As always, let’s start with the numbers

Physical Comics Read: 0 (0/0)
Digital Comics Read: 0 (471/471)
Trade Paperbacks/Graphic Novels Read: 5 (26/31)
Books Read: 5 (115/120)
Movies Watched: 7 (116/123)
TV Seasons Completed: 2 (88/90)
TV Shows Completed: 1 (36/37)
Podcast Episodes Remaining: 185

I have to be honest–this was one of the strangest Januaries in recent years. Maybe it was because starting from the moment we were supposed to go back to school and work, we were hit with a huge snowstorm and wound up having a week of extended winter break. Then, we got more. It was cool in some ways because I was off; however, it was stressful in others because I couldn’t really get into my routine. In fact, this past week was the first week where I think I finally realized that we were in a new year. And yet, when it comes to this uncollecting venture, I wound up having a pretty ordinary month.

So the beat goes on.

This is my fourth year of doing this project and I feel like it’s kind of at a crucial point because I sit here thinking about where I want to go with it while simultaneously worry about whether or not I am going to completely fall on my face here. Most recently in my journal, I vented about my frustration at falling back into bad habits. I also talked to my therapist about how the different parts of myself interact with one another and often interfere with one another. The worst of it is my perfectionist streak, which manifests itself in a part that seems to not demand perfection per se but will freely critique the imperfections in my work. It’s great for my self-confidence.

I wonder what it is about me that wraps my sense of self up in a checklist of accomplishments and makes deductions for every time I don’t do something the “right” or “conventional” way. I am sure it started at an early age and school was the biggest contributor to it. I’m sure my upbringing was another part of it as well. It’s what makes the “It’s all about the journey” philosophy hard to wrap my head around at times.

As you can see, I’ve had way too much time to myself lately.

I have some ideas, though, of what I’d like to do to get me out of whatever writer’s block I’ve got going on here (this post took the better part of a week to write and is kind of shit, tbh) as well as what I want all of this to look like in the end, but those ideas aren’t fully formulated. So I figure I’ll continue to read, watch, and listen for now.