Year In One Word
“I think I’ll choose ‘BODACIOUS’!” It was more of a halfhearted joke when I wrote that in one of the many discord servers I was a member of. This particular group was “Cozy Stationery Friends Club”’ created by the wonderful @GNOMEDIC. Gnome, as we affectionately refer to him, is an amazing creator, community builder, and pen enthusiast. He’s also the person who introduced me to the concept of a year in one word. Each year, you choose a word that is to be the focal point; a guiding star that all your actions can come back to. It seemed easy enough in theory, as these things often do.
Why did I initially pick ‘bodacious’? Aside from the fact that I have the word tattooed across my stomach in big, bold letters? Well, it’s a fun word! According to Merriam-Webster, it’s an adjective that means “ outright, unmistakable, noteworthy, remarkable, voluptuous, and sexy”. Sounded like a good enough word for 2026. My use of it might’ve gotten a chuckle out of a few CSFC members, at least. So, that’s what it was...for a solid two weeks.
Two days before New Years Eve, I started rethinking this choice. I was reminded of the phrase “May you live in interesting times”. Well, the past several years had certainly been interesting, noteworthy, and remarkable in the most horrid of ways; if one took a look around at all at how things were going anyway. Whether it was in my own personal sphere or on a global scale: things were pretty much shit. So no, maybe I didn’t want this year to be ‘bodacious’. Maybe I wanted a quieter year.
So, I sat a mulled over some of my favorite words. Surely one of them would work for 2026. I needed something that invited a level of calm control without abject tedium. ‘Chronicle’ had potential; “a historical account of events arranged in order of time usually without analysis or interpretation”. Pro wise, it’d give me an excuse to feed into my journaling hobby. Con wise, it sounded a little lackluster in the entertainment department. I would already be writing in a journal, because that’s just what I did. So, a word that I’d done, am doing, and would most likely continue doing didn’t fit.
‘Augment’ popped into my mind next. “To make greater, more numerous, larger, or more intense”. Go big, or go home right? Maybe I could build off what I had already been doing. I could make it better and bigger and...was that even what I wanted? That one was conjuring images of a critical mass type of explosion; of an overwhelm that I didn’t necessarily need in my life. I needed an approach that was more reps with less weight. This word got nixed too.
At that point, I was feeling pretty bummed. Turns out trying to label 365 days of your life around a central theme before it even happened was not the easy jaunt I had assumed it’d be. I had to explore alternative methods, or I’d end up in a rut prior to starting. Then, it hit me right in the dopamine producing center of my brain. “Explore”. A word that means “to travel over new territory for adventure or discovery”. That could work! It had a certain je ne sais quoi; a real fuck around and find out quality that drew my attention. More importantly, it was a word that felt like it didn’t have me set in stone. I could putter around, get messy, and figure things out on the fly.
Let’s explore 2026 and see what nonsense I can get myself into!