Well 2023 was another doozy, wasn’t it? Honestly, the last 3 years, since March of 2020, feels like a bit of a fever dream. I’ve found myself thinking of life “BC”–before COVID and…I’m not sure how to define what or where we currently are in a life with COVID. But the truth is, life isn’t the same…and won’t be again. I have been trying to remind myself to slow down a bit, to enjoy every day, to tell folks I love them on the regular, to live more intentionally. I want to share a project I worked on for the last year to help me be more reflective on the everyday things that perhaps, I took for granted.
Last Christmas, my sister gifted me a page-a-day calendar featuring a new photo daily of one of America’s National Parks. At first I thought, great, more clutter for my desk. But then I settled in on an idea to make use of this gift to remember the days of 2023—not just the big stuff, but even the little, daily, sometimes mundane things I did for 365 days. So, I wrote something about each day on those calendar pieces and saved them all in a used laundry pod container with a sign on it saying “year in review”( see photo).
On New Years Eve, I’ll open all 365 of those folded calendar pages and take some time to think about the past year-the ups, the downs, the binge-watched tv shows, the recipes cooked, the Philly sports, the knitting, the beagles. My 2023 in 365 pieces of paper. I look forward to remembering and thinking about what is next for 2024. And yes, I asked for a page-a-day calendar for 2024 and will be doing this again.
How will you commemorate the year past? How do you look forward?
From all of us at OncoLink, Happy New Year!
Christina is a clinical oncology social worker and the psychosocial content editor at OncoLink. Christina blogs about resources available to the cancer community, as well as general information about coping with cancer financially, practically, emotionally, and spiritually. Christina is also an instructor and field liaison at the Bryn Mawr College School of Social Work and Social Research. In her spare time, she loves to knit and volunteer with her therapy dogs, Linus, Huckleberry (and Eugene in training). She also loves to travel, knit, cook, and is an avid Philly sports fan.
I accidentally came across this site. I am a 2023 ovarian cancer survivor and would like to tell my story another time. Thank you for this site maybe good to talk about your cancer episode to people who would understand. I am sad this morning because a friend of the past 54 years just died because of cancer. My chances for survival was 36% but I made it..
When you are ready to tell you story, we’d welcome you to blog for us! Feel free to email us [email protected]