22 WAFFLING ABOUT 2023
Firstly, Happy New Year to you all! Oh and Merry Christmas! I had intended to write a little blog before all the festivities, but as is usually the way, life had me side-tracked. Turns out working full-time has made it a little trickier to find time to write. Silly old life! Nevertheless, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with plenty of cheap prosecco, bad jokes and dry turkey.
Secondly, I’d like to apologise. This blog is a load of waffle as I repeatedly make blindly obvious observations and attempt to bridge everything together using a few overriding lessons. I’ve not done this as seamlessly as I had imagined, but alas, lets begin.
Though 2023 did end near-enough three weeks ago, I thought I’d write a little reflective piece. Quite cliché, I know. However, I feel that on the fictional graph of important years in my life, 2023 was particularly noteworthy.
As the year came to an end, I got quite a few people saying: “oh this must’ve been the best year of your life!” Interestingly, such sentiments had never been expressed in previous years, which led me to have some big thoughts. If you can’t tell already, I tend to think quite a lot. I’d say on the spectrum from fairground goldfish to Aristotle, I generally lean towards the latter (please don’t take that as me in any way comparing myself to an ancient Greek polymath. No offense to him but I think we’re on different levels). Anyway, a result of my overthinking hobby is that when confronted with quite presumptive statements like “oh this must’ve been the best year of your life!”, I feel the need to ponder more deeply.
Was this the best year of my life?
Will I ever have a better year?
Ever so dramatic I know, but the truth is that 2023 was a funny old year. On the one hand it featured some major - quite difficult - changes that I’m sure some people will relate to; moving out (properly), gradually detaching from the university ‘bubble’, adjusting to not having the freedom university offers, adapting to working full time, friends going their separate ways etc. To be honest at times, it was quite a sad year.
On the other hand however, was my trip. It was by far the most amazing thing I’ve ever done and as much as the following sentence makes me want to throw up: I can’t really sum it up in words other than saying it was just incredible. Not only was I fortunate enough to do something I’ve always wanted to do and that most can only dream of doing, I got to do it with my favourite people. It will be a hard one to beat.
So all-in-all, 2023 had its highs, but it also certainly had its lows. It taught me some valuable things, some of which I’d like to write about here (at this point, please try to imagine a really, really bad TED Talk).
*Skip the next three paragraphs if you want to skip me complaining - I promise it gets more positive!!*
1) Enjoying your job is actually important - who’d have thunk it?
From January through to May, I found myself working at a solicitors in an attempt to do some serious saving for my European tour. This is where 2023 taught me my first lesson. Enjoying your job is actually really important. I’m aware that almost everyone reading (all two of you) will have heard the “it’s soooo important to enjoy your job” spiel about a million times. Regardless, I thought it was worth mentioning because this was something that was made completely clear to me last year. Thankfully I only worked in that hell hole (or rather, hell tower) for five months, but I realised that unfortunately, unless you’re the offspring of a Hollywood star or some investment banker, your whole life does revolve around working if you want to do anything or go anywhere.
Of course, I’m not a total idiot (don’t laugh). I’ve always known that you have to work hard to play hard and that very few people love their profession, but I didn’t understand the reality of truly hating a job. Some would say I was ignorant or naïve - perhaps so. Nevertheless, as most of my close friends/family will more than know, I despised that job and I was miserable for five months because of it. Ultimately that misery affected my whole life. I found it incredibly difficult to socialise (even more than I already do). I didn’t enjoy doing anything. It was affecting my relationship and my friendships. Even physically, I lost my appetite and developed skin infections.
Fortunately for me, not only did I have lots of supportive friends, family & Cam, I also had an end goal which I knew would be worth all the misery. This combination meant that I was able to finish my time there with money in the bank, and a new found appreciation for the importance of enjoying the 40 odd hours of work we’re required to do in order to do or buy the things we feel we need in order to enjoy life.
This leads me to my second lesson of 2023:
2) Always try to carry diarrhoea tablets.
I think the diarrhoea tablets in this instance serve as part of a strange parable I’m attempting. Let me explain… as some of you may recall, whilst on our trip last summer, Cam ran into some digestive problems which resulted in a rather insanitary faecal affair inside the van (any excuse to bring up Cam’s bowel issue).
Of course at the time, it was a pretty dire situation, but within a couple of hours, we were giggling about it. In fact, this is just one example of a number of times during the trip where life unexpectedly threw a curveball; thankfully we dodged any more substantial curveballs like crashing the van or accidentally joining a cult. Shit happens (if you pardon the pun) and I learnt that you’ve just got to see the funny side of things, regardless of the circumstance. The great saying ‘if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry’ springs to mind.
Basically, what I’m trying to say is that I’ve learnt to prioritise my stresses and appreciate what’s worth worrying about. Stressing about traffic will not get you to your destination any quicker (please appreciate the double meaning here). You can’t always forward plan (i.e. the diarrhoea tablets), but at the end of the day, everything will work itself out.
Once again, this brings me to my final, very important, lesson of 2023:
3) Just assume that everything will turn out fine, and then it should turn out fine…
I’ve come to realise that if you have the mentality of assuming that no matter what decision you make, everything will turn out fine, then surely it will turn out fine? I really don’t know what I’m trying to say here. Sorry.
So anyway… that’s it from wise old me today. Re-reading this, I realise that whilst I have actually written a decent amount, none of it actually means anything, which perhaps is a metaphor for life because at the end of the day, does anything really matter? I’m sorry, I will shut up now.
To finish, I wanted to provide a few song, book and film/TV show recommendations that kept me company in 2023.
Songs
“Bad Radio” - Leftfield, Tunde Adebimpe (2015). Excellent song to drive to.
“Blackbird” - Lisa O’Neill (2018). Tears.
“Sur la planche 2013” - La Femme (2013). Song of the summer!
“Black Steel” - Tricky, Martina Topley-Bird (1995). Just such an incredible song.
Films/TV
Slow Horses (Apple TV, 2022 -). If you watch any show in 2024, I beg that it’s Slow Horses. It’s one of the best shows I’ve seen in years -if not ever. It’s witty, it’s clever, it’s well-made, and it stars Gary Oldman for God’s sake! GET THE FREE TRIAL AND BINGE IT.
Bad Sisters (Apple TV, 2022). If you want to laugh for 10 hours straight, just plan a day to enjoy this gem.
Poor Things (2023). Arguably one of the best films I’ve ever seen. This shall not be the last you hear from me about this film, trust me. IT’S IN CINEMAS NOW. BOOK YOUR TICKETS NOW.
Saltburn - Emerald Fennell (2023) - Obviously I don’t need to write anything here. We all know it was great.
Books
Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus (2022). We all need this book in our lives. It’s inspiring, sometimes a little sad, but ultimately very wholesome.
Beneath Scarlet Sky - Mark T. Sullivan (2017). Based on a true story, here’s a book that will draw water from your eyes no matter where you are - I cried on a crowded beach in the south of France surrounded by screaming children.
A Short History of Europe - Simon Jenkins (2018). Bought in the station in Milan, this book taught me that there’s a lot missing from the secondary school history curriculum. It was genuinely fascinating and is really worth the read.
Anyway, thank you once again for reading my silly little blog and actually all your support throughout the year, I’ve really appreciated everyone’s messages and comments. If anyone does have any suggestions to improve the blogs (bar make them shorter and actually comprehensible), please feel free to drop me a message.
Here’s some of my favourite memories from 2023 :)
