2022 In Review – Thank You, Friends!
“You can measure your worth by your dedication to your path, not by your successes or failures.” – Elizabeth Gilbert
Good morning, friends!
What a year 2022 has been!
It started with me working at a crypto exchange company feeling overwhelmed with a lack of support, ever-changing goals, tasks needing to get done immediately, and unforgiving timelines and expectations. Each day felt like a week of its own. Long and heavy.
Throughout it all, I had one wish that I’d share with close friends and family: “I want to do something else. I want to focus on Bitcoin but I don’t know what that looks like yet.”
These weren’t innocent words like I thought. They were potent and shape-shifting.
I was actively manifesting my own future because by mid-2022, I got laid off (thanks financial markets). Once again, I was reminded that the words I used were like swords carving through space and time. Creating a new world for me. I suppose energy obeys the rule of words.
Anyway, rather than get sad, I celebrated the lay-off (after all, it wasn’t my first rodeo. See here.)
I didn’t get back to a 9-5 job because I realized my world had become so small and finite under pressure. Unrecognizable to my free spirit. I felt like a lost soul swimming in a fish bowl, to paraphrase Pink Floyd.
So instead, I kept writing The Misfit newsletter and even launched The Misfit podcast! The podcast was not something I ever considered doing. It happened serendipitously and I’ve loved every moment of it! Fortunately, you’ve been enjoying it too (YAY!).
In addition to writing, I set off…
For four months, I traveled to Switzerland, the U.S., El Salvador, and Colombia. I met my beautiful God-daughter, cared for family members, went to my first Bitcoin conference (Adopting Bitcoin conference), visited coffee and cocoa plantations, swam in beaches, danced salsa way past my bed-time, learned Latin American history and reconnected with my Latin American roots… plus a whole lot more but I’ll save you some time.
While traveling, I made a conscious effort not to think. Not to figure things out. Not to plan a damn thing about life. To let the puzzle fall apart. And from the mess, to let my mind wonder. Surely, from the scattered pieces, I would find a new pattern, and possibly new answers, right?
I emptied myself in order to make space for whatever inspiration was floating around looking for a new home. Looking for a person who would not be haggard, running on empty, unready. Or too self-absorbed in self-judgment and doubt.
I wanted whatever creative and magical forces around me to know, I was ready to commit to a creative life.
As I near the end of my travels and the end of 2022, I do not have any answers. At least nothing concrete I could share. (How ironic.) And yet, I have a knowing that I have arrived.
I now sit at a desk overlooking the palm trees and the sea and the occasional birds that fly by. I feel present. Buzzing with energy, renewed faith, and bloated with new ideas for the newsletter and the podcast.
I want to continue down the path of The Misfit. To focus on it for the next while, writing more newsletters and publishing more episodes with more frequency. The truth is, The Misfit is the one place I do not betray myself. Where I roam free and at peace. And that’s how I know it’s my path.
It’s my fascination and my compulsion.
“Do whatever brings you to life, then. Follow your own fascinations, obsessions, and compulsions. Trust them. Create whatever causes a revolution in your heart.” – Elizabeth Gilbert
The greatest gift of 2022 has been receiving a kind word, comment, feedback and support from complete strangers, like yourselves. Except you’re not strangers, I consider you friends. Friends that I’m itching to meet one day! So, please don’t ever be shy to reach out!
Honestly, I can never thank you enough for your support and kindness – I mean that.
I hope you have an amazing 2023. Like 2022, there will be ups and downs. My hope is that when the down moments come, you will remember this: you are not small and finite. You are larger than your circumstances. Meant to be free and to roam and to take risks in order to live a creative life.
With love,
Ayelen xx
Below, I’ve compiled some of your favourite stories, podcast interviews, and articles that I’ve shared throughout the year. If you enjoyed them, please consider sharing them with your loved ones over the holiday break!
Your Favourite Misfit Stories:
Malek Zeyad: A Syrian Man’s Search for Hope and Financial Freedom
Andrés León: On Surviving in Venezuela & Seeking Asylum in the United States
Misfit Podcast Episodes (there’s only been three so far) :
Stacy Herbert: The Salvadoran Diaspora, Media Misrepresentation & Bitcoin as Hope (Spotify or Fountain)
Roman Martínez (Chimbera): El Salvador's "Collective Dream," Investing in Children, Hope House & Bitcoin (Spotify or Fountain)
Nozomi Hayase: The Dangers of CBDC’s & How Bitcoin Protects Our Humanity (Spotify or Fountain)
First YouTube Live:
The Ultimate 2022 Retrospective on Everything Bitcoin (thanks for having me Kinetic Finance)