This week I’ve enjoyed looking back on the year behind me, what it offered me and how I’ve changed. If I was you, I’d be wondering what I’ve saved for the last post of the year. What will I reflect on now? Nothing. I don’t want to use today to look back at what I experienced in 2022, but to look forward. I want to share with you some of my hopes for 2023.
Firstly, doesn’t the year 2023 feel funny to say? I feel like my days should look more like Back to the Future than they do, that my car should hover or my clothes should be inexplicably shiny. Even that picture of what the future looks like feels dated. 2023 is just a big number and saying it out loud makes me scrunch my nose. Weird.
A part of me wants to start with what I want for the world, slowly narrowing down until I end with myself. But I don’t have any preconceived hopes for the world and I would end up writing a lot of nonsense. To be frank, I’m not sure what I want out of next year at all. Has someone ever asked you what you want to eat for supper, just after you’ve eaten lunch? You aren’t hungry, so you have no clue what you want for supper. Eating is the last thing you want to think about, really. That’s sort of how I feel. I’m so full of 2022 that I’m not really hungry for 2023 at the moment.
I do know I want to continue to grow. I want to push myself out of my comfort zone routinely enough that I grow or learn or change somehow. I want to see the world. I have plans to go to Germany and France in the beginning of the year. I will likely be the coldest I have ever been, visiting Europe in winter. I want to see little corners of South Africa too. I want to know the world I come from more intimately. I have Afrikaans heritage and I speak Afrikaans, but I very seldom engage with the culture. I think I would like to read more Afrikaans books.
I want to have fun chats with friends over coffee. I want to have deep chats with friends over coffee. I want to spend my time working hard on Jeremy’s Journal and other projects that fulfil me. I want to prioritise my family, though. I want to spend my time enriching my life as a person rather than a worker. I want to learn that spending time on myself isn’t wasteful or lazy. I want to learn that taking time to rest is not a luxury but personal maintenance.
I am so so excited for the year that waits for me. I find myself, as I did in the beginning of this year, with no particular plans but mountains of hope. Right! I’m popping my chrome bomber jacket on and jumping into my DeLorean. See you in 2023!