['v'] jan Awa li kama sona

40 questions? ok

oh hey, this sounds like a fun thing to do.

i didn't have a lot of time to write this and did not think this deeply enough, so this will be updated randomly when i think of new things

1. What did you do this year that you’d never done before?

also this isn't the first time, but i think it is incredibly cool that i worked with older students in the newspaper club, despite being here longer than me some made a lot of mistakes (both formatting and writing, the teacher was sometimes the reason lol) and i was the student editor therefore i had to fix a lot of them and check what the students meant.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions?

i had none. so no. something that i remember wanting to do was a research project, does researching for hours to write a newspaper article count? but that isn't very satisfying, probly cuz i didn't do any follow ups. i also wanted to be conversational in both toki pona and esperanto (i memorized all the toki pona words and grammar before the start of 2025, and i was doing both tp and esperanto then) but now i am only conversational in toki pona.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

nope

4. Did anyone close to you die?

my grandpa. i think my body had beef with the funeral place, would never go again there.

5. What cities/states/countries did you visit?

did not go outside of korea, did not leave my city a lot. but let's see

6. What would you like to have next year that you lacked this year?

7. What date(s) from this year will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

2025-10-18, that was the day of my english hakwon's debate competition. hi again, team benefecal.

2025-08-09~10, suno pi toki pona. was the first suno pi toki pona i watched live. i could have been in HAFS MIMUN, they had the perfect topic for me (preservation of endangered and indigenous languages) but my parents were busy therefore they couldn't get me to yongin and i couldn't go there.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

i had an achievement???

there's the piano competition that i got first place in, unlike all the other competitions i was in this one was national. but that was right before i quit piano, so it doesn't really feel like something i am proud of.

in my mind, my biggest achievement is having the courage to go up to a teacher i didn't know and telling him i wanted to join the school newspaper club.

9. What was your biggest failure?

nothing really feels like a big failure to me, if i tried and failed something i tried and i could use it for growth so that's not a failure. if i didn't try and failed something it doesn't feel like a failure either, just natural consequences.

but there's one failure in particular i remember, which is my last piano competition. i was fine the day before, but the FUCKING PIANO BENCH WAS TOO LOW and despite my teacher telling me how to adjust the bench height THAT ONE WAS DIFFERENT! that gave me anxiety and i messed it up.

10. What other hardships did you face?

there were barely any external hardships, it's all my fault lol. except for that piano bench.

well i'll add more if i think more.

11. Did you suffer illness or injury?

apart from random colds and the flu, nope

12. What was the best thing you bought?

technically i chose it and my mom bought it but, a notebook with movable pages and indexes.

yes there are things that i bought while hanging out with my friends at daiso but i do not remember a single thing.

13. Whose behavior merited celebration?

my english teacher, he always inspires me to try new things and ask questions. as well as my favorite teacher at elementary school, she used to give me advice whenever i came to her classroom. and then there was a new principal at the elementary school who banned middle schoolers from entering the elementary school.

i don't think of her often but there's my piano teacher, always checking on me and giving me chances to start piano again. who knows maybe i'll be playng piano during vacation after camp. she taught me piano for 5 years after all.

14. Whose behavior made you appalled?

[redacted cuz i do not want to talk badly about a specific person i work with behind their back]

there's also my hakwon classmates who used to say uhh... stuff that is very inappropriate for minors. during class. but they said some funny things like 'UN stands for united states'. still i couldn't focus on my test cuz some people were saying some inappropriate things ughh.

and also my school classmates who are better than the hakwon ones.

15. Where did most of your money go?

because my mom bought most of my stuff this year, my money went on basically nothing, except hanging out with friends. those humans can basically burn that 50,000 won.

16. What did you get really, really, really excited about?'

suno pi toki pona and the debate competition.

17. What song will always remind you of this year?

mi lon tomo by jan Usawi, it released this year and it's just cool. coincidentally, it was also when i started to notice that queer people exist.

all the songs in kpop demon hunters but especially golden. it's been 3 years since i last cared about mainstream music. but as kpop demon hunters fades away from my brain, i will probly stop summoning it randomly and shut my doors on mainstream music again.

