what's something important you learned this year?

[KatKing]

2024 has arrived, whats something important that you learned? Could be a skill, or information, or a truth of life

this year, i learned that to truly feel close to someone, you have to make yourself vunerable to them. Ive struggled for a long time with a lack of closeness, even in relationships (platonic btw) that seemed to be going good. i felt no sense of true connection with them. which bothered me, because ive been chasing that kind of connection for a long time. It was only when i fully gave myself to those people, did i begin to feel close to them. you can have a million meaningful conversations, but if you are hiding yourself from them, you will feel nothing. on the other hand, a few casual interactions of you being your true self can create strong and wonderful connections

if you struggle with being dissconectted from people you love in your life, consider how honest to yourself you are being with them. ive found that even if its a bit scary or uncomfortable at first, its worth being vunerable 

[j]

i'm glad that you're learning how to be closer to people, OP - that's particularly tough.

you ask a difficult question. i learned so much this year.

i think the most important to me right now would be learning about Wicca and my relationship to it. discovering my spirituality ties into a lot of other things that i do, like woodwork, cooking and foraging, so starting to understand my relationship there has made me feel closer to being whole and fulfilled with life.

[Cobra!]

Well it’s hard to learn something in 2024 considering it’s only been a day. :P (Unless you mean last year, in which case you should change the topic title?)

One important thing I learned in 2023 was during a camping trip I was in as part of a program I was in, called Venture Scotland.
I don’t talk to many people, and never feel close to anyone. I had just assumed nobody wants to talk to me.

However, I was told by other people in the program that they just assume I wanted to be left alone as I was usually on my own in a space, be it an empty room or my tent.
I actually do this because I don’t like busy spaces. Since the amount of people in the program went down to 4 by the end (it was a very tough course, to be fair), it was easier to be in the same room as them, and was in more conversations and was able to open up a bit more.
I still have their numbers and we text now and again, sl that’s cool.

Also learned later on the year why I’ve been feeling very empty and depressed for the past 10 years and has been getting worse in the last 3.
I’ve been having many dreams where we’re back in my childhood apartment, or at our gran’s. I’ve been more and more paranoid about preservation of old media and technology at about the same rate.
I figured out that those are connected. I get very depressed over life being life and changing, so I look for things in life I have some degree of control over in terms of keeping them around.

I try to be as authentic as possible with my media consumption. I watch VHS and Laserdiscs, as well as games from the same time, on a CRT.
I run old programs on a Windows 98 PC hooked up to a CRT using a PS/2 mechanical keyboard and ball mouse.
I guess it’s an escape to a time where I was happier.

In a way, though, this has it’s upsides. It’s getting me to learn some electrical engineering to help repair anything that goes wrong, and as a huge homebrew enthusiast, it teaches me a lot about older game platforms and their limitations, as well as learning what tools were available back then and what developers have to put up with.

Anyway, if you made it this far, thanks for reading! 2023 was garbage for me in general, but I did learn some important stuff!

[wygolvillage]

In addition to learning website stuff... I think I've learned a lot to kind of slow down and be more patient, which is definitely nice. I'm also getting better at committing to things I've started.

[TheNothingMonster]

In terms of new skills, I managed to teach myself basic JavaScript by studying other people's projects. I knew nothing about it at the beginning of the year and I'm quite proud of the work I did. Additionally, I completed a pixel art and a Blender (3D modeling) course and learned so many cool new things from them! Totally worth it.

Other than that, I also taught myself how to feel less anxious when communicating in online spaces. I used to have trouble replying to the simplest of messages for fear, but now I don't think too much about it. I have to thank MelonLand for this one! Joining this forum changed me so much, for the better.

[alexela64]

Well, i had my first /real/ heartbreak this year, so i've somewhat learned how to deal with that. At a certain point, you have to stop feeling sorry for yourself and just pick back up where you left off.
As much as it's easy to want things to be like they were "before" everything happens, nostalgia is a liar. That time wasn't perfect, and this one won't be either. Love is blinding, and you have to recognize that things wouldn't have been perfect with them--if it didn't work out now, then it probably wouldn't in the future either.
On a lighter note, i learned a couple new skills this year-
finally picked up bass guitar after dreaming of learning it for ~4 years, and i also learned some html/css :) started my own site, which has been a huge learning experience as well.
Hope i'm able to pick up even more fun skills this year

[Paprika]

2023 taught me to take it slow. To have abreak from social media and things that always call for your attention. I learned HTML all by myself, tried a lot of things and definitely rekindled my love for comic-books. I also stopped going to work with my car and now I'm taking the bus, it's much cheaper and surprisingly faster (thanks to the new bus lane that is only for them, allowing it to bypass heavy traffic !)

So yeah. Taking it slow is the main idea of 2023. I wonder what 2024 will be about !

[J. Soda]

2023 was so hectic for me!! I went through a lot of really hard situations, but I still had so many victories! I've had, not a victim mindset but a weakness mindset. That I can't do everything everyone else who is 'normal' can. Yet, I've done so many challenging things this year in my career and education, things I was really struggling to do before. I'm still growing, and getting better each day. I am a capable person, and even if I stumble that's okay. If I need rest, that's okay. I've learned I need to be proud of myself more often and I won't break if I push myself.