Your Favorite Failures of 2023
Failure continues. And so do we!
Hello, Failure! Welcome to a brand new year. I’m pleased to be back here with you after my annual Failure retreat every January. I’m glad to say this January involved less scream crying! Yippee.
This time last year I was barely able to walk due to a back injury I’m pretty sure was triggered by losing the love of my life — my sweet precious kitty baby — Faulkner.
I wasn’t sure Ask a Failure would continue through the year. I was depressed, in pain, exhausted, and feeling more lost than I had in a long time after a year of travel, adventure, and feeling like I was finding my way.
Halfway through 2023, just when things were finally feeling a little more bearable again, I was among the more than 260,000 in tech who lost their jobs. This week, I learned of more friends in tech and media who are now out of work.
Failure continues. And so do we!
Thank you for hanging in with me this past year as I navigated various kinds of losses and very messily worked through them in the ways I could. Though I was unable to be as consistent as usual, knowing this is a space where I can show up imperfectly and be in conversation with you continues to be a buoy in some rough-ass waves.
Your Favorite Failures of 2023
2024 began with me spending half the month of January in Hawaii for the first time — hiking, swimming, and talking writing as a trip leader for Writing Workshops.
Shortly before I was laid off, I went to their workshop in Iceland to work on my second book. I didn’t think I should go. I couldn’t take the time off from work (yes, wow, I really could have and I should have!) and I shouldn’t spend the money (I mean maybe not, but whatever.) I’m glad I trusted myself and went.
Not only did I get the kind of feedback and encouragement I needed to keep going with my book, but it also led to me having the opportunity to go to Hawaii as a trip leader and also do some travel writing for Trainline right when I needed it (#writershelpingwriters).
Last year was about speaking up, taking risks, and trusting that if I just kept going, I’d end up in a better place somehow. So far, that’s proved to be true in some ways and not in other ways (lolllll the complexity of the human experience, am I right?)
I feel more liminal than ever. I’m going somewhere. I can feel it. But I’m not exactly sure where yet. Will I ever settle in somewhere again, I wonder? Can I be brave enough to keep going and trust the process?
Can I trust that maybe I haven’t settled in yet because I’m not yet where I’m meant to be? While also being exactly where I need to be right now? Oof.
These were the questions of 2023 that carried me into this year. Let’s see what happens as we keep fucking up into the new year.
Love,
Failure