What I'm Manifesting for Myself in 2024 🔮✨
my thoughts on resolutions, goals, hopes, & dreams - welcome back to The Slush Pile!
I can’t lie, y’all — as 2023 comes to a close and I return to you all with Issue 27 of The Slush Pile, I write with a profound sense of exhaustion. This year has been a lot, to say the least in every way that matters: professionally, personally, creatively. I felt myself changing, and the world with it, and not always in good ways. Some things happened this year that challenged me and my patience, my sense of worth, my motivation. I didn’t get to work on certain projects as much as I would’ve liked. I struggled to maintain a balance between my work and creative lives. Meanwhile, the world has proven again and again to be a place that doesn’t learn from itself, that is determined only to be violent and repetitive in its injustice and bloodshed. It’s been exhausting to carry on every day as though nothing is happening, yet take care of what’s happening in my own microcosm of the world.
And yet I remain ever hopeful. I still hold onto my dreams, my hopes, my visions for a year I hope will be different in the ways I can control. I’ve accomplished a lot this year and I’m looking forward to resting this month before life returns in full force in the form of grad school, a published book, and more writing. I always want the current year to be better than the last, and in many ways, it has been; in other ways, it’s been confusing and stressful. I want to make room for both the tiredness and excitement.
So without further ado, here’s what I did in 2023 and what I’m looking forward to in 2024—let’s get manifesting!
Looking Back
I’d say this was a huge year for me professionally, even more so than last year. Besides reading 88 books (I’m determined to meet my 100-book goal!) I got bylines in new outlets including De Los, Apartment Therapy, Heroica, and Them. I was able to interview incredible authors, many of whom I consider some of my all-time favorites, including Angie Cruz, Elizabeth Acevedo, Patricia Engel, and Melissa Lozada-Oliva, as well as up-and-comers Melania Luisa Marte, Lorraine Avila, and Marisa Tirado. I wrote a children’s picture book (soon to be published!). I performed my poetry and fiction at twelve events. I led four workshops. I was featured on a panel at a high school assembly. I traveled to a writing conference. I was in a nine-month writing mentorship program with author Melissa Rivero. I got into grad school. I did so much, and am so lucky to have had these opportunities offered to me and the time to seek out and advocate for such opportunities for myself. I couldn’t have asked for a better year or take for granted all the emails that made these amazing accomplishments happen (lol).
But like I said, this wasn’t an easy year either. Since the summer, I’ve been struggling with my mental health and the growing pains that come with raising a puppy in the world, all while trying to figure out how to balance my professional journalism work with my creative aspirations of working on my novel and next chapbooks (yes, that’s right, there’s plural!). In some ways, I’m trying to forgive myself for what I didn’t do, trying to reach a point where my creative life, and not watering it enough, isn’t a source of shame or guilt. The thing is, I love being a journalist. I love talking to people and uplifting their stories. I love getting my work published in news outlets in an immediate way. And I also love writing books and poetry and the long haul and timeline of publication. I don’t want to have to choose and, maybe I’m naïve, but I don’t think I should have to. I think there is a reality in which I can have both and live a life worth celebrating in all of its layers and nuances.
Looking Ahead
In 2024, I want to excel in grad school. I want to keep writing (and maybe publish?) my current chapbooks in progress. I want to keep breathing life into my novel in progress. I want to keep performing and lead more workshops. I want to read more books and be exposed to fantastic new writers. I want to become more patient. I want to learn more. I want to become more adventurous and risk-taking when it comes to my work. I want to become fearless.
But most of all, I want to keep writing and and writing more and celebrating myself and the work I do—whatever form or shape that takes—and I hope you all do too.
notes from the writer’s desk ✍️
my favorite recently pub’d pieces:
‘Romeo and Juliet: Rolling Through East L.A.’ gives former gang members a second chance, De Los
Ari Tison’s Debut Novel Explores Generational Trauma & Healing Within Indigenous Culture, HipLatina
Why the Downfall of the ‘Scream’ Franchise Feels So Personal, LatinaMedia.Co
Q+A With Angie Cruz, Author of “How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water”, LatinaMedia.Co
updates:
I’m so excited to announce the upcoming publication of my debut children’s book!! The book will spotlight past and present queer heroes from Latin America and the U.S. and is forthcoming from Jessica Kingsley Publishers. More info and details to come soon! In the meantime, please read this thread I wrote about the project.
The audiobooks for my self-published poetry chapbooks STREAMING SERVICE: golden shovels made for tv and STREAMING SERVICE: season two are OUT NOW! Experience my work on a different channel on Google Play now, with more retailers and platforms to come soon. If you still need your digital and/or signed physical copies, order from my shop site today! Thank you as always for your support :’)
resources:
Looking for book recommendations? Check out my Bookstagram and TikTok to keep up with what I’m reading and loving right now! On TikTok, you’ll also get more snippets of my everyday writing life and lifestyle/fashion content. See you there!
other stories i’m loving 📖
currently reading:
Flores and Miss Paula by Melissa Rivero
currently watching:
Ugly Betty S3
currently listening to:
“came to the party for you” by Lexi Jayde
all my love,
sofía xx
excited for your growth in 2024!! ✨ also, what a coincidence that my first book of 2024 was actually "How not to drown in a glass of water" -- i listened to the audiobook version & it had such beautiful storytelling. i enjoyed reading your q&a with the author :)