One Year of Things You Otter Know
Looking back + a few thank you's + looking ahead
This is Ottavia Paluch and you’re reading Things You Otter Know for the last time in 2022. Sad!
ICYMI, my last post, which I think kinda slaps:
Listen. I said last week I was planning to send out a post before the year was up. But the last few days I’ve been thinking about writing that post only to get discouraged because I have no idea what to say.
The obvious (and very clichéd) way to start would be to talk about when I started this Substack, and I’m lazy as hell so that’s what we’ll be doing.
The beginning!
This Substack was officially launched on December 31st of 2021 but I consider January 2nd its actual birthday since that was when the first post went out. In 2023 January 2nd falls on a Monday. Which is when my posts usually get sent out. How convenient! I’m very excited for you to see it.
Now, about that first initial post—here it is, by the way—a lot has changed since I wrote that, eh? That first rush of subscribers that first week was so awesome. Every time I get an email from Substack saying someone new has subscribed, it makes my whole day.
I also mentioned how on the weeks when I wasn’t writing for the blog I would work on my poem stuff. Well. That did not materialize at all. I was even less productive poem-wise this year than I was last year, and last year was pretty friggin bad. I have maybe 10 unfinished first drafts rotting in untitled Google Docs somewhere that will never see the light of day because they’re untitled and therefore I won’t be able to find them.
My hope—one of my new year’s resolutions, really—is that I can get out of my poem slump and start spending some time writing and reading and submitting. Especially reading. I’ve spent the last few days perusing through UofT’s library catalogue, which I’m pretty sure is one of the biggest in North America (UofT perk!) and they have a ridiculous amount of books and poetry collections I’ve long wanted to read but haven’t because my local library branch doesn’t have them. Yeah. I want to read and write more in 2023. I wonder if that happens.
Speaking of writing more!
Some stats!
I spent part of yesterday digging into the TYOK archives and crunching some numbers. Here are some lovely TYOK graphs I Microsoft Excel made:
I wrote a grand total of 82,366 words for Things You Otter Know this year! Or an average of 2,745 words per post. That's so much more than I thought was possible. Next year I want 100k!
Overall, 30 posts were sent out this year, including the one you’re reading right now. I initially thought of TYOK as a bi-weekly thing, so I was expecting to write about that amount. I think I could’ve churned out something like 35 posts if I wasn’t so lazy. Next year!
So yeah. Words are great. But did those words translate into views?
Overall, just over 6,000 total. Not amazing. But let it be known I don’t write these for the views! In fact, quite the opposite.
We can totally smash that number next year though, right? Right?!
OT’s favourite posts (AKA reading recs for you!)
Figured this would be a fun little thing to stick into this year-end email. Out of the 30 posts I sent out this year, there are some that are total throwaways and then others that I spent way, waaaaay too much time on. But maybe that was a good thing. Idk. You tell me.
I have to start by talking about Significant Otters, the interview series that I launched on here back in June. That was a big turning point, both for me and for this Substack. I’ve only done four of them—Stella Lei., Jessica Kim, June Lin, and Daniel Liu—but they were all so fabulous and fun and y’all have responded to them really positively and I am so thankful for that. Stella’s interview was actually the most-viewed post of the year by a significant (get it?!) margin.
Shoutout to the one and only In Otter News column I sent out this year. It was kind of a banger, though.
Oh, the Otterbiographies! How could I forget?! Curious to hear which one’s your favourite: January, February, March, April, May, June, or July?
The few music posts I wrote this year were fun as hell to write but also took waaaay too long to write. I hope to write more next year even though the audience for them is very niche. I love writing about music because it’s basically me saying the same thing in 25 different ways, with said thing being “I love this band but their singer is annoying”. Here’s one about WWWY Fest. Here’s another about Glastonbury Fest.
The MCR one is always going to hold a special place in my heart. Every time I read it I get transported straight back to that beautiful September night. It still kinda makes me sad. Some of my best work from this year for sure.
