35 Things To Look Forward To This Year

The NAA has been providing helpful resources to people with aphasia and caregivers for 35 years. Whether it’s connecting you to speech therapy in your area through our affiliate directory or hosting online events so you can meet other people with aphasia, the NAA has had your back. To celebrate, we’ve pulled together a few lists of 35 tips to mark our 35 years.

This list gives you 35 things to look forward to this year. Try them all, again and again.

1. The Queen’s platinum jubilee. Even if you can’t get to England, you can celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s 70th year as a monarch.
2. More weekly aphasia groups. We add new drop-in or ongoing groups to our schedule all the time. Check out the online calendar or go directly to the group’s page.
3. Two total lunar eclipses! There was a blood moon back in May, and another is coming up on November 22. The next total lunar eclipse will happen in 2025, so don’t miss this one.
4. Winners of the Barbara Martin Research Grants announced. We are announcing the winners of these $10,000 grants this month.
5. The World Cup. Soccer teams will meet for the big event in Qatar in November 2022.
6. More aphasia awareness. Last year, we served aphasia resources to 754,753 individuals. This year, we’re set to provide resources to even more people.
7. Upcoming movies. Whether you love summer blockbusters or wait for Oscar season, there are always great stories hitting the theater.
8. Your birthday. Everyone has a special day between now and Aphasia Awareness Month 2023.
9. Space exploration. NASA has several launches planned for 2022 or information coming back from previous missions. Of course, there are all the private space agencies as well.
10. New research. The NAA launched a new research portal to inform you of new studies and calls for participation. Other places to check for open studies are university-associated research hospitals.
11. Midterm elections. Get out and vote on November 8, 2022 because 469 seats are up for election in the U.S. Congress plus plenty of states are electing governors and other local positions.
12. More chats. If you haven’t already done so, join our monthly general Aphasia Cafe chat or PPA-only chat. That’s something to look forward to every month!
13. The metaverse. How will it change the aphasia world? Who knows, but we’re excited to give virtual and augmented reality a chance and see how it benefits people with aphasia.
14. More online connections. The NAA has been holding online discussion groups for years, but the pandemic has brought many other organizations onto the bandwagon. We keep a one-sheet of groups outside the NAA with online offerings.
15. Tour de France. It’s the first year of the Tour de France Femmes, a women’s race with full television coverage, too.
16. Your personal accomplishments. There is never a stopping point for improvement when it comes to aphasia. Everyone will hit personal goals this year, large and small.
17. Opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum. Head to Cairo after November 4, 2022 for the opening of a new museum that houses the final resting place of King Tutankhamen (100 years after his tomb’s discovery) and all of his artifacts.
18. More Ask the Experts. You have so many Ask the Expert webinars to look forward to because we hold one or two per month on everything from the emotional side of aphasia to advances in PPA research. If you miss a webinar, you can watch the taped version at the bottom of the landing page.
19. Walt Disney 100th anniversary. Disney 100 Years of Wonder kicks off in 2023.
20. New Snapshots. Like our monthly question sets? These surveys take the pulse of the aphasia community, and recent Snapshots have been looking back and comparing answers to a year ago. It’s interesting to see what has changed and what has stayed the same.
21. New books. We get excited each month for new books coming out. Join one of our book clubs — in English or Spanish — if you like to read.
22. New advances in aphasia treatments. There is always new research being done, and technology companies are looking at ways to use existing tools to make communication easier.
23. More affiliates. Our affiliate directory is constantly growing as is the number of people who use our directory. Last year, 54,113 people found services through our affiliate database. Will that number be larger this year?
24. Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down documentary. This CNN documentary will premiere on July 15, 2022.
25. New technology. New tools are developed daily — which ones will make communication better in 2023?
26. More advocacy. From Kitti Tong’s S.A.Y. Younger Aphasia Group to Tom Broussard’s Stroke Educator, Inc, people in the community are keeping aphasia in the public conversation.
27. Great conferences. IARC is happening soon, and the work at the conference will help the aphasia world in the year to come.
28. Aphasia cruises. Groups such as Aphasia Recovery Connection or Voices of Hope host aphasia cruises that travel all over the world.
29. New board member. The NAA has been growing the board, and new board members bring new ideas, changing the aphasia landscape.
30. Aphasia camps and intensive programs. We rounded up aphasia camps and ICAPs, and we hope you’re looking forward to intensive speech therapy if you need it this year.
31. Aphasia games. Last year, Aphasia Games for Health delivered fun speech games. We can’t wait to see what comes next.
32. New Year’s Day 2023. A new year is a new time to set new goals. Get excited about this upcoming date and make plans.
33. The NAA’s 35th anniversary. We’re only halfway through the year, and we still have many more things planned to celebrate our organization and community.
34. Next Aphasia Awareness Month. We do it bigger every year. What will we do in 2023?
35. The unknown. What makes the world an amazing place? You never know what’s going to happen next. We can’t wait to see where we are in the next 11 months when AAM rolls around again.