Hello 2024...

Hi. I hope you are well and having a good day.

After blogging for over ten years, I have definitely found that some posts are naturally more easier to write and publish than others. However, this one is not one of them. I am struggling with starting this post, and what I actually want to say, despite this post being an annual tradition to start a new year. I am aware this blog post is a bit later this year... Nevertheless, this is the first proper blog post of 2024 so lets just get straight into it! (I won't count the overview of 2023 as that was completed in 2023)

The main reason I wanted to write this blog post is because I am at such a transitional point in my life right now and I am still trying to figure things out for myself. 

As a life update, it has been the toughest few months of my life. Navigating through the past few months and adjusting to life changes has been anything but easy. I took a break from blogging and being online in general, mainly because I was going through a lot. My emotions were all over the place and because of that, it felt naturally right to step away from some things. I still have those days and I am still not fully there with being back online, but overall things are feeling slightly better and I am doing much better than what I was. Being in my mid-twenties, it makes me feel like I have been through my quarter life crisis! 

All I have wanted in my life is to enjoy the times I have with loved ones and to be healthy and happy with whatever I am doing. Ever since my long term relationship ended last year, I lost a big part of what I wanted and romantised about in my future and have been adjusting to life changes from it. It has been really tough, unimaginably tough. Ultimately I think it will be a good while until I am fully back to feeling like myself again, but I do want to try and move forward with my life in some aspects.

Therefore I have decided I want this year of 2024 to be about discovery. I had been in a relationship my whole adult life, and it was great for the majority of it. However I also think I missed out on various aspects of discovering myself whilst growing up, mainly because I was in a long term relationship from such a young age and that was a big priority of mine at the time. That being said, I don't regret being in my relationship as it felt right at the time, he was and still is a great person and the good times we had together were amazing. In the grand scheme of things, I am still relatively young and I have plenty of time to figure things out!

The change for this year is that I really want to focus on myself, with an emphasis of being by myself and enjoying my own company. I also want to use this time to establish what I really want to do in my life and how I want to live my life. I want to step out of my comfort zones at times and do things that have intrigued me, things I have always been too afraid to do for different reasons. I have started this already with my career and want to expand this to other areas of my life. For example in January, I completed a painting course and it has made me fall in love with art again. The course was great, the people were lovely and the time I spent in the studio was so creative and chilled out. I enjoyed it so much that I booked to do another one in February! I want to dedicate more time to doing different and new things. I have started a bullet journal which is something I never really considered doing before and I love it. I have booked to go on a beginners pottery course in February as well, which I am really looking forward to when the time comes. My aim is also to learn how to crochet granny squares a bit later in the year. I want to read more books, which is something I always tell myself every year but I do want to try and delve into the world of appreciating forms of literature. My aim is to read 20 books over the course of this year, which is a realistic and achievable goal for someone like me who doesn't read that much!

I want to go out more in general, see friends and family and just enjoy life for what it is. I have been going out a lot more, exploring different parts of my hometown and going to a few places I have never been before which has been really good. I have been spending time with my family, which has been really nice and they have really supported me a lot throughout everything. I have been spending time with friends and appreciating the moments which we have had.. I went on my first night out this year a week ago and it was really good, definitely overdue a night of drinking and dancing! At work, I go for lunch with my team almost every week and there is a social event organised once a month, which is always really good and fun to attend.

Every couple of weeks, I see my nan who isn't very well. She hasn't been for a good while, Dementia has really affected her and her wellbeing and seeing her in her current mental state is really tough. When she was more with things, she always used to tell me that life is way too short and that I need to enjoy it whilst I can and whilst I am able to. I want to incorporate this into the upcoming year, to not take life too seriously and not to put too much pressure on myself.

The next one is something that is way out of my comfort zone but I want to focus on getting fit. I really love going out for walks and just getting outside in general, but want to improve my fitness in other ways. I know in myself I am never going to be a gym girl, that's just not really me at this moment in time. I wish it was but realistically it's not... I don't really see any enjoyment in going to a gym right now! Therefore I have tried a few exercise classes in January to see what I enjoy. After a few attempts at different things, I found a local Zumba type class which is held every Tuesday evening. I have been for a few weeks now, it works for me and my lifestyle, and I am enjoying it!

An important aspect of the upcoming year is that I want to take the time to properly heal from my previous relationship and get comfortable with living my life by myself this year. It has been a good few months now and I know I am getting stronger but am definitely not there with everything yet. And that's ok, people have different experiences and people deal with different circumstances in different ways. I want to spend this year getting comfortable with being by myself, getting myself back on my feet emotionally and doing more things for me this year. Those are my main three goals for this year and I am looking forward to whatever lies ahead for this year.

So yeah, it's all good...

Amy