2023, a run through
It’s been a while since I’ve sat down to write my own words. So here are some reflecting on the year that was 2023.
Work
I spent the middle part of the year on secondment from my regular job. I knew almost immediately when I started my secondment that I didn’t like it as much as my regular job and I didn’t see myself doing that sort of work long term. At the same time, it totally reinvigorated my love for the law. I got the chance to delve into all the nitty gritty parts of the law that you don’t think about much when you’re practicing, because you have to think less about what the law is doing and more about what your client wants. Pretty quickly I felt that even though I wasn’t as interested in the type of work, it would still be an amazing opportunity. I had nothing to prove and everything to learn. I soaked up everything that I could and stretched myself technically, so that when it came to re-enter the corporate world, I felt more motivated and confident than I had in a while.
The lighter workload also allowed me more time with my own thoughts, time to think about the life that I was living. I had time and space to think about what I wanted and how I left about art and politics and relationships.
After five months on secondment and then one month on leave, travelling around Greece, I came back to work feeling like I had started a new job. While I was away all my matters had settled and so I was starting completely afresh. It was a rare opportunity and I am so glad for it.
Travel
For so long I have wanted go to Greece. I’ve never really had ‘the travel bug’ as such, but every few years I get a deep yearning to visit a specific place and since early 2020, that place of yearning was Greece.
In September 2023, I travelled around Greece with my whole family for an entire month and for a shorter time my partner also joined us. We started and ended in Athens and did a whirlwind tour of the islands - Kalymnos, Rhodes, Paros, Santorini & Crete. It was so special, not only to travel with my parents and siblings but to meet family who I have never met before and who I mostly could not communicate with but who extended the warmest of Greek hospitality - ξενία.
I was also very fortunate to end the year in Canada with my partner’s family. We flew to Vancouver and then made our way to Sun Peaks ski resort, which is about a 5 hours drive from the city. We stayed in a big house together, along with another family, and spent the days skiing and the nights having big, cozy group dinners and doing puzzles or reading or playing cards.
I truly love skiing. Being on the mountain feels so freeing. I never feel more in awe of nature and in awe of my body than when I am skiing. Skiing is exhilarating and humbling and sexy. I feel very privileged to have learned to ski as a six year old and to have gone on the occasional ski holidays growing up because I don’t think there’s anything I love to do more. I think skiing also feels extra special because I only get to ski for a week or so every other year, it is a very brief moment of true joy.
Books
I read 16 books in 2023. I’m a slow reader and don’t always have the brain space to read for pleasure after reading all day for work, so I was very pleased to get through as many books as I did during the year.
A few were book club pics, including Wifedom by Anna Funder, which I would not have picked up otherwise, but which turned out to be my favourite book of the year. It has been one of those books that has stayed with me well after I finished reading.
My favourite fiction book of the year was Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevlin. I loved so much about this novel - the characters were rich and the plot was exciting and pacey. It was a beautiful exploration of relationships - platonic, familial, romantic - grief and loss, ambition, youth and the process of creation. It is definitely worth the hype and I would highly recommend it!
Music
One of my highlights on 2023 of seeing so many of my favourite bands live.
In January, I started the year off with seeing The Arctic Monkeys live at the Domain. It was a hot summer night and I danced unapologetically in a leather mini skirt and Docs, leaving the concert sweaty and content.
I then saw Aussie favourites Boy & Bear once at The Enmore and then again in Gosford. I also went to the most beautifully intimate Izzi Manfredi show at a pub in Marrickville, where it was just Izzi and her piano; and finally I spent my birthday seeing Bliss n’ Eso, one of my favourite Aussie hip-hop artists, again up in Gosford.
I have undoubtedly enjoyed going to gigs so much more post the 2020/21 COVID lockdowns. There’s something about jumping up and down in a thrum of sweaty bodies and absence truly makes the heart grow fonder.
Body
I didn’t run nearly as much as I was hoping to in 2023. I experienced my first injury and struggled to recover after getting COVID for the second time. I pulled out of races, skipped so many sessions and didn’t really feel the motivation that I had felt in 2022. Despite this, I still love running, I still want to keep training, I want to sign up for races in 2024 and I want to turn up to the starting line ready to have fun.
Especially after contracting COVID again, I noticed my body change, not by much, but enough for my clothes to feel a little tighter and my face to look a little puffier. I really related to Bridie talking about her body image in this episode of Cool Story.
I too, grew up pretty immune to body image woes. I’ve always trained a lot and had an athletic body, a body could always do what I wanted it to do and so I rarely ever felt bad about it. But there were times in 2023 where I felt so dreadful and talked to myself really terribly. It’s not that things have changed drastically, except how I feel about my body. I think some of the bad feelings come from not knowing how to dress myself in a way that I find fun and flattering and expressive of me. I’m not sure what to do about this other than try and accept my body the way it is (and therapy).
2023 was a year that I took gently. I worried less about money and career progression and buying a house and all that stuff and just had a little more fun. I’m not really sure what I want the next year to look like. I turn 30 in December, which doesn’t scare me but in a way that I’m sure people can understand, it confuses me. I find myself thinking that I’m just pretending to be an adult, it’s like I’m dancing but having to look to the people around me to make sure I’m getting the moves right.
I hope in 2024 I don’t worry so much about getting the steps wrong and just dance to my own groove.
Love this! That work refresh sounds like just that - refreshing. Also: what did you think of Cold Enough for Snow? It’s been on my TBR for ages but I haven’t gotten around to it!