I know it's pretty lame, but I found reflecting upon my year last year was incredibly enlightening.
Because when you actually go back and think about it, you remember all the little things, all the big things, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
And it becomes quite apparent just how much can happen in a year.
One milestone of 2012 is that I managed to hold down a casual job for an entire year. Considering my previous record had been no more than a couple of months, I consider it quite an achievement.
But then again, the stories one can tell from their shifts in a fetish store make for some hilarious conversations and interesting ice-breakers at parties.
And the weekend hours suited a partying lifestyle that it almost seemed too convenient. It was as though the job was encouraging me to spend each weekly pay cheque on booze.
And spend it on booze I did.
2012 was a year of 21st birthdays for me, including my own birthday. It meant a lot of reunions and catch ups, seeing friends from high school and other friends who I hadn't seen in a long time.
And it also meant getting together a lot more often with all of my new friends. My own birthday in particular saw the culmination of the last several years of my life, friends from different circles, in all walks of life, coming together to help me celebrate. The highlight of my birthday, however, was definitely taking my mother and my two aunties to my local haunt and stocking them up on cocktails. If you had told me a few months ago that I would have been dancing on top of a podium in the middle of a gay bar with my heavily intoxicated mother... well, knowing her, I might have just believed you.
But I was able to experience it for myself! It certainly made for a memorable night, and in a way it really made this year feel like the closing of a final chapter of my adolescence, and the beginning of the rest of my life.
2012 was a year of 21st birthdays for me, including my own birthday. It meant a lot of reunions and catch ups, seeing friends from high school and other friends who I hadn't seen in a long time.
And it also meant getting together a lot more often with all of my new friends. My own birthday in particular saw the culmination of the last several years of my life, friends from different circles, in all walks of life, coming together to help me celebrate. The highlight of my birthday, however, was definitely taking my mother and my two aunties to my local haunt and stocking them up on cocktails. If you had told me a few months ago that I would have been dancing on top of a podium in the middle of a gay bar with my heavily intoxicated mother... well, knowing her, I might have just believed you.
But I was able to experience it for myself! It certainly made for a memorable night, and in a way it really made this year feel like the closing of a final chapter of my adolescence, and the beginning of the rest of my life.
I also graduated from university - something I knew that I always could, and would, do. Though I just never really thought it was going to happen so suddenly. One moment I was tearing my hair out over sample sizes and sociological methodology, the next minute I'm handing in final assessments and trying to figure out what the hell I'm supposed to do now.
I went to university to find myself a little more, to discover a passion, and hopefully find some kind of professional direction.
While that hasn't panned out exactly how I thought it may, I'm not too concerned. I met an amazing bunch of people during my three years and university, and I know that some of these people will be the friends that I wil have forever, reminiscing as old folks about the way we skipped tutorials to drink and Manning, or how we were consistently late to lectures because getting your morning coffee seemed that much more important, or even mixing up our dictionary definitions and saying something slightly blasphemous of the student radio station.
I've had an amazing time at university, and while I'm so glad that I've done it, I'm also very glad to be finished with it. I think it's given me a lot more ideas about my life and the world around me, and I've definitely grown and matured as a person.
And I swear I'll get a job out of it in the end, somehow.
I went to university to find myself a little more, to discover a passion, and hopefully find some kind of professional direction.
While that hasn't panned out exactly how I thought it may, I'm not too concerned. I met an amazing bunch of people during my three years and university, and I know that some of these people will be the friends that I wil have forever, reminiscing as old folks about the way we skipped tutorials to drink and Manning, or how we were consistently late to lectures because getting your morning coffee seemed that much more important, or even mixing up our dictionary definitions and saying something slightly blasphemous of the student radio station.
I've had an amazing time at university, and while I'm so glad that I've done it, I'm also very glad to be finished with it. I think it's given me a lot more ideas about my life and the world around me, and I've definitely grown and matured as a person.
And I swear I'll get a job out of it in the end, somehow.
And so after all that, there's my relationships...
Never a strong point of mine, I realised that much like my 2011, I had 3 major relationships in 2012.
All three of them were men who were significantly older than myself - nothing "old enough to be your father" creepy, but there was at least a decade difference between them.
I used to be a little embarrassed about it, as though people would always be judging the age gap.
And while I'm not wrong - plenty of people did, and still do, comment on the age of all these boyfriends - I myself came to realise it wasn't a big deal.
Sure, none of them worked out. Each time, in the end it came down to myself not wanting, or not being ready for, a relationship. It took a few times for that to really sink into my head, but I think I finally figured it out.
I don't regret anything though. I had beautiful relationships will all three of them, and the fact that they were all a little older meant that I learnt so much from them. I learnt about people, about life, and they even taught me a lot about myself. I don't want to clump them all into a single learning experience - rather, each one was so particularly special and unique to me that I'm not going to go too into detail about them.
But you men know who you are, and I''ll always love you for coming into my life and changing it the way you have.
I don't have any profound advice or worldly knowledge that I've gained during this year. It was a finale of sorts, the closing of a chapter. There were peak climaxes during the middle, but almost everything in life has resolved itself out.
Never a strong point of mine, I realised that much like my 2011, I had 3 major relationships in 2012.
All three of them were men who were significantly older than myself - nothing "old enough to be your father" creepy, but there was at least a decade difference between them.
I used to be a little embarrassed about it, as though people would always be judging the age gap.
And while I'm not wrong - plenty of people did, and still do, comment on the age of all these boyfriends - I myself came to realise it wasn't a big deal.
Sure, none of them worked out. Each time, in the end it came down to myself not wanting, or not being ready for, a relationship. It took a few times for that to really sink into my head, but I think I finally figured it out.
I don't regret anything though. I had beautiful relationships will all three of them, and the fact that they were all a little older meant that I learnt so much from them. I learnt about people, about life, and they even taught me a lot about myself. I don't want to clump them all into a single learning experience - rather, each one was so particularly special and unique to me that I'm not going to go too into detail about them.
But you men know who you are, and I''ll always love you for coming into my life and changing it the way you have.
I don't have any profound advice or worldly knowledge that I've gained during this year. It was a finale of sorts, the closing of a chapter. There were peak climaxes during the middle, but almost everything in life has resolved itself out.
Therefore, 2013 is set to be the beginning of not only a new chapter in my story, but a whole new volume, the next book in the series of my life.
It's going to be the year that I travel and the year that I see the world. I've already begun the plans for my round the world adventure, and soon I'll be leaving Sydney for an indefinite amount of time.
I might be home for Christmas, but if this year has taught me one thing, its that things rarely go according to plan.
And that's okay. Take life as it comes, roll with the punches, and you never know what's going to be around the corner.
Okay, enough of that. Let's get drunk.
"I don't wanna go to sleep
I wanna stay up all night
I wanna just screw around
I don't wanna think about
what's gonna be after this
I wanna just live right now" - Ke$Ha, C'mon
It's going to be the year that I travel and the year that I see the world. I've already begun the plans for my round the world adventure, and soon I'll be leaving Sydney for an indefinite amount of time.
I might be home for Christmas, but if this year has taught me one thing, its that things rarely go according to plan.
And that's okay. Take life as it comes, roll with the punches, and you never know what's going to be around the corner.
Okay, enough of that. Let's get drunk.
"I don't wanna go to sleep
I wanna stay up all night
I wanna just screw around
I don't wanna think about
what's gonna be after this
I wanna just live right now" - Ke$Ha, C'mon