18. Compared to this time last year, are you: happier or sadder? Richer or poorer? Healthier or unhealthier?

happier or sadder? that question is as hard as 'what's your favorite food?' (it used to be very hard before 2025, then easy during 2025, then hard again recently) because i do not remember how happy i was last year, and i do not know how happy i am recently. like how is happiness even measured? well don't make me question and compare my happiness, it just exists and i hereby declare that i am pretty happy rn (?)

richer or poorer? idk

healthier or unhealthier? again idk, i think i am about the same

19. What do you wish you’d done more of?

this is a cool question i should be thinking more about. but rn i want to enjoy my hands just being able to write stuff off my head, so:

20. What do you wish you’d done less of?

21. How are you spending the holidays?

which holidays? (looks at date) ...oh.

22. Did you fall in love this year?

lol no.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

hate is a strong word, i don't wanna declare i hate someone cuz that will make my hate stronger. and if i dislike something i dislike their behavior, not the person... unless my cognitive bias chimes in.

24. What was your favorite show?

wait what is a show? like a tv show? like 예능? if it's 예능 i guess 전과자.

25. What was the best book you read?

지적 대화를 위한 넓고 얕은 지식 무한 by 채사장, i read it in januaryish, should reread it. honorable mentions are 수학의 숲을 걷다 and 수학자가 들려주는 진짜 논리 이야기 both by math professor 송용진, and the language instinct by steven pinker. those were all nonfiction, favorite fiction book is 빛의 구역 by 김준녕.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery of the year?

ZeWei. honorable mention to jan Usawi

27. What was your favorite film?

wicked.

28. What was your favorite meal?

it used to be a dish at emart traders named 닭반마리쌀국수. i am too lazy to look up so i will just use my current english vocab to say this: rice noodles with chicken. but i have realized that the specific dish at emart traders messes with my health and now i like regular vietnamese rice noodles. oh and i also like udon and japanese ramen. i had my first japanese ramen on chuseok and it was fantastic.

29. What did you want and get?

an eink tablet. i'm typing on it right now! as well, straight As at school and a conlang.

30. What did you want and not get?

31. What did you do on your birthday?

wait, i had a birthday?

my birthday was on lunar new year, so i did typical lunar new year things like my grandpa's funeral which i don't remember.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

either HAFS MIMUN or understanding math. ohh wait the most important thing: an attention span.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion this year?

OwO what's personal fashion?

i remember wearing two things: my school uniform and my non-school uniform. none of the details.

34. What kept you sane?

my jabnote and going outside alone. english hakwon and a high school kept me both sane and insane.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you admire the most?

i didn't have any public figures that i admired. does my former international school's student captain count? i don't think so.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?

people suddenly becoming far right, anti-lgbtq, and anti-immigrant which just means white supremacy, wdym america deported a native american? how would i be able to live anywhere without being a citizen at birth and rich?

digital surveiliance and queerphobia to 'protect the kids'. hi i'm a kid, kids have the right to be addicted the internet and free speech is important and queer people exist.

37. Who did you miss?

my former english hakwon teacher from australia, my former english hakwon best friend (aside from being the coolest kid i've ever met for discussions, she has lived in adelaide for a year and i totally need to get information about the west™ compared to korea), and that one hakwon friend who went to the US to study.

38. Who was the best new person you met?

my best friend at school rn

39. What valuable life lesson did you learn this year?

40. What is a quote that sums up your year?

if you don't know what to memorize for a test, memorize everything.

from my ethics teacher. advice that has helped me when i'm studying

Remember

Throw yourself off the metaphorical learning cliff

from mason. something i wanna do no matter what i do, studying school stuff, going on rabbit holes and projects, just living life.

I think we can all be adults, stand by our words and make mistakes in public.

from ava. inspired me to do new things that i thought i was unqualified at, like joining the newspaper club, (almost) running for school vice president, and emailing strangers.

#english #kokosila