I was a relatively early adopter of National Novel Writing Month (now known as NaNoWriMo). I made my first attempt at the challenge in 2001. Over the next several years, my participation waxed and waned, but I finally reached my first official 50,000-word success in 2017. (I had previously won with self-defined goals a couple of times.)
By that time I’d become a semi-active member of NaNoLanta, and I still have a small stuffed panda in my writing area with a collar that says “Writing is My Superpower.” I won again in 2018, but by then some other parts of my life were changing and I was becoming far less involved with NaNoLanta. I participated in 2019 and 2020, but I did not win.
And then came 2021.