Looking Back at the Year of the Dragon
The Best of 2024 in My Life
So much happens in the span of 12 months. I always get nostalgic at the end of the year. This year is the year of the dragon in the Chinese zodiac, and according to the year of my birth, I am a fire dragon. I am not entirely sure how this relates to the year I had, if at all, but it has been a wonderful timeframe nonetheless.
This week on WPR, I list a few of my favorite things from 2024.
Have a look at what rocked my world and melted my Asian face.
1. Favorite Triumph: Building my Japanese-inspired garden
Through last winter, spring, and summer, I toiled away at my first–ever garden project. I planted various Japanese maple trees, cleared land, collected stones from our creek, bought beloved Adirondack chairs from a local artisan, and spent many days sitting in this delightful sacred space. For my birthday, my household hosted an outdoor birthday party during which I showed it off for the first time. (That was the best day!)
I love my garden so much, and plans are afoot for next year’s blooming.
2. Favorite Books
I love reading all kinds of books. This year, I have read 22 of them with a total of 6,477 pages (so far). Out of that lot, five books that were new to me stood out as my favorites for the year.
Favorite Fiction:
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak
This book tells a love story that lasts through a brutal war on the island country of Cyprus and the years that followed. It is told through the viewpoint of a fig tree. I loved it so much.
Borough Features by Erica Ciccarone
This is one of those books that gets deeper and more poignant the more you read it. The ending stayed with me for a while.
Favorite Nonfiction:
Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come by Jessica Pan
This book made me laugh out loud more than once as it chronicles a year in which an introvert does a bunch of crazy extrovert activities (such as standup comedy, hosting a dinner party, talking to strangers anywhere, and more). As an introvert myself, I totally related to the neurosis on display.
Slow Productivity by Cal Newport
I have been on a search to find a sustainable path forward in my life. Newport is on to something here.
Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman
There is so much wisdom in this book about how to live a more meaningful life. I will be revisiting this gem.
3. Favorite Song of the Year
I am a fan of fellow pianist and songwriter Vienna Teng. This fall, she released her latest three–song EP We’ve Got You. A notable fact about this new release is that the third song combines the first two together. The result—We’ve Got You (Two Truths)—is mind-boggling, beautiful, and ridiculously brilliant, and it is my favorite song of 2024. I got to see her perform all three live at her show in Nashville last month, and it melted my face. Have a listen to the first two below and then click on the third link to hear all the incredible magic together.
4. Favorite Adventures
Strangely enough, my adventures this year involved cleaning homes and sorting through mountains of stuff.
Hawaii
My friend Laurel and I made the long trek to Hawaii twice this year to clear out 30 years’ worth of wall-to-wall stuff at her father’s house. We accomplished this mission, and I got to exist briefly on a tropical island in the Pacific Ocean just like I did in my youth. The food, the plant life, and the banyan trees made my heart swell with joy.
Sarasota, FL
Last spring, I traveled to Sarasota, FL, with my husband to help him move his elderly mom to a new apartment. It was a gargantuan amount of work that involved driving a truck full of stuff back up to Tennessee when we were done. It was gratifying to get her settled into her new place within a couple of days, and we were completely exhausted.
5. Favorite Creative Project: Vampire
I made all kinds of art this year and played lots of music. The one thing that stood out the most was the release of my song Vampire and its music video last winter. The recording was a couple of years in the making, and the music video was filmed in the woods near my house a few months earlier. I wanted to try something that I had never done before. In this case, I went for something bloody and horrific.
If you haven’t seen this yet, here it is for your dining pleasure.
6. Favorite Live Show
This year, we went to see several live performances including Madonna, Kishi Bashi, Vienna Teng, Ray LaMontagne, Kishona, Alison Russell, and Cecil McLorin Savant. All of them were special in their own way, but for nostalgic reasons, Madonna’s epic career retrospective Celebration Tour that I got to see in Tampa, FL, was a dazzling spectacle that is my favorite live show for the year. It was theatrical, fun, dramatic, and SUPER GAY on a huge production budget.
The opening number gave me all the feels.
7. Favorite Ancestral Tongue Performance
I am grateful that my band and I got to play a few shows this year, but my favorite of all our outings was our set at BoroPride in Murfreesboro, TN, in October. It was the fanciest stage, lighting, and sound setup we have experienced thus far. The show was a total blast for a worthwhile cause. (I also got to wear my glitzy gold and red coat!)
2024 has been a wonderful, joyous year.
Thank you to everyone who gave me a smile, a hug, or a kind word along the way.
I’m sending you a big Asian hug from my neck of the Tennessee woods.
The other night, my partner and I went with some friends to see a comedian on tour doing standup at a Nashville venue. We had not seen a comedian since watching Paula Poundstone live a couple of years ago. This time, we saw LA-based comedian and actor Joel Kim Booster. We laughed a whole lot at the stories that this unapologetically gay man told. He regaled the audience with stories about gay dating, sex, flight attendants, evil gay male therapists, and his upbringing as an adopted Korean child in an all-white family in Illinois.
Standup comedy is such a unique art form that seems to require a lot of courage. I always love seeing someone who is good at it.
