December has just started with rain in State College. I think this happened last year as well, but everything since the end of fall semester senior year was a blur. For me, the pandemic did not cause the blur but helped accelerate the ticking motion on the clock. Here are the following months this year that I have no recollection of: January, March, April, June, July, August, and September. Ask me if I did anything fun during those months, I would say “I worked” and would be 100% correct even though that statement is only partially true.

Spotify’s yearly wrapped playlist for its patrons is out! I noticed when comparing my 2020 playlist and 2021 playlist, my most listened to genre swapped from the EDM-pop-dominated playlist of Chainsmokers to a Dance-pop playlist with Machine Gun Kelly (MGK). Just as I went back to listening to Taylor Swift on a daily basis two months before Fearless (Taylor’s Version), I also went back to Ed Sheeran and Maroon 5. While the two latter artists had released albums this year as well— Equals and JORDI respectively— they were only slightly above mediocre with some great parts and some bad parts. Aside from songs that are easy listening, I had shifted towards songs that were heavy on drums and electronic sound effects? Overall, I find it quite weird how my tastes changed. I still love The Chainsmokers, old and new, but being introduced to new artists has taken me on quite a trajectory this year. Here are my top artists in order: MGK, Taylor Swift, Lil Nas X, The Chainsmokers, Ed Sheeran.

This year, I became a book hoarder, and I am proud of it every time until I am reminded of how expensive it is to purchase physical books. The majority of the books I collected this year were related to sociology, psychology, leadership, and architecture. I have not touched fiction until two weeks ago when my copy of Victor Hugo’s Toilers of the Sea arrived. Since the beginning of the fall semester, I began to collect works on leadership, but this was influenced completely by PLA (Thank you! 🙂 ). However, the amount of books I gathered far exceeds my ability to finish reading them before the upcoming summer. It is a good problem to have, but a problem that I do not want to have. This is primarily caused by studio projects, which leave little time to indulge in works of writers— even those related to the project— so I complete most of my readings over the summer. 

Speaking of architecture, I was introduced to Kenzo Tange, who designed many renowned works in Japan such as the Yoyogi National Gymnasiums, Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. Unlike the other architects I explored this year, but like Bjarke Ingels from last year, I began buying books by them and about them. I have to admit, my liking of Tange’s works was a self-fulfilling prophecy. At first, it was borrowing from the library in Stuckeman and exploring a little with high expectations, and now I am strongly inclined to buy as many books as possible because I grew to think that I found a new obsession. At least this is a strong indication that I still enjoy immersing myself in architecture despite the endless fatigue. 

The year was not a waste— not at all. In 2022, there will be endless possibilities. Maybe I should make beating my 95,000+ minutes one of them?