Firstly, a Happy New Year to all SIN readers and writers; another year has come to an end and a new one begins in its place, the New Year of 2022. This year we still grasp on to that thread of hope that we will overcome the current state of society being trapped in the grip of a pandemic and that we emerge victorious with a new sense of freedom that we will never take for granted again. 2022 holds a year full of surprises that we’re either anticipating or not expecting, but the best surprises happen unexpectedly. The excitement for what’s to come is emitting positive vibes, but it’s difficult to not think about last year’s achievements and how it’s made us more experienced, ready for any obstacles to come and for how it’s shaped us into who we are today. I take pride in the little things in my life; no one thing is ever too small to not be proud of.
Autumn Promotion
After a stressful 2 years of retail with one of them plunging us into a world of masks and hand sanitiser, I stepped up with newfound confidence and it wasn’t long until the managers in my workplace noticed this. One thing led to another and promotion was placed securely into my hands. When I first started working in the job, I was a shy and quiet girl who hated drawing attention to herself in every way. I remember confiding in my work colleague that “I’ll never last here, I don’t think I’m fit for this position”. That constant stream of doubt was due to the fact that I didn’t see myself as being fast and efficient as my other team members who had been there longer than me, but time is a teller; the tale being that I became arguably the fastest team member and completed my jobs efficiently and way below the time limit.
Autumn Romance
Autumn was my lucky season for 2021; promotion was the first followed by the love of my life walking easily and unexpectedly into my hectic life. After a rocky year of going on coffee dates and fizzled out Tinder conversations, Mr Right gracefully entered my life and my upside-down world turned right back around again. People used to tell me (all the time) to stop searching for the perfect guy, he has to be the one to come to you. The moment you stop searching is the moment where it all falls into place, where all your jagged puzzle pieces finally click together. This is the top thing that I am most proud of in my category of “most proud things in 2021”. Love is a strange, scary and beautiful thing; my advice is that when you’ve secured it, protect it and never let it go.
Mental Health Embrace
All through 2021, I learned and kept learning the importance of embracing my mental health. I learned that self-care days are essential to one’s self and there shouldn’t be a limit to how many self-care days you have in a week. Your own being is so precious and we need to learn to look after and love ourselves no matter how hard that may be. There were days I couldn’t move from bed because the thought of facing the world or facing my workplace was unbearable and my anxiety aided me into a world of panic attacks and breaking down into tears. However, I didn’t scold myself for those days, I simply told myself “it’s okay not to be okay”, made myself a cup of tea and went back to bed. Mental Health isn’t there to be pushed to one side, it’s there to be seen; it’s our body and mind’s way of telling us “Please, just take it easy, today is just not your day to push yourself”. Listen to what your mind and body are telling you. If you ever feel like I did on these bad days, I urge you to reach out to the people around you for help. Also, there are many mental health helplines and professionals you can engage with that might be really beneficial to you. For example, the Samaritans 24 hour freephone helpline number is 116 123.
Being a SINNER
I don’t want to draw too much attention to this because, in reality, I’m quite modest about my work, but I’m very proud to be part of the SIN team. Getting to write and send in articles each week gave me a purpose. I felt like I had a voice and there’s an addictive sense of pride when you see your published article online for everyone to see. Someone once told me that being a writer is like showing your butt to the world, you never know what people are going to think of it, some might look away, some might keep looking, but either way, you are showing your workings to the world and it’s scary. There’s criticism around every corner, there’s the feeling of not attracting your target audience’s attention, but I learned that if I’m satisfied with my work then I don’t need someone else’s verification.
