Welcome to 2024

Happy Not-So-New-Anymore Year! How have you been? How was your Christmas? I’d caught that viral thing that’s been going around right on top of mine, so it was as good as it could be with no voice, running on no sleep, and throwing up. I am hoping to leave the illness in 2023, it did leave me on New Year’s Day which I am hoping is a good omen. That was one of my resolutions this year: get ill less. I am very prone to every cold and sick bug that crosses my path, but it was 2023 where I think I had something at least once a month, which is a lot compared to my usual summer cold and winter cold. Of course, with this, comes every other cliché resolution; eat better, exercise, arguably go outside less because I am sure it’s public transport that is ruining my immune system, but I think I’ll be ignoring that one.

I have high hopes for 2024. I think I said the same thing about 2023 but really, that year was good. This year I want to focus more on myself. I have been eating more fruit, my chocolate consumption has been minimal which is very impressive actually. The exercise is pending, but little steps, and I really need to learn to give less shits.

I’m a very sensitive person, I always have been. I cry at a lot, I care very deeply, and a lot of times that fucks me over. I have lost contact with a lot of friends in 2023, although I have gained some good ones in the people I work with. I am still unsure whether this losing friends thing is because of me or because of them. It is obviously so easy to be biased in that respect, to believe the issue lies with them. It sucks, losing these friends I did think I’d have forever. I’m not particularly good at keeping friends as it is, the reason for this I am unsure of, but I didn’t think I would be sat staring at my blank home screen on my 20th birthday waiting for wishes to my twenties from my friends that didn’t come. That struck something in me I think, if these people I have known for years cannot remember my birthday, or simply cannot be bothered to message me to wish me happy on that day, what is the point in trying in return? I have always been in the mindset of why should I be the one to make all the effort? And maybe, yes in a couple of cases there was mutual effort, but being left on read mid conversation for a month and a half or too many seven text exchange conversations where it feels more like a formality than a friendship before three months goes by and you have heard nothing, you start to wonder why you are even bothering.

This is what I mean, I want to focus on me this year. Protect myself from this endless loop of platonic heartbreak I have been spinning in my entire life. I have crammed seeing who I can into this last week of the Christmas holidays, and it has been so so nice. It’s the first time in a long while where I haven’t felt like I am completely alone outside of my relationship. Granted, as my University starts up again for semester two, they too move back to their respective cities, their schedules never matching mine, and I am sure the feeling will start to creep back in again.

University is going well this time around. I’m actually excited about education again. I have passed my first set of deadlines, having to cram the last two because I was out of commission with the flu for two weeks, but I have completed them and for that I am proud of myself. I am quite excited for what the rest of the year has to offer. While my timetable is extremely inconvenient, the content sound far more fascinating than my first term. I am still writing for the student newspaper Redbrick, though I have fallen off over Christmas with so much to do in terms of assignments. I am Culture Editor for the same paper, I have been nominated as Best Journalist for the TV section for the SPA Awards. I am hoping to step into TV Editor in second year, or Digital Editor, which of these I have not yet decided.

I am slowly starting to figure out what I want from life. Those big unrealistic dreams are shifting into something achievable. I’ll be honest I still have very little clue what I want to do as a career. I don’t think I want this to be writing, because while I am doing it far more than I did this time last year, I still have a love-hate relationship with the art. I have moved on from fiction entirely, that is not my bag. I am coming to terms with my strengths and finding ways I can use these in careers in the media. Where I have landed as of now, though this will change in a month or two probably, is becoming a project manager in a marketing firm that specialises in film and tv advertising. I think my interests and the way I am would combine well for that. How I get there? I have no idea.

My birthday was amazing. It was a very expensive weekend, but it was the perfect way to welcome in my twenties. Three nights in London, a fuck ton crammed in. I am meant to be writing a piece on this for Redbrick, but I am not sure the relevance of it now. I will give you an overview regardless. The Friday we arrived, we navigated the underground and dropped our belongings at the Premier Inn we were staying in. The London Hamstead if you wanted to know, we loved it, not too loud and not all too far from everything we wanted to do. We didn’t mind the travel between though, I do think the underground is one of the most impressive inventions. We then made our way to South Kensington where we did the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum. In short, we saw a shit ton of rocks and then got kicked out before we could do any of the cool activities in the Science Museum because it was closing. We went to Big Easy in Soho for dinner that night, we had booked a table prior, and yet we still sat waiting for over an hour. The food wasn’t that great, but I tried lobster for the first time. Overall, not a place I’d recommend even though the restaurant itself was very aesthetic. By aesthetic I mean dark and grungy, but to me, that is perfect.

The Saturday was my birthday, we started the day with a coffee and a slice of cake in Tower Hill Starbucks, and then made our way into the Tower of London. It was an extraordinarily long morning, but I loved it. We then moved along to our meal of the day at El Pirata of Mayfair. Tapas has become a recent love of mine, but this was amazing. We ended the night at the Cambridge Theatre watching Matilda: The Musical, which must be the best musical I have watched so far.

The Sunday started rocky. We were supposed to go to Italian Bear Chocolate. It was tipping it down and we ended up at the wrong branch, and by the time we had made it to the right place we were late. Usually this wouldn’t bother me so much, however as we stood in the queue, we watched the woman in front of us being lectured rudely about being late and her losing her table five minutes after the allocated slot. She got in with a death stare and a huff but by that point I was angry and stressed and I wanted to be anywhere else but there. So, I cried, and we walked, and we ended up at the Hard Rock Café, arguably the better choice. I’ve decided this year I’d quite like to tour the UK branches and collect the glasses, we already have a trip to Manchester pending to be booked in March. The food was incredible, and the atmosphere was even better. After that, we headed to Hyde Park for Winter Wonderland. It was beautiful, everything I wanted it to be. We did the wheel, we visited the Magical Ice Kingdom, we saw the circus. We were there for three hours longer than we needed to be because I had spread out the activities exponentially, but I still adored it. And we had a hot chocolate that I truly believed would have beaten Italian Bear anyway. The only downside was, we weren’t hungry enough to try any of the food up for offer.

The Monday was our final day, we went to Burger and Beyond for lunch, which was amazing, and then we did very little. We were knackered and we knew it was home time, so we just wanted to be home. I’d found it very weird spending my birthday without my parents and I hadn’t had any presents, so I was itching to get back for that. So, we got our stuff and headed to London Euston, where every train got cancelled for at least two hours so we were left stood staring at the board with our feet feeling like they were about to fall off.

I want to do more things this year. It’s those things that make my life interesting. However, money is tight, and I cannot jet off to Mykonos like I want. I do have a few concerts booked in, and a couple more musicals. I have already been to an Arctic Monkeys tribute in January which was a weird and wonderful experience as we stood next to the band themselves, talking on and off before they went on stage. I’m hoping I can fill the void of no abroad holiday with weekends exploring new cities, but I think I’ll miss the sun.

At the base of it all, life really is going very well, if I can iron out a few little creases. I’m getting new tattoos this year, I’m going on holiday with Jack’s family for the first time, I’ll be turning 21 for God’s sake (maybe that’ll bring an abroad holiday, though I doubt the sun will be as I want it in December). I am awfully happy with the way things are turning out in retrospect. I just need to work on myself. I wish the same happiness for all of you as the Earth circles the Sun yet again.

As 2024 rolls in and everything is looking good, I am just so fucking glad I have gotten my mojo back.