Looking Back at 2008

If you’re familiar with my blog, you’ll know that I don’t usually do the whole nostalgic, look-back-at-the-year survey and/or entry. I’m not really sure why, maybe because I’m more of a forward thinker generally. But this year I’ve been reading a lot of short ‘old year’ entries and decided I might as well. So here’s a general recap of my year; not in any particular order, just things that were particularly memorable to me.

1. Graduating

Finishing uni was a big thing for me, because I had such mixed feelings about it and the people around me all the way through. I did come close to dropping out at one point, but I’m glad I got through it with honours.

2. First full time job

I was completely unemployed for a grand total of two weeks before landing a placement over the summer and then my current job. It’s not fantastically well paid, but it’s good experience and it’s something I enjoy doing, being a web copywriter (most of the time anyway). It’s opened up a lot of new stuff for me as regards e-business – always useful. It has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster with people (friends) being made redundant and not knowing what’s going to happen next. It would make a great TV drama without any editing whatsoever. Things have settled down for the moment, but with the rumour mill suggesting more jobs are going in the near future (though thankfully not from our old team), I imagine the atmosphere will continue to change.

3. Pete

My old A level English teacher died of cancer, which was very upsetting. He was an extremely talented man who also worked on editing scripts for TV programmes like Peter Kay and Two Pints of Lager. He’ll be sorely missed, comedy genius that he was, and excellent teacher – everyone liked him and he kept us all in stitches. He got offered his own TV show and wasn’t able to take it up, which is also upsetting. Pete was definitely a loss to the world, even if only a small percentage knew it.

4. Moving

I moved 160 miles away to the south west, and I think this was the hardest challenge of 2008 for me. I didn’t know anyone here at all; my nearest friend was almost 100 hundred miles away. Luckily I’ve made good friends with the people I work with and we are all quite close. Surprising at first, but then not so much when we spend so much time together! We moved into a new office over Christmas so hopefully I’ll make as good friends with the people in the new team we’ve merged with.

5. Anniversary

25th October saw one year with Joe, and we celebrated in London. If there is one main person in my life who is there for me, to calm me down and share happiness and support me through bad times, it’s him. I’m so lucky, I can’t even begin to describe how he makes me feel. There is very little about our relationship that isn’t completely perfect, and I feel blessed.

6. My birthday

Turning 22 was a big deal for me, only because it was the first birthday of my life without my family physically around me. But they were there in spirit and it made Christmas extra special.

7. The credit crunch

This alone was the main thing affecting my actions this year. In July I had university offers until my dad mentioned his business wasn’t doing too well. At that point I pushed the module descriptions out of sight and offered to get a job. It wasn’t a hard decision to make in itself as I’m always willing to put my life on hold for my family and the people who matter to me. But it was harder to follow through, especially moving so far away. However, I’m now completely financially independent, which is a massive change for me. Not only that, but I’m giving my dad money (something I never thought could happen in a million years), and my house in Nottingham is all rented out so there’s a little money from that each month. It has meant a lot of sacrifices for everyone in the family, and my dad is now working constantly from about 11am until 2 or 3am. Even my sister had a Christmas job.

8. Christmas

Despite the fact that money was tight, I saw it as my duty to make Christmas as good as possible, as did we all. The presents this year were much more thoughtful on everyone’s part, and I spent about £1000 on presents, a combination of saving since November and money made online.

9. Weight

This is a pretty big thing for me and I’ve been up and down by about a stone all year. This is terrible for consistency, and I’m finding it hard to lose the last few pounds when I’m in the office all day and it’s freezing cold outside. However, I’ve started going back to my old habits of buying healthy food. I’ve also taken up very amateurish yoga, which is very relaxing. I’m not allowing myself change for the vending machien at work either. I really want to join the gym because I miss it and I went yesterday and it looks fantastic, but at £37 a month I can’t justify the cost at the moment unfortunately.

10. Italy

The only holiday I went on was to Siena, and that was fab. Loved hanging out with Tom and Hannah, and it was great just to get away for a bit in the sun. As Tom was doing his part of his year abroad there, accommodation was free and the flights were about £30 each as far as I can remember. Spent way more than that there though! (Wow, so many ts…)

Hmmm, so that was a whistle stop tour of my year really. Here’s to 2009!