Happy New Year and a warm Welcome Back to the Unbecoming blog! I know, I know, it’s been forever (nine months to be exact). But after a long, thoughtful, and very busy hiatus, I’m excited to get back to the blogging world and focus more on creating quality content (I promise I hope to keep!)
So what have I been up to in the last nine months? A little bit of everything, really. I traveled in the summer (visited my Grandma in St. Thomas), read a few good books in my free time (reviews coming soon), headed to back campus in the fall, and juggled all the demanding aspects of college life ’til early winter (which is still pretty fun).
Between all that, I discovered a few new hobbies. Among them is my most recent and currently strongest obsession; puzzles.
It started in the pandemic with a small 300-piece painting from the dollar store and has only grown since then. I’ve done 500-pieces, 700-pieces, and upwards (I’m running out of surfaces). For days on end, I’ll sort, categorize, and wrestle with individualized cardboard cutouts until they all come together in a beautiful, strangely cathartic masterpiece. Have I lost sleep over it? Yes. Am I ready to admit that this may be an extremely toxic and addictive habit? . . . I’ll get back to you on that.
The picture above shows my most recent completion (and currently my proudest accomplishment): a 750-piece still from one of my favorite Disney films, Tangled. With its multicolored flowers, dual-shaded pieces, and practically a MILLION flags, this bad boy took a whopping 72 straight hours to complete, but it was totally worth it!
In my many puzzling hours, I’ve found that (strangely) I’ve learned a lot from this hobby. In a way, puzzles teach us that all little frustrating pieces of life eventually fit together (once you look at them the right way)and that everything we need to create a masterpiece is right there in front of us.
But enough about me and puzzles! What have you been up to in the last few months? What are some of the hobbies or lessons you’ve learned in the last year, and what are your goals for 2022? Let me know below!
Unbecoming 