my favourite little things of the past year (part I)

happy almost end to 2022! are you getting excited for a "New Me 2023"?

I've always loved the motivation that comes with a new year, a new solstice, or even just a new day. I think that I have room for improvement in so many areas, so I welcome the opportunity to reflect and change as needed with every fresh start given to me. "Time is a social construct", so I understand that although the New Year is just another day, I choose to make it special because it brings me joy.

This year I've decided to incorporate The Little Things mindset into my reflection of 2022 and compile a list of my Top 10 Little Things of the year. However, once I got into the rhythm of writing this list while the Caribbean sun beat on my legs, I ended up with 30+ favourite little things of the year! I've therefore decided to split this list into 3 separate posts.

Here are my first 10 Favourite Little Things in no particular order. Please let me know in the comments if they sparked any memories of your favourite Little Things of the year!

My Favourite Little Things of the Past Year Part I

1. The sound of my little niece's voice say "Kajaaaaa?" on the other side of my bedroom door. I returned to my hometown of Vancouver this summer and spent some of it in my family house that has been renovated to "grandmothering" (however it's my dad and his grandchild living under the same roof). The thing I miss the most about living in Vancouver long-term is watching my niece (who just turned two in November) grow up day-to-day. When she started calling me "Yaya" I thought I might start doing backflips! Soon she learned how to say the "K" at the the beginning of my name, and associating me with the different places I was staying throughout Vancouver. Even if I was working, I couldn't resist opening the door to that little voice wondering if I was around.

2. The smell of butter and flour wafting from bakeries in Paris, Italy, Los Angeles, Vancouver, New York, and Mexico. I've had the privilege of walking and running past bakery shops in five different countries this year, and they all smell totally different! I think this must have to do with the different food industries in each country that give a different smell of dairy and grain product. I have to say that France has won my heart this year in the pastry and bakery department smells!

3. Dancing with strangers again. The biggest thing I missed throughout the pandemic was going to concerts and singing and dancing with a large group of strangers! The communal ritual of singing and dancing goes back to our cavemen days, and I believe that no matter your religion or lackthereof, no one can deny the spiritual aspect of this phenomenon that lives in our bones. I would say that 2 out of my top 3 "clubbing" experiences of my life happened this year! The first was in the Moulin Rouge's underground club in Paris, and the second was a Taylor Swift dance party at the Brooklyn Bowl in Williamsburg. I could wax poetically about the two of these experiences that brought tears to my eyes (in a good way, I'm a Cancer Sun, after all).

4. Having a beautiful moment without thinking "I should share this on Instagram!" This is huge for me. Every time I experience something nice I always want to share the discovery with other people in hopes that it'll make their day better too! However, I really started to dislike that that was my first instinct instead of relishing in the present moment more. I've been off of Facebook for about 10 years, and have flip flopped on my Instagram commitment for the past 4 years. In November I swore off of it again, saying to myself that "I like life better without it." However, now I'm wondering if I want to get it back for 2023. I truly don't know. I could probably write a book on the pros and cons of both stances. Honestly, I identify with the Luddite Teenagers (thanks for the share, Fern!) and have the desire to exchange my iPhone for a flip phone, or no phone at all, and go completely analog.

I've also loved exchanging my smartphone time from social media to Duolingo , Libby, or a meditation app (Balance or Headspace) when I need a break. I notice how my brain changes when I go back on Instagram and I don't like it right now, but maybe that'll change. In the meantime, I'll just say that in the time I've been off, I've really enjoyed how my brain has switched to private, joyful moments that have made each experience feel richer somehow. The only thing I can maybe relate it to, is the fulfilling feeling of donating to a cause or doing a random act of kindness without telling a single soul that you've done it.

5. The anticipation of a first kiss with a new lover. You know that heart-stopping feeling when you know it's going to happen? That moment when you could step away, but instead you lean in? Yeah.

