Every new year, I designate a theme for the coming calendar year. Different from a resolution--rather than prescribe specific goals--it provides a framework to influence the decisions I make over the course of the coming year.

My theme for 2025 was "Get involved". The goals was to connect more with my communities, attend more events, and do more community-building and activist work. It took until the tail end of the year for me to really start delivering on this goal, but I'd say it was a success!

Here are some of the accomplishments I made this year:

  • I started attending more local meetups.
  • I started attending more protests and political actions.
  • I did a lot of networking around Ace Archive. I feel like "networking" as a concept is poisoned by the corporate world; what I really mean is I went out of my way to meet folks, build connections, and tell them about my work. And good things came of it! I've given interviews, given talks, recruited volunteers, and started to build a community around the project.
  • I got involved with my local makerspace, connecting with folks there are hosting events.
  • I went to my first LARP, which was a ton of fun.
  • I started attending a monthly furry meetup in my city and building connections with the folks there. I really pushed through the anxiety to make sure I attended very month and went out of my way to talk to new people. The first few months were rough at times; I felt like an outsider in a space where it felt like everyone had known each other for years. But now I feel like a part of that community, and I've started to build some real friendships.

My theme for 2026 is my "year of collaboration". I've got a lot of projects I'm working on, but for the most part they've been solo endeavors. I want to start collaborating with folks on some of the work I do--not just for the benefit of the projects, but also to build community, because building community is the antidote to despair I need right now. I've already been doing a lot of that with Ace Archive, and I'm going to need to start doing that with FanJam if I want to reach people who would benefit from it.

If you're reading this, leave a comment letting me know what your theme for 2026 is! I love this tradition and I've managed to get several of my friends on board with it.