Hello 2025!
Reflecting on 2024's highs and lows, plans for 2025, and seeking your input for future content.
As we all prepare for what’s to come this year - and the next four - there are already ridiculous things coming. Twitter/X continues to be a dumpster fire with Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Whatsapp) joining the fray by rolling back protections for marginalized groups and especially for LGBTQ+ folks.
Because of that, I’m going to start utilizing this newsletter more again. I’ll go more in-depth on the issues with our social media platforms & censorship in another edition.
This edition is focused on my 2024 wrap-up.
Table of contents
My 2024 highlights
Looking ahead
Something to make you laugh
What do you want to see more of?
My 2024 highlights
I finally tried Galactic Fried Chicken in the Cincinnati area. They have gluten-free fried chicken and fried pickles - two things I adore, but haven’t really been able to eat since fall 2012. I’m looking forward to more trips that direction of the state.
My partner and I got to spend a lot of time with family this year. It was really nice to be able to focus more on cultivating and sustaining those relationships.
We went to a couple of comedy shows this year, where we got to see some of our favorite funny people like River Butcher (pictured above), Tina Friml, and Christine & Xandy of Beach Too Sandy Water Too Wet.
I traveled to Atlanta in May and spoke at the Health Equity in Clinical Trials Congress about my experiences as a rare disease patient & patient advocate. It was a really great conference and I’m very grateful that I was able to attend, not only to speak but also to network and make more connections.
Most of you likely know that, while I was gone, our next-door neighbor and friend Corey passed away. There isn’t a day that I don’t think about him. I’m incredibly grateful for the way my community pulled together to help with things following his death, including getting his dog Josie to her new fur-ever home. I wish things happened under different circumstances, but it has also been so wonderful to get to know his family more. It’s both incredibly healing and something I know he would be so happy to see.
If you haven’t already, please take this as a sign to set up or update your end-of-life documents. Trust me - doing so will save your loved ones from having to make a lot of hard choices when they’re already dealing with grief and loss.
My partner and I went to GenCon, too. It was my first time attending and, between my health stuff and general safety, I was really nervous about it. But, I got to meet a few of my favorite people - like Amy Vorpahl, Jordon Brown, and Grant Howitt. I also read one of my poems at a poetry slam in front of world-renown horror and fiction writers, and it was really well received.
Despite being masked 98% of the time, we did both have our first bouts of COVID following GenCon. My partner fared pretty well! I wound up being positive for a little over three weeks. It also caused my Still’s Disease to flare-up in some nasty ways, and I’m really grateful that the local urgent care here has providers on-staff who know this condition.
I started some contract writing work, which I’ll share more about later in the year. I also got to host conversations about queerness and transness with some of my favorite organizations.
In late September, my partner and I traveled to the northeast. We had a family wedding to attend in the Adirondacks, and took time before then to visit friends who recently moved back to Maine.
Since I first visited in June 2021, I’ve loved the Adirondacks. That region of the world is something special and it’s very much felt like home. While we were driving back, we passed through a town called Webb… which happens to be my maternal grandma’s family name. I spent most of the drive back digging into ancestry on my phone, learning more about my family history in the area. It’s really fascinating and something I’m looking forward to sharing more in the future.
We got to see the aurora borealis a few times this year! I haven’t been able to see them before, and I feel so lucky to have seen them multiple time this year.
At the very end of 2024, there was also a pastel rainbow against a pink sky in our backyard.
Looking ahead
I don’t have much planned out for the year just yet. Perhaps the thing I’m most excited about is traveling. Many of you may know that I’m involved with an organization called OMERACT. It’s an international rheumatology-focused research non-profit focused on improving outcomes for patients with rheumatic conditions by developing tools and measurements for use in clinical trials. I’ve been fortunate enough to be involved with OMERACT since 2020, to have attended and spoken at the conference in 2023, and to serve both as a co-chair for the EDI group and on the organization’s Strategic Advisory Group. Our 2025 conference coming up is in Spain, which means I’ll be heading to Europe for the first time in May! If you have favorite spots in Barcelona or Madrid - or general international traveling tips - I’d love to hear about them.
Something to make you laugh
One of the things I’ll be focusing on in the next few years is ways of finding snippets of joy. I’ll be trying to end each newsletter with at least one thing to make you giggle or smile.
One of the shows on Dropout TV is called Game Changer, and often has prompts like this that the contestants have to complete. They’re often hilarious, just like this.
One of the shows on Dropout TV is called Game Changer, and usually has prompts like this that the contestants have to complete. They’re often hilarious.
There’s a great animator called DeepBlueInk who animates some of these as well.
DeepBlueInk also has a new original series called Deep Space Discounts that you might like. Here’s the trailer:
The first two episodes are incredibly funny and I highly suggest you check them out.
What do you want to see more of?
With me focusing more on cultivating this newsletter as a space for education and joy, I’d love to know what you want to see more of. What led you to sign up for this newsletter and what would bring you more value?
Feel free to hit ‘reply’ and let me know.
Love you. Mean it.
Grayson