top 2022 tunes~
Let's try for the third year in a row of listing my top tracks and artists for 2022! This year, YouTube Music compiled seasonal top 50 track playlists as well as the top 100 songs listened to this year. Pretty interesting~! To check those out, click on the buttons right underneath.
To skip my year in review and see my music choices of 2022, click here!
What a year it's been.
This past year, I have moved to a new city with my university best friend and her pup, started a new job, and came out officially to my whole family as pansexual for the first time. That being said, 2022 started with a lot of change.
Sammi and I were both working from home, so whenever we were bored or wanted to share something, we could easily just walk over to the other room and chat. This was an insane feeling! I have never had this dynamic before with her! We started going to $5 movie nights, going to local restaurants, binging tv shows at home, and transitioning to having so much of our lives intersecting.
Not only that, wbut I also had a brand new roommate I needed to gain the trust and love of - Winnie! I love love love living with a dog and getting to know her in the beginning was so much fun. What a quirky gal with tons of personality. Sammi really got a good one to call her baby!
Quickly after moving to the Milwaukee area, I met Amy. We met online, which explains the whole partial long distance relationship we had, and quickly became involved in one another's lives. I made the first move to go to Chicago to meet her and her friends for the first time, and the next weekend she came up to Milwaukee to see my place .... which ultimately had us deciding to put a label on it!
This was my first time ever having a relationship with a woman, and I really have to give a lot of thanks to Amy for being such a great partner!
As I phased from a fully masked society with vaccination proofs needing to be proven whenever requested to an unmasked one, I was making many memories with family, friends, and in my relationship. I spent a very good portion with Amy exploring Chicago, meeting up with her friends, and experiencing many new things together.
I also got to have an awesome road trip with Sammi to St. Louis. We spent our time doing touristy and no-so touristy things around the area from doing a brewery tour and visiting a butterfly garden to getting our nails done and going to an antique mall. Some of the best times we had was watching horror/thriller movies back at our stay and making sure we don't have negative experiences in the "murder capital of America".
I was so thankful to have this trip with Sammi because the last time we traveled together like this was when we had our CRAZY spring break trip right as the pandemic took off. It was nice to rewrite the stress and do things WE want to do. Not only that, but we had a great time getting closer as Sammi brought a very heartfelt game We're Not Really Strangers. It felt so good to connect with her like this, especially after being separated for so long.
Illinois and Missouri travel / exploration also doesn't outshine my memories made in Wisconsin. I had a very lovely family ski day in Baraboo as well as a great Public Market / Third Ward date day with Amy. Going up to my family's home with Amy too to house sit while they went on a vacation was also so much fun. But I have to say, one of the biggest milestones in Wisconsin was purchasing my first car!
As I settled in my new city, I had the opportunity to go on training at the KPMG Lakehouse facility in Orlando, FL. This was such a crazy 2 day, 1 night experience to go through ... but I got to not only network and meet new people, but also connect with those I already met and work with face to face!
After Lakehouse, the KPMG Milwaukee office had an end of busy season party where I finally got to meet local KPMG-ers. I am so, so thankful that they are such a friendly and inviting group of people because my "black sheep" feeling went away!
One of my favorite times with work was the Community Impact Day where I joined the Farm initiative! Even though I didn't really connect with coworkers there, I still enjoyed getting paid to harvest and weed food for the local community as well as meet my work friends (and new) at the after-harvest lunch and again later that evening for the 125th anniversary party!
Ironically, right after this party, I tested positive for COVID for the very first time... which earned my nickname from my team SSN - Super Spreader Nina. I highly advocated for a new one because it just wasn't fair!!! And Alfredo helped me out by re-branding SSN to Super Star Nina... thank GOD.
Summer in Chicago was so exciting. I brought work with me often to experience my first PRIDE and group picnic at the park! I also got to celebrate Amy's birthday and Ciocia Darusia's birthday!
Meanwhile, summer in Wisconsin was spent taking walks during lunch breaks, painting pottery with Sammi, celebrating my birthday and meeting my childhood friend Sarah. We also had the Polish Open at my family's house where we got to eat, drink, swim and play golf.
