A mile marker in time

End of year reflections + two recipes

Does anyone else get uncomfortable looking at the past?

As I grow, it's often difficult to accept who I was just 12 short months ago.

But that's why I think these end-of-year transitions are so beautiful. Even if they're just numbers on a calendar that mean nothing on their own, the changing of the number two thousand twenty-two to two thousand twenty-three is like adding a mile marker that simply tells us where we are in time.

Look back at the last mile marker and give that version of you some acknowledgment (and maybe a hug) for what they've gone through.

Here's a peek into my 2022:

I got married.

We didn't have a beautiful wedding. In fact, we didn't have a wedding at all. A friend of mine is an officiant, and she was generous enough to meet at a local park to sign our papers.

We walked, talked, and sat under the trees as she breast-fed her baby. My future husband wasn't even there. It was perfect.

I moved out of Los Angeles.

Now, I live about an hour away from our old city apartment, but life is drastically different. Compared to the busy urine-soaked streets of Los Angeles, living out here is a dream. Renovating and dealing with mortgages, however, is a nightmare.

Our relatively small town gets two local newspapers with opposing political leanings — The Acorn and The Guardian, and my new favorite pastime is to read both papers and compare the stories.

I got back in the dojo.

Through some kind of coincidental magic, I now live a short distance away from a dojo that teaches a very old and obscure martial art. As if things couldn't get more serendipitous, the instructor is my former classmate from the dojo where I first began training in this art at 19 years old.

It's incredible to reconnect with my old senpai (senior student) and talk about how our experiences in martial arts nearly 20 years ago have stayed with us through the years.

I lost friends.

Moving out of town meant there were groups of friends I knew I'd probably never see again. I've come to realize how much I structured my old life based on the approval of my friend group. What would they think if I didn't show up to their birthdays or get-togethers? Would they come to mine?

Sometimes it isn't until you give some relationships distance that you realize the hold it had on your life.

I started publishing.

When I think back to the periods of time when I've experienced the most growth, they all involve some kind of consistent output. Whether it is art, business, or writing, there is something about putting your most honest self out there and receiving feedback from the world that expedites your learning.

I've been writing my entire life, but I almost never hit publish. So when I saw an announcement for a scholarship to a writing course, I thought "what the hell" and threw my hat in the ring. I didn't get it, but I did get an invitation to a partial scholarship. I filled out the application, shot an awfully lit video from my office 3 hours before the deadline, and somehow — got it.

Best decision of my life.

Things I'd like to get started in 2023:

A tweet by @mvarghoose reminded me that we can't force a timeline on our goals. We can only control the things we put in motion.

Here are a few things I’d like to start this year.

Take more videos.

Since the very beginning of my business, people have been pushing me to make videos. But I'm terrified. It's a lot of work. I don't look good on camera. I'll just draw pictures and write. I have every excuse in the book not to. But, I'm starting to see that I probably need to.

I enrolled in Cam Houser's course, Minimum Viable Video. It'll run through most of January, and I'm hoping by the end of it, I'll be more confident on camera and stop with all the excuses I've made up to avoid making videos.

Host events.

If you know my climbing brand, you know that the thing we value the most is our community. They've been asking for meetups for a while now, and I just haven't made it happen. But this year, I plan to get the ball rolling and host at least one meetup in the first quarter of the year.

Get comfortable speaking.

Part of my fear of being in videos is my worry that I am not articulate enough. Although I've been on podcasts (and even started my own), I haven't been consistent because of this fear.

So in 2023, I'm going to push myself to pursue more speaking opportunities. I've babied myself for long enough about being shy, and if being married to a severe stutterer has taught me anything, it is how lucky I am to be able to speak fluently at all.

Get back in the game.

There are lots of reasons why I faded out of the picture from Dynamite Starfish. Sometimes your passion project takes a lot out of you. Maybe I needed a break. I spent most of 2022 being minimally available to my brand.

But at some point, in mid-2022, I committed to participating in outdoor industry events and enjoyed making new connections. Then, by publishing articles about my brand, I started to feel the stoke come back again.

Right now, I'm totally on fire to take Dynamite Starfish to a place it deserves to be.

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Nourishment

I want to share two of my favorite recipes (one fast and one slow) that have gotten me through 2022.

[Fast] Protein Coffee

If I never ate lunch again, I would probably hardly notice. Most days, I'm so deep into whatever I'm working on that I have no sense of passing time.

But your girl's gotta eat.

So this protein/coffee combo is what's been saving my life:

1 cup brewed coffee (I use 80% decaf, 20% regular, made using an Aeropress)

1.5 scoops unflavored grass-fed whey protein powder

.75 scoop collagen powder

75ml goat milk (from Trader Joe's)

I use this Blend Jet travel blender to pour in the goat milk and protein powders. Then, add it to my brewed coffee. Make sure to use a big mug or else it will overflow!

I use those measurements when I am drinking this as a meal replacement. It gets me around 25g of protein, which is the max your body can absorb in one sitting. It also gives me a small caffeine boost which gives me energy but not anxiety.

The goat milk can be replaced with any milk or even water. I use it because it tastes sweeter than cow's milk and doesn't give me tummy problems.

[Slow] Homemade Kimchi

I'm a big fan of Maangchi's homemade kimchi recipe. So is my family.

My mom is from Korea, but she isn't a great cook, so I learned how to make Korean food using the internet.

I won't reiterate the recipe here, but I will just share with you some encouragement if making 8-10lbs of spicy fermented cabbage sounds intimidating.

I once asked my mom if it mattered that I didn't have fermented shrimp or the right herbs for my kimchi recipe. In her saucy matter-of-fact way, she said, "What could go wrong?"

At first, I was upset that she hadn't even thought about my question properly. Then, I was reminded that people have been doing this for hundreds — no, thousands — of years. And there's no way that every time it was made, they had every single ingredient to make the perfect batch.

Think about how delightful sauerkraut can be using only two ingredients: cabbage and salt.

Don't get overwhelmed by trying to find all the right ingredients. Even if you just have cabbage and salt, you can create something amazing.