22 Things I Learned in 2022 (Full Version)

2022 was a year like no other for me.

I went through online classes at the beginning of the year, a summer of growth in the middle, and face-to-face classes towards the latter half of the year.

I didn’t expect to learn as much as I did. But as I did my reflection in my journal, I realized I was a completely different person before and during the beginning of the year in comparison to how I am now.

Everything I learned this year can be divided into four different categories:

• In Life
• In Socializing
• In Myself
• In Writing and Just Doing

So here are the 22 things I learned in 2022:

In Life

These were some fundamental things I learned that shaped my year and brought me to learn basically everything else on this list.

1.) I learned that the world isn’t going to end (not anytime soon)

There were several points in the year where I felt like the world was gonna end, I felt like I wanted it to end. Everything just became so overwhelming. I felt like I wouldn’t even reach this point. But, I’m writing this on the last day of 2022. I’m still here and still standing. Realizing this was huge for me during my reflection of this year. I made it

2.) I learned I was free to make mistakes

I’m a perfectionist, I admit it. It affected me to this grand scale, everything about how I lived my life took a hit. From small decisions to big decisions, I was anxious and worried. This lesson came to me slowly, with conversations I’ve had and things I’ve thought. And learning it helped me to finally overcome major obstacles and learn more of what’s on this list.

3.) I learned to try new things and explore

When I finally learned that I could make mistakes, I ended up learning this too. As a whole, it’s super hard for me to try new things, to stray away from my regulars and safe choices. But it’s because I learned to try new things that I ended up finding out how I could bond with my friends in different ways or do what I love and have it reach more eyes than my own.

In Socializing

2022 was gonna be the year I went back to face-to-face classes after more than two years of being online. During those two years, my social development was paused and the way I knew how to socialize was erased when the pandemic hit the reset button. It’s because of this that I learned all of these things during the year which helped me to connect with people on a whole other level.

4.) I re-learned how to make friends and talk to people.

When I was stuck at home and attending class on a computer, I didn’t make any friends. It’s hard for me to believe now that I was able to go through my first two years of high school like that. But when face-to-face classes started the latter half of this year, I knew that wasn’t an option anymore. The first two weeks were rough, but eventually I pulled myself together and I found my group.

5.) I learned how to listen and be more interested in people

Throughout elementary school, I had a problem of talking about myself constantly. In the summer of 2022, I finally decided to do something about it. I did know how to listen to people, but I didn’t know how to show it or how to go any further. I remember a couple TED Talks that became my guide and my big epiphany. And now, my conversations with people have become so much richer and my friendships became more meaningful.

6.) I learned how to be more confident around people

I used to always say that I was confident on the stage speaking in front of hundreds of people, but I couldn’t handle myself in a conversation with four or less people. I learned how to become more comfortable with people and just more comfortable with myself, which helped me learn to boost my confidence in casual conversation.

7.) I learned how to set boundaries

My first year back in high school, there were a lot more dramas than I’d expected. We may be older I guess, but we are still kids in a way and, of course, it’s high school. Through the chaos, I found myself always adjusting to other people even if it was detrimental to myself and my mental wellbeing. I had to learn to put my foot down, it was hard. But ultimately, everything worked out for the better.

In Myself

The summer of 2022 was a huge, huge period of growth for me. I truly made an effort to better myself, and to just be better. Part of that was task management and habits (which appear later in this list), but another part of that was also just my mental state and my attitude towards every day life. I didn’t expect it to have a big impact, but at this point in time I can tell you these were some of the most important things I learned which I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

8.) I learned how to have a better, more positive mindset

For most of my life, I was a pessimist. I thought that having a positive mindset was to be one of those people who believed the world was all sunshine and rainbows. Well, I can tell you, it’s not. Learning to have a positive mindset is an ever-continuing journey, but setting the intention that this is something you wanna accomplish is how to start, and that’s what I did this year.

9.) I learned how to be grateful for the little things

Ever since I was a young kid, my mom had us take part in this gratitude practice where we would write on a sticky note what we were thankful for every day. And when I restarted my journaling practice, I made sure to dedicate a section to list down everything I was grateful for that day. It wasn’t until this year that I realized just how impactful expressing gratitude was for the small things, like waking up or just feeling well. It contributed so much to my mental wellbeing and changed the way I interact with the world.

10.) I learned how to take action and actually improve the things I noticed about myself

Self-awareness was something I didn’t struggle with. I was hyper-aware of my thoughts and actions. The thing was, I did nothing with it, I didn’t use it to improve myself. And it’s funny because I was aware of that too. Well, during the summer of 2022, I finally decided to tackle this part of me as well. It was life-changing, especially when it came to socializing. I learned something new every day, and every day, I did my best to do something better.

11.) I learned how to accept and be ‘more myself’ with other people

Writing was actually something I’d hide from my friends and people I knew. I used to hide basically everything about myself and follow the trend. That was how I was for all of elementary. So when I had the chance to reinvent myself during my first year of face-to-face classes this year, I slowly but surely shared parts of myself I never shared before. And it was the best thing I ever did.

