Show Me Your 2022 Vision Board!

This week my therapist told me she thought it’d be fun and helpful if I made a vision board for 2022. I kind of balked at first because I’m not very good at arts and crafts, and, like every normal person, I want my therapist to think I’m the coolest and most talented human being in the world (which is why I’ve only shared my favorite and highly edited personal essays with her so far). But then I remembered how cute Autostraddle Editor in Chief Carmen Phillips looked when she was making her Ultimate Skeptic’s Guide to Mood Boards back in 2018, and decided to give it a go. Worst case, it’d force me to fix the printer, which my wife has been asking me to do since last tax season. Best case, I’d learn something about myself — and my cats would get some good play time with the cap from the glue stick which they would inevitably steal and turn into a hockey puck.

The immediate problem I ran into is that, two years into Long Covid, I still don’t know, from day to day, what I’m capable of accomplishing. So it’s hard to set goals, because I’m afraid I’ll fail at them because my body will act out, and then won’t I feel worse than if I never even set any goals in the first place!? And, like, how do you dream for things in the middle of a pandemic that seems like it’s never going to end? Would I like to spend more time in greenspaces? I sure would! But I’m risking it all every time I got to the laundromat, or the pharmacy, and those are absolute necessities! How do you imagine great things when you don’t have control over basically anything, not even whether or not your blood’s going to cooperate on any given day and pump itself up into your brain so you can make words! How can I daydream of bigger things when the world keeps getting smaller and smaller? Also, how do you get an A+ on an assignment you have no experience with and who even am I if I don’t get an A+?

Well, APPARENTLY, the joke’s on me because grappling with all that was the entire point of asking me to make a vision board. Working through these questions is a lot less intimidating when you’re cutting out photos of Viola Davis at the same time. My therapist guessed it would take me two hours to do a vision board. It actually took me four days. But I am very proud of it, because what I learned in the process is that there’s still plenty of things I can dream about, reach for, and try to do and feel, even when I don’t have control over almost anything.

I also learned, once again, that there is truly no limit to my gayness. Here’s my vision board for 2022. I’d love to see yours too!

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Heather Hogan

Heather Hogan is an Autostraddle senior editor who lives in New York City with her wife, Stacy, and their cackle of rescued pets. She's a member of the Television Critics Association, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer critic. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Heather has written 1718 articles for us.

7 Comments

  1. I love this! Particularly your inclusion of the D&D ‘Heal’ spellcard, and the plaid (of course). This has inspired me to make a vision board of my own, thank you Heather!

  2. Love this and the chance to re-read Carmen’s how to post. I’ve never tried this, but it seems like an interesting activity to try as a family. Anyone ever tried gently forcing (encouraging?) a couple of teenagers into creating vision boards before they head off on their own?

  3. YES to this and this part got me in my gut: “How can I daydream of bigger things when the world keeps getting smaller and smaller?”

    i made one a couple of weeks ago (it could very well have been a few days ago time works differently here) *and* made one of just pretty famous people i like so i feel like our boards were supposed to have a conversation together! i have no idea how to upload a photo here so im just gonna link them both! (will the links work? who knows!)

    https://www.canva.com/design/DAEzwTPKiDc/Rwi4nI9U_CFLjnaxcr01Gw/view?utm_content=DAEzwTPKiDc&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=homepage_design_menu

    https://www.canva.com/design/DAEzxzeuSd0/pD8jYlxKSEd-eqyN_A4Q-Q/view?utm_content=DAEzxzeuSd0&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=homepage_design_menu

    • I love both of these!

      If you don’t mind, who is that white human in the bottom left corner with the short hair & a white tank, hand to their mouth? I resemble them and would love to look up more of their style. Actually, I’d love to know who everyone in that board is ’cause you’ve got fantastic taste!!

  4. Thanks to you both for sharing your vision boards! I made one once a few years ago and it still helps me sometimes when I imagine it…

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