I recently took a solo trip to southeast Alaska. It wasn't my first time in the area, but it was my first big solo travel experience. And I stayed in a hostel for the first time! The trip was quite an adventure and super healing. I spent my time engaging in special interests (hiking, photography, and learning about plants and mushrooms and wildlife). And since I was by myself, I got to do the trip entirely on my terms. I focused on listening to my body, utilizing my new hearing protection, and taking breaks when I needed to. Thankfully, I avoided having a meltdown or shutdown the entire trip!

After the trip, I feel more confident in my skills and abilities, and feel a lot more in tune with my body and its needs. Since returning home I've been better able to set limits on socializing/engagements and making sure to take necessary rest time. Hoping these are lasting changes.

Thanks for making this post! It's so important to talk about the positives and achievements and not dwell too hard on the negative.

I've attached a few shots from Alaska 😊

Just got a new job with better salary, more vacation and is 100% WFH! I'm going to give my resignation to my current job this week - no longer do I have to deal with coworkers telling me I'm rude when because I'm wearing headphones because I literally cannot think or work if you're having a conversation behind me, Samantha!

I'm proud because it's taken me months to even find a company that would actually acknowledge my presence, plus I've been with this shitty job for years and I was beginning to think that I'd be stuck here until the market changed, but I'm glad that things are on the up for me :)

Went to two pride marches in the past few months. Honestly really nice seeing so much acceptance about considering how hostile the world feels all the time...

Other then that, went down to London (~7 hour trip each way) at the start of the year and stayed the night with a bunch of online friends. As someone who doesn't travel at all, that's a big milestone for me!

I changed an employer, because of my mental crisis. Now I feel much better at new place.

Last year I suffered a lot of social loss and had become extremely isolated due to it. Over the last year I've been trying to do more of me and found a lot more good in my life while doing that. I'm still extremely isolated outside of interacting with my mom but it doesn't bother me like it once did. So now I do the things I want to do when I want to do them and not waste time and/or energy looking for friends, groups, etc (especially when they'll ditch me later and destroy my life in the process, this has happened with every friend/group my entire 40 years of living).

Basically I'm doing me and it's been really nice. I'm getting back into Warhammer 40,000 (40k), enjoying my time in World of Warcraft, and all around much happier while doing many of my previous activities like watching anime.