AND we also got to go to the Bristol Renaissance Faire! I LOVED this place. I see myself loving to dress up and be in a very accepting place. Using my poor English accent and purchasing a Hildebeast skin ... UGH!
Since I get a week off from work in the summer, my mom, Konrad and I went off to South Dakota! I coordinated our trip to be able to have a day exploring Sioux Falls before staying at a small private cabin airbnb in the Black Hills. We saw Wall Drug, the Badlands, prairie dogs and buffalo, Crazy Horse, Mount Rushmore, Wind Cave, and more! Amazing trip and amazing photos were taken!!!
As summer ended, Amy and I went to an event in Wrigley Field where the CEO of Anheuser-Busch provided some insights and all attendees enjoyed a huge happy hour on the field. It was insane to eat free hot dogs, drink free beers, and take photos directly on the cleared field!
Not only that, but I was able to see my really good Winona / 순천 Suncheon friend Kyungbin!
I also took a girls trip with Babcia, Ciocia Darusia, Patrycja and Paulina to Galena, IL. There, we ATE, we DRANK, and we PLAYED! My mom was supposed to join as well, but ended up testing positive for COVID right before our trip. I was totally missing her since I was the only one mother-less, but I know there are plenty of other opportunities to do this again.
This year was a monumental one as well for my good friends Jordan and Kelly. They were going to finally have their wedding!! I am glad I was back in the states to join in on the Bachelorette Party in Minneapolis as well as dress up and be in their wedding party in Rochester in October! CONGRATULATIONS GUYS!
Not only did I see my friends take their relationship to the next level in October, but I also saw the ultimate end in mine... Words can't describe how sad I was to have to end what me and Amy had... I learned so much from this experience together and felt so thankful she was as loving and accepting of me throughout the process.
See, I faced a lot of mental health issues for years and had seen that it was not getting better while I fell into similar habits. I found myself more unstable and unable to navigate my mental space more and more...
I finally started therapy in the late summer / early fall and was trying to understand what it means to embark on my healing journey. If I am being frank, I have issues coping with my own stress and anxiety and tend to fall into codependent relationships, use substances to escape or to give permission to feel, get impulsive, and/or withdraw completely from everyone and everything because I feel extreme embarrassment / regret / fear / fatigue.
That being said, having regular therapy sessions helped with the substance (mis)use and limited down. a good portion of the impulsivity as I became single, but I still struggle a lot with my social anxieties. I tried to still be present, join in on family events here and there, meet up with friends, and so on.
Thankfully, I had my last family road trip of the year to help me get out of my head a bit with the break up and went to Minneapolis with my mom and Konrad for a building wealth event. We spent time together seeing the conservatory, relatives, and I even got to see my really good friend Rich.
I also spent the winter holidays together with family both in the Dells and in Chicagoland. I feel very thankful to have the opportunity to see these crazy people and have good food together. Especially so since Sammi and I moved out of our apartment in December and into our separate places still in the same city. It was sad to not be together in the same living space like before because I really felt like Sammi and Winnie were my new family. Regardless, I am so excited for both of us to find our ways and to continue learning how to be loving and respectful to each other in this new dynamic!
PHEW! Tired from reading my insane 2022 story? Me too!!! I feel like I did WAY TOO MUCH all at once, but I really feel like I was trying to make up for being locked into the one city when I lived in Korea. I made the most of being an adult and living my own life post-grad in the states and really am starting my journey to the rest of my life. It's turbulent and I don't know how my 2023 will be... but I just hope that it continues to move in a positive direction!
And so, as my 2022 is summed up, feel free to listen to the most cherished music I relied on. Thank you so much for reading and supporting this blog, and am excited to post even more in 2023!
I have created a YouTube music playlist to contain all the songs I especially loved listening to. If you've been following my monthly music posts, you should know many already! Some towards the end of the playlist are sadly ones that never found their way into an official playlist, but have been resting comfortably in my liked songs. They range many genres and moods, and I am happy to have an accurate playlist!
top artists of 2022
Rich Brian Tai Verdes Joji San Holo Rainbow Kitten Surprise Beenzino Amine Legit Goons Tyler, The Creator
haven't seen any/all of my monthly music posts?
Click on the links below to see previous monthly music posts!
Or, click on the link below to see last few years' top music!
