Hi to anyone who sees this. Hope this year was, at worst, tolerable. I've seen a number of other users here make a journal talking about the past year so I decided I'd do it to. I also decided I wanted to yap a little about goals for next year as well.

2025:
This year dad its ups and downs. So I guess just kinda a regular year overall?
The downs:
Learned some useful things through unpleasant experiences. I learned how a panic attack feels and how to manage it, I discovered a shellfish allergy, I found out how my body behaves without sleep for 24+ hours. Also as I write this, I have a cold, so that's a great way to end the year.

The ups: I feel like my art skills have grown well. I learned a bit more about how shading works and I learned what things like "Multiply" means. Been a bit more technical in my drawings as a result. I also noticed I've become a lot faster at sketching/anatomy, so I can spend more time crying and banging my head against a wall over shading. Outside of drawing, I also tried writing some short furry stories. Clearly nothing I felt was worthy of publishing given my gallery, but maybe someday I'll put up a story or two here.
Also I'd like to think I made my first furry friend this year, hooray. Only took like four years since joining the community lol. (I have some other friends who are furries, but we became friends before we told each other we were furries. What a beautiful coincidence.)
I also had my first proper trip since the pandemic (going to and from college does not count). I went to see family in Philadelphia which was a nice change of pace. A big highlight of the trip was the fluffy wild fox I saw :3 First time I've seen a red fox in real life, if you can believe it.

2026:
When it comes to drawing, I have some plans. I must practice drawing more feet/paws, it is my weakest drawing area by far. No more cheating by drawing only waist up pictures or finding some other way to hide the paws. I have a slight interest for paws so maybe we'll get a paws-focused drawing next year. I also want to do more sketchbook drawings (idk if these would be posted). It's said by some that using traditional mediums where you don't get infinite fixes helps define your art style. I'd like to define my style more since it feels random and inconsistent between drawings, to me at least. I also want to experiment more with different brush types in digital art. I've only ever used the default Krita brushes lol.

Another big thing for next year is I may move out of my parent's home. I have enjoyed the privilege of being a fully remote worker, but there is a good chance that policy will change to me being a hybrid worker. And I live over 50 miles from the office. Not a damn chance I do that commute regularly. While living alone will be much more expensive, I feel confident the benefits outweigh the costs. Privacy is a bit of a myth in the Rocky household, so being alone lets me be more free and cringe. But beyond that, most importantly, it might mean I can work towards my dream: gaining weight and becoming chubby!! Being alone means I can eat what I want and more importantly when I want. I am this close to crashing out every time someone asks why I'm eating a snack "so soon" after a meal. My work office has a gym, so I'm hoping it's good enough that I can exercise there to gain weight more healthily and also build some muscle. Maybe I'll end up a musclechub fox. I wouldn't mind that if that happened instead of becoming pure chub. I just wanna stop being skinny.

Even if it doesn't work out, I'm grateful that at least drawing my fursonas fat has been enough of an outlet for the dream. And I'm grateful for all of y'all enjoying those drawings too and watching this account. I draw with no expectations of getting any interactions since drawing's just meant to be a pastime for me, but it's nice to see someone's out there also appreciating the silly furry things I make.

If you read all of this, thank you for your time! Hope your 2026 is a better year!