Turning 23 (and other life updates)
2023 was a difficult year for me. The tragedies felt like they escalated one over the other and I was left crawling to the finish line. I won’t bore you with a sob story but I am grateful for what I have learnt. I met some of the most amazing people last year and I started a new job. I traveled to Japan and South Korea and I started a relationship.
Reflecting upon last year’s goals, I didn’t achieve many. My monthly challenge calendar also fell apart after July. As well as my general ambition to watch a new foreign movie/listen to a new artist every single week. I won’t dwell on it too much, lest I feel like a failure. So, instead, I will reflect on what I’ve learnt from some of the goals
Movies
Foreign cinema remains captivating for me
'Taste of Cherry'; 'The Feeling of Being Close to You'; 'La Haine'; 'Terrorizers'; 'Three Colours - Trilogy'; 'The Piano Teacher' were standout favourites
Music
The Beatles and The Rolling Stones deserve their accolades
Outkast is unendingly fun
Caroline Polachek is the pop artist
4 New Blog Posts
Sometimes words aren't necessary
The biggest learning is that it's hard to maintain goals when life starts to get difficult. They fall by the wayside and so do I. I think I always knew that I was overly ambitious with my goals even when I had set them last year.
This year, I've changed my approach in a way that hopefully balance short-term and long-term goals. (As an aside, I really think I should upgrade to an online way of doing this, my pen-and-paper version seems a little archaic and isn't the most functional).
So, on a weekly basis, I set goals around 3 categories of my life that are important. They are as follows:
Health - Fitness and diet
Creativity & Knowledge - Photography, Writing, Film, Reading, Painting, Music
Future - Activities relating to my relationships, career goals, money, lifestyle habits and charity
What I hope is that this stops me from spiralling in moments of crisis and allows me to work steadily towards my goals. Each month, I'll also be setting 2-3 broader goals for the month in an attempt to keep a longer term vision as well. My hope is that self-improvement is just a steady accumulation of small wins.
Of course, there will still be some goals that are yearly.
Journal weekly
Run 10 kms without stopping
Get published in a magazine / journal
Publish 4 blog posts
Plan Europe 2025 !!
To end, as always, the present. Hope deep it is, how wide it is and how much of it will be mine to keep. Here are the things I've loved through 2023.
Op-shopping and developing a new style
Red hair!
Podcasts: 'The Ezra Klein Show' and 'Off Menu' (though 'Conversations with Tyler' snuck back in there at the end of the year)
Flowers from my boyfriend
Films: 'Poor Things' was a standout to end the year (others already mentioned)
Books: 'The Book of Laughter and Forgetting'; 'Bliss Montage'; 'Is Mother Dead' and 'Bonsai'
Making a short film
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Cooking
Drew Gooden on YT
Music: 'Sultans of Swing' by Dire Straits' and SZA's 'SOS'
I haven't lamented greatly about any poetry or anything so I'll leave you with one poem by Mary Oliver.
Wild Geese
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
See you next year.
