Hey Owlets,
In what feels like the blink of an eye, another year has passed and it’s somehow now 2023 (anyone else still trying to process 2020?). Despite what you may be thinking this isn’t a thinly veiled “new year, new me” article. In fact, as I write this it’s almost March and life is hard enough without trying to kid yourself that this is finally the year where time won’t simply evaporate and you *WILL* make it to the gym on this trip around the sun. You probably won’t.
At the beginning of 2022 I set the personal goal of being kinder to myself, and the professional goal of creating more content. As you can see by the cobwebs I’m dusting off of my long-forgotten website, I only stuck to one of those mantras.
Over the past few years I feel as if life has simply “happened” to me. Rather than living, being present and keeping my promise to make the most of my time on Earth, I’ve simply taken each day as it comes. While I’ve survived another year of chaos I must admit that I feel a little disappointed in myself for letting the time pass me by - maybe you can relate on some level.
So, what’s happened and why am I suddenly reviving my much-neglected website? A lot, actually, and it’s taken until now to feel inspired to write again.
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| The day we finally got the keys to our first home together. |
2021 was the year of buying a house, as was 2022 apparently. We fell in love with our little dream home by the seaside, worked tirelessly for months to make it ours and then through no fault of our own it was gone. We ended 2021 the same way we started, with no house, except this time we were house shopping in the middle of a skyrocketing market. We needed to buy a house before our rent became unaffordable, and the only way that we could do this was to leave the seaside and buy a renovation project further inland. That in itself was a ridiculous journey that I wasn’t prepared for. Our “new kitchen, new bathroom and some paint” house became a “cowboy builder deathtrap special”; it turned out to be a blessing in disguise that the heating didn’t work because if it had, the entire house might have burned down. Despite all of the literal blood, sweat and tears that went into the house (note to self: DIY is not my backup career should freelancing take a nose dive), I’m sat at my desk in my brand new office as I write this, which I built with the help of my family and friends, and I couldn’t be prouder of what we achieved in just a few short months. My real thoughts on the house are a topic of discussion for another day, but I’m just happy to have made it.
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| One final family Christmas. |
By the time Christmas 2022 arrived, we were exhausted. Not the kind of exhausted that requires you to take a nap, but so physically and mentally drained that all I could think about was travelling somewhere far away for a while. I found myself writing “here’s to a calmer 2023” in my family’s Christmas cards. Did that materialise? Of course it didn't. It’s March in two days as I write this, and yet Jack and I find ourselves saying “2023 has been the longest year of our lives” to each other at regular intervals. Having rushed to finish the last renovations before moving at the end of January, we’d not been in the house a week before my strong-as-an-ox grandmother was rushed into hospital. In the space of three weeks, life was flipped on its head. This time a month ago Nan was helping me to organise our newly-built kitchen and complaining that I’d dared to hang creased curtains in the lounge before setting fire to the iron (and the aforementioned creased curtains). Now, I’m helping my parents plan her funeral, choosing flowers and staring at the half-creased and slightly charred curtains as I attempt to process what just happened.
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| Nan's house was always the entertainment venue of choice - particularly her garden! |
Why am I telling you all of this? I don’t know. Writing has always been cathartic for me - it’s why I started my blog in the middle of my university degree which I absolutely hated. I’ve always been told that content should be entertaining, relatable or educational and if it’s not then you’re wasting your time creating anything. Unless you’ve also witnessed your Nan attempting to stop the smouldering of your brand new curtains while shouting at the smoke alarm then I’m not sure that this article adheres to any of those rules, but after 7 years of sharing my thoughts with you, it felt wrong not to. I’ve never been one for following rules, and among the constant need for fresh content, eye-catching videos and the “more more more” attitude of social media these days, I’m beginning to feel a little old for the internet. I find myself longing for a return to the 2017 blogging days where you could just “brain dump”, start a random conversation with a like-minded stranger and become friends as a result of shared experiences or interests. I’ve made friends for life through The Owlet, but 2023 internet has never felt more like shouting into the void.
Maybe you can relate, maybe not - if you even read this far then well done and thank you. I’m not trying to hit any of the content pillars; I just want to get back to where The Owlet started - trying to figure out how the hell this adulting thing works, and hopefully swap advice with you along the way.
I have some plans of what I’d like to do online this year, and maybe I’ll share those with you at some point, but for now I’m just trying to survive everything life throws my way and find little bits of joy along the way.
See you soon, friends.
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