2024 Rewind

postcards, performances, possibilities

I spent my last three days of December furiously reading to complete my annual Goodreads reading challenge instead of writing this year-end reflection… which is why you’re receiving this at 10:32pm ET on 12/31. But none of you will read it immediately anyway, so it’s ok.

Now you might ask, Cat why didn’t you do either of those things before 12/29? This is an excellent question that I don’t have an answer for. (Shoutout to my friend Isabelle who sent her year-end recap email in November; when I grow up I aspire to have my life together like she does.)

Thank you to the 7.3 of you who read my annual reflection — I am indescribably grateful. I’ll remind you again at the end, but I’d love for you to reply with a quick update from your life, especially if I haven’t seen you in a while!

2024

Last year, I wrote that I wanted to be more intentional about my learning and growth. This year I decided to see just how far I could push myself in twelve months as a stand-up comedian — it has certainly been a roller-coaster ride. I performed all over NYC (yes, even Staten Island), landed a residency at a comedy club, and got into my first comedy festival! Along the way, I said goodbye to old material when new bits outshined them (bittersweet but worth it) and figured out how to tweak my jokes for different audiences in new cities (including San Francisco and Singapore!). But undoubtedly the best part has been meeting so many ridiculously talented comedians and writers who made the journey even better.

left: Filipino Comedy Festival; right: San Francisco Tech Week

One touching moment in particular stuck with me — someone in the audience messaged me after a show to thank me for a joke I made about Asian American hate crimes in New York. They said it felt healing, which hit me harder than any laugh ever could. When I started doing stand-up, my goal was simple: bring a little more joy into the world. But over time, I’ve realized comedy can resonate in ways far beyond just laughter.

Performing has also helped me grow and heal in ways I never saw coming. It’s wild to think that almost three years ago, introverted me decided to give this whole stand-up thing a try. Grateful doesn’t even begin to cover it.

Stand-up comedy taught me to lean into the unexpected, and this year kept that theme alive with a string of firsts:

• I mentored an intern — a surprisingly rewarding experience that taught me just as much as I hope I was able to share with them.

• I watched the NY Liberty win their first franchise championship at the WNBA Finals, in overtime of the last game!

  • Which is balanced out by: I threw up watching my 49ers choke in overtime of the Super Bowl… while the broadcast cut to Taylor Swift every 12 seconds…

• My coworkers and I solved a lateral thinking puzzle in a diner at 1am. We had negative brain cells.

• I attended a 4th of July party on October 19th 🦅

• I now live with a cat. She adds so much random chaos to my life. I love her.

I spent much of my free time this year wandering through museums, libraries, bookstores, parks, and gardens — sometimes with friends, sometimes on my own. There’s something grounding about the quiet magic of flipping through paper books or getting lost standing in front of art you don’t understand that pixels on a screen just can’t replicate. I turned off most notifications on my phone and all notifications on my watch. I sent stacks of handwritten postcards to my friends — tiny, tangible slices of connection that felt more thoughtful, both to send and (hopefully) to receive. These small changes made my year feel more intentional, more anchored, and just a little bit slower in the best way.

hello from the Met Cloisters!

2024 Wrapped

📚 Read 24 books
🎭 Saw 35 live theater performances
🧋 Consumed 10 boba drinks (↑ by 2 from 2023, ↓ by 11 from 2022)
📍 Visited libraries in 7 cities
🛸 Spent a total of 4 days and 19 hours flying

Incomplete list of things I enjoyed in 2024:

• Books: The Great Gatsby; And Then There Were None; How Will You Measure Your Life; The Midnight Library; We All Want Impossible Things

• Movies: Didi (2024); The Big Sick (2017); Saving Face (2004); My Cousin Vinny (1992); The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

• TV shows: Fleabag; Derry Girls; Veep; Schitt’s Creek; Later, I Laughed (a Chinese drama about stand-up comedy)

• Theater: Maybe Happy Ending (Broadway); Hello, Dolly! (West End); Suffs (Broadway); The Mousetrap (West End); Galileo (Berkeley Repertory Theatre)

• Museums: New York Transit Museum (Brooklyn); M+ (Hong Kong); National Museum of African American History and Culture (Washington DC); Escher in the Palace (Hague, Netherlands); Asian Art Museum (San Francisco)

• Random apps/tools: OldRoll; Flighty (it’s iOS only 😭); this terminal command to make your Mac keyboard go realllllllllllllllllly fast (use at your own peril)

2025

If 2024’s theme was intention, 2025’s will be exploration. I’m ready to dive into new beginnings, to embrace the unknown and challenge myself in ways I haven’t before. I’m excited to explore a new city when I move out of New York. It will be a year of pushing myself further and discovering new paths I’ve yet to walk — I’m excited to see what adventures await me in the new year.

2025 is an exceptionally beautiful number! As per tradition:

Original tweet here

(Extra credit for anyone who actually made it to the end of this email: Is it possible to use each digit 4 times and 5 times? If so, lmk how you calculate them!)

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If you have 30 seconds to spare, I’d love if you could reply this email (or in the comments) with a quick note about where you are in the world today, 1 highlight from 2024, and 1 thing you’re excited for in 2025.

Happy new year everyone, and may the Force be with you in 2025!