Right now, I’m sitting at my local café, having the most wonderful flat white, complete with coated chocolate coffee bean. My two dogs are lying down under the table, of course only after Felix has said hello to everyone in here, and I’m typing my last blog for the year.
I have no idea how many people have read my blogs, how many will ever read them, how I should probably do something to make sure they are read in the future. But I’m excited to write this one. Regardless of who reads it.
With the coming of a New Year comes a reflection on the last 365 days. And oh, how I have filled those days.
I’m going to include turning 30 in the year that has passed, since it was right at the end of December and close enough is good enough.
I finally did my Yoga Teacher Training, met the most awesome people during that time, and realised that the thing I wanted to do for so long was actually done.
I (Alex) renovated our house in Adelaide, preparing it to be lived in by someone else. Someone who probably wouldn’t appreciate our retro bathroom as much as we did.
I said goodbye to someone who influenced my life in so many ways. Someone who never saw the world. Only from books – so many books. I told her I’d go see it for her. Sometimes I think about showing her all my photos (very slowly, so she could take it all in), and then I remember that won’t happen.
I moved to a whole other country, continent, hemisphere. I knew three people, about that many German words.
I missed the birth of my second nephew. But my sister is a champ, who knows me very well. She knows that I’ll be that cool aunt that brings her children stories and ideas home, instead of gifts. (Don’t freak out Sarah, I’ll bring them a present – sustainable of course).
I got a job in a foreign land, with very little language. I quit that job three months later.
I’ve reconnected with my Dad. Because life is too short to hold on to the feeling in the pit of your stomach. Best to let it digest as it needs to, and let it settle.
I have explored four countries and have three more to tick off the list before the year is up.
And I became a yoga instructor.
I teach twice a week, and when my new role starts in the New Year, hopefully I’ll teach almost every day. I’ve held workshops and have been filmed teaching a whole class. I thought I would struggle to cover rent, but I did. I had no background in this place, knew nobody, and in four months I have had at least someone in my class, and three awesome regular students. They are forever special to me.
I miss my mum, Friday night dance parties, South Australian wine.
I am so happy that I have Alex.
2018, thanks for being a great teacher.