Favorite Posts/ Achievements from 2021

2021 was certainly a year filled with change in all aspects of life. It was stressful for many people—especially with the pandemic still going on. Despite that, it was still an overall good year for me. I know, I do tend to complain a lot on Twitter, but thinking back on everything that I was able to achieve this past year makes me absolutely happy and proud of myself. With that being said, I created a list of posts that made me feel proud of writing this year as well as 5 achievements that I had this year.

Posts:

My Thoughts/ Rant: The Ending of “Invitation of Mystic Messenger”

If I’m not mistaken this was the first post that I wrote for this year. I remember how annoyed I was when writing this because of how nonsensical I thought the ending was. The reason why this is on the list is because it’s one of the posts where I just didn’t really pay any mind to how or what I was writing. I just started to write whatever popped up in my head—basically brain dumping my emotions and thoughts onto the page which later became the post. I did ask my editor if they thought I was being a bit too harsh with my words and I think they said that I wasn’t but they also added that I made a lot of grammar mistakes (sorry!). I was overall proud that I was able to show more of myself with my opinion on a post without worrying about it being in my usual review format (of which I see it more with a professional tone).

How Horimiya helped me heal from a breakup

This one was certainly therapeutic for me to write. It’s one of the posts where I just wrote my experiences with fiction and how it helped me grow, develop and let go. When I wrote this, I was still trying to get back up from the pain and move on in a healthy way. I think people tend to forget the impact (both emotional and mental) that fiction has on us. We tend to try to look at more factual things and try to work as hard as possible to get the results we want, but we tend to forget about our own emotions, and that’s what fiction does for us. It not only takes our mind off of the stresses of everyday life, but it also helps us heal and make us feel like we’re not alone. And I’m glad that there were people who felt the same way.

Life Lessons from Fruits Basket and Fruits Basket: Another

Speaking of learning about many things in fiction, there’s Fruits Basket. I had this post on the backburner for AGES because I didn’t know how to express myself, and by the time that I wrote this, I thought it might’ve been too late because the trend of Fruits Basket was starting to die down which is one of the excuses I tend to tell myself when writing a post for an anime, manga, video game, etc. It’s too popular now, I’ll write the post when it dies down. Which later on would turn into It’s too late now. No one is going to read a post about it with the popularity dying down. But I’m glad that I managed to push past those thoughts and decided to publish this one. I learned that even if a certain trend (as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone) dies down, if you still wanna talk about it—go for it. It made me feel really happy knowing that people still read this and are still liking it to this day.

Game Review: My Dangerous Life

Now, I know that I wrote two posts on My Dangerous Life. The one I am talking about is the final review for the game. The reason why this particular post is on the list is the fact that I was finally able to write a final post for the entire year. There have been MANY games, anime, and dramas that I started to play and watch, but never completed due to time and attention. I had set a mini goal to at least get this one game completed in order to be able to finally write a final review. I am really proud of myself knowing that I was able to do so. I hope that next year I will be able to complete even more games, anime, and dramas that I had written an initial review for (along with many others).

One Week of Animedoro

I am grateful to whoever came up with the concept of Animedoro. This has changed my life for the better in many ways. I always found it hard to get anything done when I do schedule blocking alone, but whenever I set a timer for myself with a particular reward in mind, it helps me a lot in getting many things done. I used Animedoro initially to get my academic and teaching work done; however, now I use it for basically anything that I need to get done—both on a professional (voice acting, writing, reading) and personal level (cleaning, organizing). It really does help me stay focused and motivated to get tasks completed. That, and I also get to watch one episode of an anime which helps me relax about having different tasks at hand and unwind for a bit. I really hope others find this useful because it certainly helped me out A LOT.

Achievements:

Starting my voice acting journey

Technically I started voice acting in 2020, but I didn’t really start auditioning or taking any voice acting lessons until this year. I am so happy with taking that first step and I got to meet so many amazing people along the way. This is one thing I certainly can see myself working on in the long-run. I am grateful for everyone who was with me every step of the way and for teaching me so many amazing things up until now. I hope I can continue working with you in the future!

Releasing my first ever YouTube video as a singer

My YouTube channel has basically been dead for the past decade or so. In fact, it was under another name back then before I changed to RyderKRose. For an entire year, I was mostly just singing on Smule, but I wanted to at least make use of my YouTube account in one way or another since I wanted to branch out as a content creator. At the time, I was voicing Monika in a fandub of Doki Doki Literature Club, so I had the idea of singing a cover of Your Reality. I did not do the mixing of sound for that video, I just created the thumbnail and such, but I was proud of myself for finally taking the chance to post a video on there, even if it’s been over a decade since the last video.

Graduating from my Master’s Program

For the past year, I have been complaining (mainly on Twitter) about having so many things to do for my master’s program—especially this year. I had to work on my proposal and my defense for my capstone project. I stressed so much and I am so glad that it’s finally over. I had applied for graduation this semester so I have officially graduated from my Master’s in Cultural Management and Administration.

Taking extended time to rest

Throughout all this year, I have been taking long periods of rest (while also feeling guilty about it too). I am not used to taking time to rest because I grew up with the belief that success comes from getting the least amount of rest possible because you need to use all of your time to work. If you don’t you are seen as lazy. It made me feel guilty that I wasn’t working, but I knew that there was a point where I just couldn’t work because I wouldn’t be able to focus or stay awake. After I defended my capstone project, I had something called defense down which isn’t fun in the slightest. I started to get really depressed and afraid of the future altogether. The fact that I’m not a student anymore came at me full force and that’s terrifying to say the least. I was working hard all year and then suddenly I had nothing to do. I actually had time on my hands. That was a thought or feeling that I wasn’t used to having and I’m still wrapping my head around it to this day. However, I am currently starting to focus more on myself and filling in my time with certain tasks and activities that I didn’t have time whatsoever throughout the masters. I am really excited about that.

Deciding to move to mainland US

This is something that I have been thinking of doing for the last couple of years. Now that I have finally completed my master’s degree, I decided to take a major leap and move to the mainland US. The move itself will happen in the beginning of the year and I am really excited about that. I am crossing my fingers that everything will be okay and that I will be able to move without any huge hassle.

Well, that’s all for today. I hope you all enjoyed this post. Thank you all for reading. I really do appreciate it. I hope you have a lovely rest of your year and have an amazing new year. Until next time, keep your paws and bowls of ramen up, everyone! Nya! 🐾