I saw a Pinterest post that was essentially a 2024 “Artist of Life” Workbook. And so… I’m taking inspiration from this pin and creating a blog series covering the topics. I just think it would be a fun thing to do, and help keep my blog active over 2024.

I don’t really want to reflect on 2023 – especially the earlier months – too hard. The first 6 months were still as if I was wading through mud and sludge after 2022, and the second half was essentially a full recovery from that entire ordeal.

However – I did achieve a lot in 2023.

I got a personal trainer who helped teach me the basics of doing more in the gym and I can’t wait to continue to use these fundamentals to help increase my strength over this year. Naomi was a godsend and now I want to help do the same for the cadets. If it wasn’t for these few personal training sessions, I wouldn’t have realised my goal of wanting to become a PT Instructor.

I finally hit the halfway mark with my degree apprenticeship. Only two more years to go, the end is in sight (almost!). It’s felt like a really long slog – especially as I’ve been working on this degree since the latter half of 2021. Three years, so far, for a degree that’s only meant to take four, and I’m now at the half way mark.

I learnt that I’m not always as alone as I feel, and to appreciate that others may also be feeling that loneliness.

Being in your mid-twenties is a difficult thing, there’s a lot to process and learn, while also continuously making mistakes. Your mid-twenties is an incredibly lonely period of time, and everyone’s only just really learning who they truly are.

2023 was a challenging year – not the hardest year overall, I’ll let the COVID pandemic years take that one – but it was truly one that did shape me all round.