Your failures in 2022

I spent all my time and money investing in a loveless relationship and a ridiculous lifestyle that didn't work out.

I prepared for almost a year to go mushroom hunting in the remote back woods of British Columbia. With my partner we bought a camper trailer, and a truck to tow it. We spent tens upon tens of thousands of dollars renovating this $2000 "bargain" of a camper. We destroyed four transmissions, went through three vehicles. We had to deal with water leaks, propane leaks, sewage leaks, mice, mold, electrical problems, problems with the furnace, the water system, basically everything that could go wrong did at some point. We faced constant unyielding stress upon stress for a year. Transmission dies while we're in town 30km from our camper, try to call tow trucks but it's a town of 1000 people and it's a holiday, end up having to walk back to camp, get stranded there without a vehicle 20km up a mountain on a washed out logging road. End up stuck there for a month while we wait for parts for our truck, having to carry an empty propane tank to the road, hitchhike to town, then do it all in reverse. Melting snow water to drink. Having to scramble to rent a truck to get us out of there before a huge snow storm would have locked us in there for the rest of the winter. Going to the campground who we called an hour earlier who assured us they have a spot, only to be told no, while we're towing all our possessions with a rented truck. It just keeps going, too. That was a pretty mild one. Later we were 40km down a different logging road, our rear brake caliper seized up, we're stuck in the middle of an active logging road. We were forced to break free by gunning the engine, destroying the brakes, leaving us stranded up a narrow winding dirt road going through the mountains, with sheer cliffs on one side, grades of ~20%, and no brakes. Oh, and giant logging trucks come barrelling down the road once an hour or so. Eventually we crept out in 4-low in 1st gear trying to keep our speed under 10kmph. We managed to find another mushroom picker with a welder and generator who was able to tack weld our caliper back in place, granting us the opportunity to break down somewhere else a couple days later.

So, long story short, I'll spare you the other dozen times we got stuck or stranded in the middle of nowhere, but suffice it to say this was at least a weekly occurrence. Breaking down all the time made it really difficult to pick mushrooms in the prime of the season, and what money we did make went straight back into the vehicle. We would have to make it up by going to higher elevation and chasing the last of the mushrooms.

That's when I had my injury. I was deep in the woods in a really remote area of BC, 100km in either direction between the nearest hospitals, and 50km in either direction before you get to any sort of town, which most people who live in BC have never heard of, and another 50km down dirt roads. I was climbing over a fallen log in the woods when I started to lose my balance. I fell off the log backwards, rotated 180° before landing on my right foot while still twisting. I managed to dislocate my hip and fracture my acetabulum in two places. I was only ~300m from the car, but there was absolutely no way for me to crawl that far up rocky slopes covered in fallen trees (morel mushrooms grow in burned forests, so the terrain is much worse than normal). In the biggest stroke of luck in my life it happened to be Canada Day, so there happened to be people camping and celebrating ~20km from my fall. In an even bigger stroke of luck, two of them were trained paramedics. Between my gf and 3 campers they were able to build a makeshift stretcher and carry me out to the vehicle so we could drive the 150km to the nearest hospital. It was almost 8 hours between my injury and actually getting triaged at the hospital. 10/10 pain. Would not recommend.

I was in the hospital for a week and a bit. I spent a month afterwards not really being able to leave bed much, and it was 2+ months before I could start to put any weight on that leg. My girlfriend and I were already under a ton of stress, and had sort-of broke up the day before my accident. Now she had to babysit me for months while I'm unable to move, let alone pick mushrooms. Needless to say that created resentment. We stuck it out a few more months. I was able to make a bit of money online, but she was constantly nagging me about not working, and starting to be outright cruel to me. I felt trapped, helpless. I couldn't leave, I couldn't walk. Even though I paid half of everything, the vehicles are under her name. I left with little more than my laptop and the clothes on my back. She kept everything I owned, but that's not enough. She still claims I owe her tens of thousands of dollars and is harassing me online to pay her for taking care of me. (even though I was on employment insurance and she wasn't working at the time, so I was paying for everything)

Anyway, from there I was super destitute and homeless. Managed to get back on my feet over the last few months. Started out with a piece of luggage and a couple blankets. Eventually managed to get my hands on a sleeping bag and tent. Then eventually ran into a kind old lady who wants to help by paying for a hostel while I get back on my feet. Since then I've found a job that I start in the new year. I'm getting my driver's license finally after all these years. Making some real progress now, but it really feels like I wasted the last two years.

Edit: changed distances to match reality better

This thread is real.

My partner of almost 2 years broke up in January and while we're good friends and everything, it's been an incredibly lonely year. I had to move to another city as I couldn't afford living in Copenhagen anymore. I have been here since May and I still do not know a single person. I was meant to start university in September of '21 but that failed due to a complete mental breakdown, so I have been unemployed since then - and will be for a long time to come, too. I just sit in my studio apartment 99% of the time and just try to pass the time and distract myself from my sad existence.

