2022 - What a ride...

Okay, technically there's still 3 weeks of 2022 left, which suddenly seem to be heavier with potential than I'd have figured a month ago, but now seems as good a time as any to look back on the past year and celebrate.

Nobody ever asks how I got my handle. Hell, only marginally more people ever ask about my avatar - which is actually based on the shadow of a roll of toilet paper, I kid ye not - but that's beside the point. I dubbed myself LuckyDee as a constant reminder of how good my life actually is. That may sound like showing off, but I actually need to remind myself of this, every single fucking day. I wasn't raised to be a happy person. In fact, it's only been since the past couple of months, at the age of 41, that I'm learning to stop identifying myself with negativity, with the things that I'm not accomplishing. It feels like being born again.

So instead, I thought I'd list the things that I did accomplish, even if it's only the stuff that happens right here, online. In a make-believe world that's populated with existing people nonetheless, where magic happens if you look at it from the right angle. The only place where magic can still exist, with so much of it dependent on the beholder's interpretation of what is happening. Am I making sense here? I hope so, but in the end it's neither here nor there.

This is not for you.

The words came at me from nowhere, even though I had this book in my hands only yesterday, for the first time in years - the page in the picture remained out of sight then. But the words have always stuck, and they ring true here. This one's for me. To remind myself of all the beautiful things I helped create in a year during which my mind was mostly elsewhere:

• Hosting an entire Voice Acting Competition - with massive help from @Pingu, @VoicesByCorey, @Bro-son and @JoshDytonVO

• Judging this year's Audio Death Match competition thanks to @LD-W

• Rolling out my own "Voice Your OC" voice acting series

• Being part of my first ever game, courtesy of @SuperJeffoMan and @Graeme

• Getting included in major animation collabs thanks to @ZaazNG and @WesMakowski

• Featuring in a bunch of cool animation shorts and episodes by virtue of getting acquainted with @Blaznthekid, @worldofandrew, @Ret-art, @BlueJayNG and @jswordanimation

• Running in the Creepypasta Collab (through @sereneFalconer), Halloween Spooktacular (@TeffyD) and Robot Day Collab (@Fersto), and actually winning in the latter two!

• Getting featured in @GrantTheHierophant's Wizardo the Wonderful series

• Landing a guest vocal spot on @ThatJohnnyGuy's Piercing Lazer album

• Competing in the Art-Inspired Music contest, meaning I finally managed to finish a piece of my own music again

• Acting in and producing for this years release of the NG VA Collab

As the year was going on, I kinda took all this for granted. Looking back, I'd say this is actually a list of accomplishments to be very, very proud of. And right now I have multiple things going on again to make sure 2023 gets off to a productive start.

This one's for me. But I hope I can manage to inspire you too, while I'm at it. Being Lucky isn't found in a big house, a fast car or your name in the headlines. Being Lucky is doing the stuff you love doing, just because you love doing it. And sometimes it's just good to remind yourself of it all, because you're likely to take a lot of it for granted.

Just as I am, you are Luckier than you realize. Hold on to that, and don't let go.

I have to take these challenges to head on

No more excuses or fragile promises

I hope now I finally understand,

My absent friend

It's the last chance to face the fears I have always known

Better that than to fear the unknown

How the years condemned