justbolts | General Life Update (Reply)

In the years since I last posted here, I:

Got transferred positions and promoted at my job, which was great – if wildly stressful – for a good two years until some fuckery occurred and I was laid off at the beginning of 2024. I thankfully had the financial security to weather it until I got a new job.

This new job has been such a massive improvement in terms of my mental and emotional health that it’s kind of mind bending.
Got cancer – thankfully caught it at stage 1 and before it metastasized, but this still meant major surgery to remove an (unrelated, benign) tumor, 5 weeks of radiation and chemo, and 3 days immobilized to a bed for the final round of treatment. Ultimately, it was all successful and I’m years in remission!
Bought a house!..... much like the first time, this is both exciting and stressful, sometimes in new and unexpected ways. I’m actually super, genuinely happy and grateful to even be able to buy a house and with many aspects of the house – I was able to get the 75 gallon aquarium of my dreams! There’s lots of space for a garden! I have my own office/craftroom and I’ve made it super cute and comfortable – buuuut there’s also been a lot of unexpected expenses and challenges. I keep reminding myself to take it a day at a time, that not everything needs to be done or fixed all at once, and that we have options and resources we can tap in emergencies.
Wrote over 100,000 words on a single story in the space of two years. I’ve still got more to finish, but this has been the most gratifying thing ever.
Got super into KPop and was lucky to be able to attend several concerts. It’s been a good time!
Changed my name, if only among friends and family. Not for gender reasons, just personal preference. It’s actually a name I used online for a long time and it felt good to go back to it.
My dream to make my own actual play podcast continues to remains, alas, unrealizedd.