12.) I learned how to expel my negative thoughts

This one was a big one for me. Despite the fact that I did learn how to have a more positive outlook, the negative thoughts will always be there. For a while, I didn’t know how to cope or how to deal with these thoughts. I ended up bottling everything up, which absolutely didn’t work at all. This year, I learned how to write everything I felt, into a journal or just on a note. It did wonders for me, and I can’t believe I didn’t think of it sooner.

In Writing and Just Doing

Throughout this year, I went through several different changes in how I wanted to express myself creatively and put myself out into the world. In order to accomplish any of these goals I had, I also had to figure out how to break things down and define exactly what I needed to do. These are what I learned:

13.) I learned how to build and follow habits

Habit building was a completely new concept to me. I had no idea that this was a thing. I went through several different approaches. I built trackers to help me figure things out. I’ve gone through a ton of different routines, and there was huge period of transition when I started going to school again. Now, I’m no way near perfect or consistent in everything that I do, but I’m slowly figuring out my rhythm and it has improved my every day life so much.

14.) I learned how to organize my tasks

When I broke down my goals and aspirations, I was left with all these little tasks that could help me progress and move the needle. I couldn’t just store these in my head or continue on without some sort of plan. I discovered this year all of these methods of task management that I didn’t know existed, and learning this helped me greatly when it came to my school tasks as well.

15.) I learned how to utilize systems (i.e. software) to help me achieve my goals

In my quest of task management and habit building, I discovered plenty of software and systems, like Notion and Evernote or Tiago Forte’s Second Brain and David Allen’s GTD, that could streamline the whole thing. It was a learning curve, but eventually I was able to put together a system that worked for me and adapt when my needs changed.

16.) I learned how to study better

In preparation for school, I decided to dive into the rabbit hole of study methods. I have to be honest, I didn’t really know much about spaced repetition, interleaving, or flash cards. I didn’t know there was any way to study other than simply reading the text book. I’m really glad that I did this because it has helped me to get better grades and discover a passion for learning I didn’t know I had.

17.) I learned how to ‘take notes’

Speaking of Tiago Forte’s Second Brain, this was the year I learned extensively about notetaking, how it was so much more than that thing I did just for school. I rarely if ever took note of the things I’d consume or the things that inspired me, maybe a bookmark but that was it. Learning to properly take notes and find the right method for me helped me to actually recall the things I read and take action on the new ideas I learned.

18.) I learned how to make the most of what I read

Because I learned a new way to take notes, I also gained a different perspective on how I read things, in how I consumed content. I feel like I wasn’t really absorbing what I was reading nor making any attempts to connect it to something within myself. I viewed content purely for mindless entertainment and not for any sort of enlightenment or learning. And now, I see opportunities to learn and to gain new perspectives from basically everything I read.

19.) I learned how to write stories

This was the year that I decided to take writing a little more seriously. I recall searching up videos on YouTube and taking courses on writing. I learned that there was way more to writing stories than just a beginning, middle, and end. There were many technical things about it that I wasn’t aware of in the beginning. Learning these were necessary to developing and evolving my writing technique.

20.) I learned how to clearly analyze and synthesize my ideas

I had all these thoughts floating around in my brain. I just didn’t know what to do with them. Eventually, I started writing these things down in Twitter threads and notes in Evernote. Unknowingly, it became this kind of practice that helped me to think more clearly and break down my thoughts into ideas i could expand even further.

21.) I learned how to take my ideas and turn them into something ‘more’

After I learned to break down my thoughts, I had to learn how to expand my ideas. I figured out which parts of it I could write more about and how it all connected to the bigger picture. It’s difficult to make concrete what ‘something more’ is, but I define it is something that you can read and trigger this big explosion of brand new thoughts and ideas.

22.) I learned how to share my thoughts and ideas

Sharing your thoughts and ideas wasn’t as simple as I thought it was. Yes, you could just take something you wrote and share it with the world. But oftentimes, I failed to acknowledge the fact that other people would be reading what I wrote, and the message just wasn’t clear. I had to look at writing from an entirely different angle, where I wasn’t just writing for myself, I was writing for other people who could hopefully take something from it and connect it with their own ideas.

In conclusion, 2022 was a year of growth for me. I tried so many things and in the process, I learned a lot. All of these items on the list can be expanded into their own little stories.

I don’t think this list begins to capture the true growth that I went through during the year, and making it did help me to reflect on the things I did which will guide me to another year of growth and change for 2023.

22 Things I Learned in 2022 (Short Version): https://medium.com/@jamainegatbonton/22-things-i-learned-in-2022-short-version-b5c0785c4c78

3 things I learned in Life: https://medium.com/@jamainegatbonton/3-things-i-learned-in-life-22-things-i-learned-in-2022-1e929d0c8814

4 things I learned in Socializing: https://medium.com/@jamainegatbonton/4-things-i-learned-in-socializing-22-things-i-learned-in-2022-7a31047c019a

5 things I learned in Myself: https://medium.com/@jamainegatbonton/5-things-i-learned-in-myself-22-things-i-learned-in-2022-6ccb67c9c364

10 things I learned in Writing and Just Doing: https://medium.com/@jamainegatbonton/10-things-i-learned-in-writing-and-just-doing-22-things-i-learned-in-2022-fbb8a56290cb

[Thanks for reading!]