Dear 2024

It’s that time of the year when I publish one of these, only this is a ✨ travel edition ✨

Can’t get over how blessed I was to have been able to revisit places and see friends and family as much as I did this year.

It guilts me to say, considering what has gone on collectively, but personally speaking — 2024 was … not a walk in the park on a beautiful Sunday morning, if anything. It was more like driving through the ‘Dry Dry Desert’ in Mario Kart on full speed with the wrong race car configuration (sometimes it’s also at the ‘Rainbow Road’, it depends on the day 🥹).

HOW.EVER. 2024 showed me many parts of myself I had forgotten about, buried, and never met : the good, the bad, the fearful, the remorseful, the child that I thought I knew (therapy proved that I in fact, did not know my inner child as much as I did — that was a very eye-opening session). Of course this doesn’t come without help — I am grateful to be surrounded by a small, but solid group of people who ground me, who call me out, who don’t tolerate my attempts to deflect.

People say, “I hope next year will be better, kinder”.

I’d say, “I hope next year is still as safe for me to live my truth. I hope it comforts me as I grow into the person I’m meant to be. I hope it holds my hand when I shudder in fear over things that are not within my control. I hope it continuously gives me the grace to get back up when I stumble. I hope it reminds me of the many great things I am equipped with in this life : work (that doesn’t feel like work), a great group of colleagues, a roof over my head, clothes to wear, food to eat, people to love, films to watch, the means to travel, and the ability to see myself worthy of genuine affection and adoration despite my past + shortcomings.”

What got me through 2024 is mostly what’s on this video. Mostly. Not even all of it. Typing that out made me shake my head in disbelief with how blessed I am. All this, all these people … and more.

So, 2024 — you’ve introduced pain to me in several other ways, but my god, how rewarding has it been? Look at us. Who would’ve thought.

What a life.

Music : Ain’t Got Nothing On You – Leon Bridges