6. The tears of a drag queen. I can't tell you how many episodes of Drag Race I've sobbed over this year! I love cheering on my favourite drag queens when they reach their dreams or when they expose a vulnerable part of themselves. Due to my current job, I've had the pleasure of watching hours of this show and its spin-offs for “research”. Every time I feel shy and insecure, I remind myself to have the confidence of a drag queen and my timidness fades away. Slay, queens and kings!

7. The moment I accepted death on a plane. Three times. I’ve never been afraid of flying, but I think by now we know that my thought pattern is a little dramatic and always jumps to the worst possible situation. This June I was on a small plane from Florence to Paris with a staff shortage that led me to believe that it was the pilot's first day on the job with the amount of shaking this plane was doing. I took a deep breath and said to myself, "If I'm going to die, at least it's on a plane from Florence to Paris."

The second time was when I was taking off in an even smaller plane with my brother-in-law who had treated me to skydiving for my birthday! I was so hungover and dead inside that I wasn't scared, and just rationally thought, "I might die today." The jump out of the plane snapped me back to life and it turned out to just be a really beautiful experience. Would definitely do it again!

The third time was landing at LaGuardia Airport. We were flying SO close to the New York City skyscrapers that I was positive that we were going to crash into a one of them à la 9/11 style. My heart beat so hard and I was sweating buckets out of every pore imaginable. Again, I thought, "Well, at least I’ll die crashing into my favourite city!"

(Spoiler alert: I'm still here.)

8. Crying in the NYPL's Rose Room. This fall my last living grandparent passed away, and I spent the next day walking the entirety of Central Park in her honour, as nature was one of her biggest values in life. I ended the day with tired feet and a few hours before the musical adaptation of Almost Famous started, so I decided to seek refuge in the gorgeous Rose Room of the New York Public Library on 5th Avenue. I had a play called BFF by Anna Ziegler in my tote that a wonderful employee at The Drama Book Shop had recommended to me, honouring my outdated stamp cards that would award a free play! BFF was remarkable (I'd love to put it up one day), and gave me the exact catharsis I needed to process my grandma's death in a room that seems to stand still in time.

9. Observing the way my dad and sister walk through museums and galleries. Because I'm an actor and writer, I often find myself observing the people in museums and art galleries more than the art itself. I'm amused by the people who have obviously put a museum on their travel itinerary but don't seem to be absorbing any of the art, to the person who thinks a certain piece will look good on their Instagram and stare at the photo of the artwork on their phone more than piece IRL, to the teenager who is looking at an object centuries old like they are the very first person to understand the emotions the original artist was feeling themselves (*tear*).

When I was reunited with my family in Venice this Spring, our first stop was the Peggy Guggenheim gallery. This used to be her old house! I became mesmerized thinking about all of the parties she must've held, as well as intimate joys and heartbreaks she must've felt in the house I was walking through. Then I observed my dad and sister who walked through the home with great confidence and ease. It had been a while since I'd seen them, and I smiled with great satisfaction at the way they didn't linger on artwork they didn't want to, and then spent an “uncomfortable” amount of time on an artwork they loved. Being visual artists themselves, they weren’t formal and awkward about the weird “dos and don’ts” some people wear when they’re in a silent museum with strangers, or tempted to snarkily whisper the dreaded unoriginal commentary: “I could do that!”.

Sometimes my sister and dad would spend enough time at their favourite artwork that we would collectively end up meeting there, and they would describe to us what it was evoking in them. We’d laugh and marvel and discuss, and then I’d inappropriately digress, “do you think Peggy had sex in this room?” This comfortable ebb and flow of shared museum walking is something I had taken for granted and missed when walking through Paris’ Musée d'Orsay alone earlier in the year.

10. Dry skin becoming wet. That sounds really weird. Did you know that according to the theory of human evolution we all came from cells in the water? This has always made me curious of what aliens might look like who have evolved from other elements, such as fire. Anyways, my last little thing for Part I comes from my current daily ritual of submerging my head into the Caribbean Sea on my lunch breaks. The satisfying feeling of my hot body being drenched in cool water for the first dunk of the day sends my ancestors dancing.

Photos taken in Paris, N.Y.C., & L.A., Polaroid taken by Maleika Jeewanjee in Vancouver.