picture of our progress. Congrats and I look forward to your continued growth.