My mental health is awful. I have always had a difficult time with it, but 2022 was my most suicidal year yet and I had multiple episodes in which I thought that I should just do it. I went to the emergency psych ward in the middle of the night in July, even. While some of the staff there were okay, most of them just could not care less about their patients. I spoke to half a dozen nurses from the psych ward following that visit, and only 1 of them said anything remotely helpful - he shared his experience of having actually successfully killed himself, but paramedics resuscitated him. So now he tries to pay it forwards with his work. I only spoke to him once for 20-30 minutes over the phone but I deeply admire him.

As I said, my mental health is in the gutter and I've been on welfare which is almost not enough to scrape by. I relapsed after my partner broke up with me, and parts of my arm is completely fucked up with scars from cutting. I do get help but it's not enough...

Here's to a better 2023. Can't get much worse than 2022.

My mental health has suffered a lot this year thanks to many setbacks in my personal and work life.

I got back together with my ex back in January. She had apologised for ghosting me (for the second time) eighteen months ago without any kind of explanation, and I accepted her apology and agreed to go on as if nothing had happened. In retrospect, the relationship had red flags written all over it and I think that I was so desperate for a relationship that I wilfully ignored these red flags. She was often insistent on me paying for meals we had and our relationship had no physical or sexual intimacy whatsoever. During the 3 years on-and-off that we were actually together, we never had sex, we never kissed and it seemed like her plan was to make me wait for five years then have a baby with me.

Of course our relationship turned toxic and we broke up seven months later after I booked flights and an apartment to come on the girls' vacation she begged me to come on at short notice. Tried to remain her friend but she was still trying to commandeer my time and my wallet while I was abroad salvaging my expensive vacation into a solo trip. I found out later from a mutual friend that she uses guys.

Gave up on trying to find somebody else soon after because every dating app I used I was either getting zero matches or the people who I did match were either love scammers or were actually living on the other side of the planet hunting for a British boyfriend that could help them get a visa. Out of the two ladies I met afterwards, one immediately decided she just wanted to be friends while she spent most of our time hanging out swiping on and messaging dudes on Bumble instead of chatting to me, the other asked me about my previous ex then decided to be incredibly judgemental when I told her the story. Ghosted soon after.

Work is another major setback. I work as a Purchase Ledger Clerk for a big company. My employer has screwed me around so much with things like piling work on me, passing me over (with scathing feedback) for other roles I applied for. Fact that they know I'm on the spectrum could also make their actions discriminatory. They also made me wait 3 months after attending two interviews for an opportunity to shadow their management accounting team, only to then tell me the position no longer existed. Finding another job has been really hard, because my notice period is really long and few places are willing to even offer me an interview because of that. I literally failed 4 interviews with different companies for higher paying AP roles and just gave up.

The worst was when I raised burnout issues because they put me on a high volume subledger of essential suppliers (locums) with very short payment terms and a tendency to be hostile if they're not immediately paid. Having a locum who earns 3 to 5 times more per hour than you bombard your direct dial to the point of harassment because their 5 day old invoice hasn't been paid was a regular soul-destroying occurrence for me.

They brought in somebody with zero formal accountancy qualifications or experience to replace me, told me to train my replacement (training them has been like pulling teeth to say the least), then after moving me to another line of work, announced days later that they were hiring two extra people including a supervisor to pick up the work I used to do.

I wanted to launch a second magazine – about the US in general, this time – by September this year. :(

Wanted to "start a new chapter" with my health and begin jogging regularly, after moving to Saint Petersburg in late May. Went out to jog once, all in all. Still have the jogging sneakers with me.

Also wanted to restart modding for one of my favorite games. Had a new development paradigm and everything. Sure had a lot of cool ideas.

Mitigating circumstances or not, still wish I could've done it, or at least start properly.

I'm a Fatty McFatterson. I lost 35 pounds, then gained it all back and then some. Still, working from home should give me more time to work out now.

I don't know how much I weigh now. But I was starting to get a six-pack, I really was!

Failed to renew my expired passport due to procrastination. Gonna do it soon!

Also didn't travel anywhere interesting. Just visited family and went to local parks.

My mustache has not grown thick yet. Urrghhh!

I acquired more tools, machines, and parts this year, but I did very little with them and the cars that didn't run last year still don't run this year. Of the two main projects that I have in my sights, I'm really only short the wiring (short, get it?!) to get them running out of all the parts I did acquire.

Mental health is a bit unstable relative to prior years. Has been getting better as the youngest child ages, so looking up for 2023.

Destroyed my home server with some stupid mistakes. Luckily BTRFS was able to rebuild everything inside of a week, but it was touch and go there for a bit. Nothing too critical would have been lost, but still would have been a massive PITA.

Spent too much time online writing much ado about nothing.