2022: A Year of Change

First of all, I know it’s Friday the 13th and the time for years in review is far behind us, but I’m evil, what can I say?

A collage of some of the places I went this year. From top left: Fireworks and the Statue of Liberty as seen from the prom boat, cool architecture, my friend’s book launch in Asheville, Chicago International Film Festival, the peak of Sandia Peak in Albuquerque, a mural from Des Moines, a La Dispute show, Yankee Stadium, and a Darren Aronofsky Master Class.

The only constant is change.

This is sometimes a difficult thing to remember as perennial societal issues bubble to the surface in a macabre game of whack-a-mole. In a decades-long Groundhog Day of progress and backlash, 2022 was a political dumpster fire. There are trans refugees within the United States as states chip away at trans life and liberty. Texas classified supporting trans kids as child abuse, and Florida removed Medicaid coverage for gender affirming care for trans people of all ages. There was at least one mass casualty event targeting queer people. Armed hotheads continue to show up to any event with “drag” in the title, and the Republicans took control of Congress in large part because the New York State Democratic Party dropped the ball royally. Elon Musk bought and destroyed Twitter, inflation skyrocketed, and natural disasters have gotten to an absurdist level–California is facing simultaneous drought and flooding. The more things change, the more they stay the same, right?

2022 was a year of significant change for me. Some of it was painful. Much of it was revelatory. All of it was necessary.

I started the year in Queens, finishing out the fourth year in a teaching contract at a public…