Happy New Year’s Eve! 2020 has been a year of hell on Earth for pretty much everyone. So, I’m not going to spend much time reflecting on it, rather I’m going to spend most of this post focusing on moving forward.
This year was rough for me for many reasons, but also positive in some ways.
To start off the year, I was publicly outed on Twitter by a close friend. You can read more about that here. I won’t go into too any detail here other than linking to what I’ve already said because the whole experience was really traumatic and I don’t have the emotional capacity to rehash that right now.
Then, the pandemic hit, which has sucked for pretty much everybody around the world, but especially in the US due to mismanagement by Trump. And the fact that it’s still going on doesn’t help. I can’t even remember pre-pandemic life anymore. And it’s exhausting.
During Pride Month, I was targeted by the Operation Pridefall group (post about that here) and that really shook me up. It was my first pride out and the group was posting and DMing horrific images and homophobic things to LGBTQ people.
In the middle of all of that, I was forced to deal with (what we now know as) worsening arthritis pain. At the time, my back “just hurt” and I was brushed off by every medical professional that I came into contact with. I have a theory that ever since my back started hurting 3 years ago, this arthritis has been building up. About a month or two ago, I finally persuaded my PCP to write me a rheumatology referral where it was confirmed that I have juvenile idiopathic arthritis, more specifically spondyloarthritis and sacroiliitis (once again, big post here). My rheumatologist is awesome, though, and has now gotten me on a set of medications that are helping to manage the pain and slow down the progression.
During all of this, I’ve built up and expanded my advocacy on Twitter. Twitter is my space to get the word out easily to people about disability and LGBTQ issues and boost other disabled people who advocate or need help. I had about 100 followers back at the start of this year if I remember correctly. I now have almost 900. The amount of support I have gotten is ridiculous and I will never be able to express how grateful I am for each one of you.
Another positive is that I’ve recently launched my first book, Camden’s Secret on Amazon! I’d been working on CS since 2019 and had no intention of ever publishing it initially, but I decided back in Oct that I should so that I can build up a base for my books on Amazon and Goodreads. I’m so excited that it’s finally out, and you can find more info on it here.
I’m excited and relieved that 2020 is almost over. For 2021, instead of resolutions, I’ve developed a set of goals that I want to achieve before the year is over.
- Complete writing on Sevan: A Gay, Disabled Romance and publish by June.
- Podcast on a more consistent basis.
- Write one blog post per day.
- Continue writing my poetry collection with at least one poem per day.
- Sell 50 copies of Camden’s Secret (buy one here, subtle plug).
- Hit 1k followers on Twitter and continue to expand my advocacy.
- Learn to drive.
- Get my arthritis to a manageable level.
- Take the ACT and make a 23 or higher.
Thanks for reading this far and I hope you’ll join me on my journey to meet those goals. Happy New Year!
Derek I. Schmitz 