End of 2022 Update

Hey! This is going to be a bit of a reflective update, so feel free to keep reading!

I'm planning to do one final stream of 2022 (in the house I grew up in) this weekend before I pack up and move back to the East Coast! This stream will not only be for GDQ practice, but also... I'm going to be living on my own for the first time, and I have only enough to buy groceries, gas, and essentials; I've not had to pay bills yet, but I'm not going to have enough to pay those off on my own. Likewise, finding a job is going to be super rough, as I'll be starting graduate school towards the end of January. Thankfully, my GDQ performance will probably boost my platform tremendously, and I also need to keep that drive going. After this stream perhaps on Saturday (12/24), I will take a break from active social media from December 27th to January 3rd. I will answer Discord dms or pings when I return and am settled in my new place.

It's been difficult for me to stream consistently this past year, as I've prioritized my personal needs and barely had any energy to continue growing my social media presence. I'm also guilty of letting my low statistics deter me from putting out more content. It also doesn't help that living in Arkansas, especially after graduating high school and college (inclusive of COVID), hurt my mental health; all of my awesome friends have either moved on or are still in school... (Not to mention that jobs pertaining to my computer science major here pay NOTHING compared to the East Coast.) Therefore to reiterate, this long stream, as well as my GDQ performance will be the motivation I absolutely need to make speedrunning/content creation something more sustainable. Networking is not of an issue; it's how I'm approaching this "side-hustle" of a career.

My online life was also pretty challenging, with competitive Mario Kart being the most stressful. However, I was able to develop more interest into Splatoon, and I've spent the past few months playing said game with my speedrunning friends from the Super Monkey Ball community! I still intend on playing competitive Mario Kart (it's really hard to drop this game), just only non-league tournaments. And even then, I'll be online from time-to-time when I do not have a workload. Of course, if COVID happens to explode again... well, you know where to find me!

Overall, I'm super excited for this move to happen! I finally get to figure out what I want to do with my life, and I'll be even closer to my girlfriend! (I'm most excited about that one in particular.) Adulting is going to be superbly challenging, but that's what living your best life is all about. I want to take more of what I've learned this year about myself and apply it to the next year. Hopefully, I'll be able to stream consistently again while focusing on graduate school and in-real life things.

Thank you all so much for supporting me and making this year one to be grateful for! See you all very soon!

~Peas