The really, really, really long post about at the hearing in Brampton was a very memorable one, both to write and to experience. That whole week was quite honestly one of the highlights of my year. And at that time we didn’t know if our message was going to come across well to any of the MPPs that I spoke to. But guess what?! I haven’t mentioned this yet to y’all, but we actually kinda sorta technically WON?????
That screenshot comes from this official Ontario.ca press release. You see that highlighted bit about green standards? That’s what we were fighting for!!! THEY KEPT IT IN!!! I mean, sort of! It’s complicated.
Honestly, I couldn’t be prouder of my friends on the Future Majority team—we worked so hard to make this happen. The sky’s the limit for what young people in this province can achieve. I cannot wait to see what we do in 2023.
By the way! I didn’t know about this until I searched up my own name on the Ontario legislature website for funsies, but you can read everything I said during both rounds of questioning (that’s the part I still remember very little of because I was so freaking nervous). I don’t have video of it but the fact that I can read my own stream-of-consciousness responses is pretty awesome IMO. You can read all of it here—my blabbering starts on page HE-122.
It kinda blows my mind, tbh. Because now this stupid joke I came up with off the top of my head is going to go into the permanent record:
You know what, if that’s my legacy, I’m happy!
A few thank-yous
It’s been a crazy year for me in every aspect of the word. I turned 19 and got legally drunk. My family fought constantly. We moved to a new house on the other side of the city. I got into the university of my dreams, graduated high school, and then started attending that university of my dreams, or at least the cheaper, closer-to-home, not-as-good version of it. My grandfather passed away. I saw one of my favourite bands of all time in concert with two of my closest friends. I made a bunch of new friends, both in high school and in university and also on the FM team. I had absolutely delicious pizza. I did a lot of cleaning. I watched a lot of hockey. The Leafs broke my heart during the playoffs again. Argentina won the World Cup. I fell in love with Joyce Manor, the Replacements, and Paul Westerberg. I cried a few times to Elliott Smith. I wrote a bunch of things I hadn’t written before. My creative non-fiction prof thinks I’m brilliant. I missed a lot of busses. I interviewed the singer of one of my favourite local bands. I studied for a midterm the night before I wrote it. I stayed up late far too many times. I asked people to sign a petition. I delivered a speech and answered questions from 12 Ontario members of parliament and held my own and I’ve never been prouder of myself. I listened to nothing but The Car by Arctic Monkeys and Midnights by Taylor Swift for like a month straight. I had the time of my life in downtown Toronto. It was a big and beautiful and heartbreaking year for me. A very transitional year. But I survived. And I’m stronger now because of it.
Writing for and thinking about this Substack also made up a big chunk of my 2022. Which is why I’m not really sure what else to say other than THANK YOU a million times over. Thank you for reading Things You Otter Know. Your readership means everything to me. Without it, I’d be writing into a void, which would kinda make me sad.
Like, this place, if you’ll call it that, feels more like a community of friends than a general blog most days. And that was always my goal. I don’t want to be too detached from my readers. You’re the reason I do this. You caring makes me want to care even more than I already do. Some of you are twice my age and with MFAs! The fact that you think this Substack is worth your time blows my mind.
Thank you for reading all the way through some of my more ridiculously long posts, for hitting the occasional like and comment button, for taking screenshots of your favourite jokes, for sliding into my DMs talking about how good a Significant Otters interview was, the whole shebang. I don’t take any of that lightly. There are, last I checked, like 120-something of you here. Which isn’t a lot in the grand scheme of things, but it’s more than I was expecting to get in a year for sure. Thanks for being here and sticking around.
And I would’ve never guessed that a year after starting this project I’d still be banging out posts on a semi-regular basis. I usually give up on projects not long after I start them, so this is a big deal for me. But now I know I’ll be in this for the long haul. I want to produce stuff worthy of your attention every week. You trusted me to invade your inbox every week with emails that you would actually enjoy reading. I will do my best to hold up my part of the bargain.
I’m stoked to see what 2023 has in store for both myself and this Substack. You otter know that I’ll be back with a vengeance in 2023. Please share this place with your friends. Because the more Otters that are here, the more fun we’ll have, I can promise you that.
Happy New Year, Otters! Stay otterful!!!
🦦 —O— 🦦