In January, I declared my theme for the year to be synchronicity and roots. Roots in that I would allow myself to start from scratch and grow from there, and synchronicity in that I would allow the universe to come together for me. Now that we’ve reached half the year, I looked back on the year in terms of my goals, good things that have happened, and how to move forward optimistically.

View my 2017 goals post here.

1 | Skills & Hobbies: Attend three workshops for the whole year

• I’ve attended three workshops already, two of which have changed me and my writing completely: Story Design and Kalliergo, a spoken word workshop. Both modules have renewed the way I write and prepared me to become a writing teacher too!

• I’ve also gotten deeper into tarot self-studies while taking a certification course this July and August! Check in with me for an appointment over the next six weeks.

• I bought a mirrorless camera and am aiming to take up photography a little more deeply.

2 | Money: Pay off all debts, save a healthy amount per month, and become financially stable — if not independent.

• While I’ve only assembled more debt instead of paying it off, I have begun making extra income with my courses! I’m on a slow track, but I think becoming financially stable and independent is more feasible now. A new lowkey goal of mine is to become a provider for my parents on top of becoming independent.

3 | Projects: Create three passion projects this whole year.

• Stellar Stranger stopped in its second month, but its first run was so well-received I still consider it a success! The page is still up and waiting for me, so it’s not a closed project yet. I’m using Stellar Stranger as my host page for an upcoming project and event (which you can volunteer for).

• I volunteered for an advocacy group, Youth For Mental Health Coalition, and already did two projects with and for them. A video series which I co-directed and appeared in, and a fundraising gig which I performed at.

• As mentioned earlier, I took up spoken word! I treat it as a project because it’s really an effort towards beating my public speaking anxiety, so I signed up for several speaking gigs in the first half.

• A very important accomplishment is that I taught my first ever workshop! I set up a humble target of five students (I also wanted an intimate setting) and reached my goal. The feedback was also so heartwarmingly positive, I’m already excited for a second session.

• I started two passion project communities: Goal Diggers, an accountability group for goals and passion projects, and Word Chat, a weekly poetry-writing chat based on a word prompt every Sunday.

• I also put up a Features page here on the blog to track the external projects I’ve participated in.

4 | Health: Exercise regularly–weekly at first, then daily when I can.

• Although small, I consider this a success: I signed up for gym, started going regularly, and figured out how to enjoy it for once. My visits are still irregular but they’re becoming ingrained into my lifestyle. I will no longer be too unmotivated to make fitness a priority.

5 | Mental health: Reconnect with my mental health practices like meditation, reiki, journaling, and art.

• I’ve been taking meds almost religiously and I’ve become known for being an advocate, to the extent of proposing a mental health policy at my workplace.

• Another thing I’ve been doing is recording video diaries about my depression. I don’t know if I’ll ever go public and start vlogging, lol, but for now, just the act of creating videos has been deeply therapeutic on its own.

• As I mentioned above, I’ve appeared in a mental health video and performed a spoken word piece about my depression. People are constantly referring to me as, and thanking me for being, a mental health advocate, it just might my favorite person to be this year.

My trajectory changed so much in the first half, especially with the turnout of mental health advocacies and passion projects. I tried pinpointing where the course changed and sped up, and I’m certain there were two major plot points: when I volunteered for Youth For Mental Health and opted to be active, and when my medication kicked in to make me the person I’ve always wanted to be, thus birthing all the passion projects.

Still, my theme for the year has been on point. I’ve started from scratch in many ways and with many things, and the universe has been coming together for me. I do want to continue on this velocity, which is why I did this midyear review and created a list of more specific goals for the second half:

1 | Skills & hobbies: Practice ukulele, tarot, and photography.

2 | Money: Start paying off debt, and earning more on the side via freelance.

3 | Projects: Mount an event, submit to Scoutmag.ph, and teach at least 2 more workshops.

4 | Health: Go to gym at least twice a week.

5 | Mental health: Find more ways to push my advocacy, like volunteering for talks and interviews.

Synchronicity and roots, here we go.