Another year gone by, another one coming up. Like many others, I'm taking the time to reflect on this year and talk about my goals and plans for the upcoming year publicly. This year was interesting to say the least, and it'll definitely help shape my 2024.

First of all, 2023. To say that this year has been a satisfying success for me is an overstatement. I really didn't have my best year.

It wasn't really in terms of projects. I did release quite a bit of music, starting with a 5-song EP consisting of miscellaneous tracks in my vault. One of the tracks from this release, Relentless, actually got frontpaged even after sitting on my profile for almost a month. It was very much a highlight of my year, and I'm still very grateful of the positive reception it got.

Aside from that, releases were sparse. I released two other sings, Nebula Rider, and Envision, as well as earlier this month, I posted an ambient track as part of this site's Audio Secret Santa event. Overall, as projects go, it wasn't a failure, and I was actually quite satisfied with what I was able to do.

The issue came from many aspects outside of my creative endeavors.

I don't usually like to talk about my personal life. It's mainly a personal preference due to valuing my own sense of privacy, as well as many people don't really like to hear that stuff anyway. What I can say is that depression hit me very hard this year, especially in the summer. I went weeks without getting shit done, mainly browsing the same social media sites without any sort of progress on anything that could make me happy. While I'm in a better place now, the phase still affects me as it's hard to consistently work on projects, nor feel completely satisfied with them. Even when I told myself to work on better habits, my mind still defaults to the same passive, easy-way-out things that I do.

Fortunately, things are looking up for me. I recently started my path on a new major for college that I'm very passionate about. I'm taking steps to living independently and transferring to a bigger school starting the fall semester of this coming year. I'm feeling better about personally connecting to my projects rather than putting them out for the sake of it. Most importantly, I have gotten the courage to speak and reach out to friends and family that can help me, especially with life, music, and even personal matters. Because of this, 2024 is looking up to be a better year already.

But what do I want to do in 2024 anyway?

Well, I do want to focus on connecting with the Newgrounds community much more. I've had an account here since 2017, and have been uploading my work since 2019. In that time, I haven't done much connecting with the community that still exists here. I heavily respect this place for continuing to be an independent website for creators on the internet. Not many places like this exist anymore at all. That's why I want to be able to give to this place if I can.

Additionally, I want to be able to be more open and active about sharing work that I do. This probably won't affect the Newgrounds side of things, moreover this will likely affect where and how I upload to YouTube, SoundCloud, maybe TikTok, etc. I already have plans for new projects and the general direction that I want to take them into. Gone are the days of uploading for the sake of "branding" and "the algorithm." Goddamn have I already learned my lesson with that. I feel more connected to being an artist more than ever. Sharing my work for others, but mostly for my own personal growth, is how I plan on becoming a happier, more fulfilled person.

I already have a song ready to go for next month, or February at the latest. I plan on releasing at a far more scheduled pace, but not too quickly to the point where it becomes draining. I'm planning on 8-10 week intervals for now. My focus for 2024 will largely consist of music projects, studies in my irl college career, and any other hobby that I might passively pick up.

While 2023 may have been a set back, I now have more knowledge to better my projects, a plan to keep my year afloat, and looking up for this coming year. Let's see how it goes.