Hi 2017,
I’m writing to let you know I’m grateful for you. You’ve shown me nothing but goodness and it would be immoral of me to depart without spelling out the ways you did that… you know, just in case you forgot. Let’s start from where we started, shall we?
“This year,
I hope I see the world
At the very least,
Some parts of it I’ve never been before”
I think the most obvious thing is all the international travel I embarked on during your time. Seven new countries across Asia, and Western Europe – Chennai, India; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Tokyo, Japan; Budapest, Hungary; Prague, Czech Republic; Rome, Italy; and London, Birmingham and Canterbury, England. Interesting considering I had visited only five countries total before you came along.
“I hope I do a better job
Of documenting my travels
Sure, I’ll treasure the memories
But archiving them is essential too”
It’s with you I finally started doing Youtube, 2017. I’d wanted to travel-vlog for so long and ended up wasting the opportunity of the Asia trip. So once the Eurotrip in August was decided, I knew I’d hate myself if I didn’t get the gear and do everything else I needed to start and… well, the rest is history. And I’m glad I greatly improved on uploading travel content to Instagram and started that thread on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/olatoxic/status/831122350716362752
Plenty of room for improvement though. Sigh.
“This year,
I hope I become a photographer
A real one
And shoot up a project”
Hmmm…. Okay, the travel photos don’t count as a project, even if they are one cohesive body of work. So I’d like to say I halfway achieved this one. I’m glad that I did manage to figure out what the project will be though.
“This year,
I hope I make another wristband
Or maybe two
Fifty would be nice too”
Loooooooool. Let me laugh because it’s better than crying. One day, one day sha. This dream will come out of the grave. One day.
“This year,
I hope I write another story
Or else,
I’m a fraud of a creative writer?”
I guess it’s safe to say that I’m a fraud. Even this post, I’ve done ojoro by borrowing my words from last year., because writing has become so tedious. For the first time since I began writing, I didn’t even manage to complete a single piece within a 52week window. The sinking sand is beginning to close over my face.
“This year,
I hope I find my faith again
For in losing it
I’ve suffered many more losses”
Moving on…
“This year,
I hope I’m more creative
Or I’ll feel myself a fraud
When I call myself an artist”
I wasn’t more creative. I wasn’t less creative either. I guess stagnation is better than regression, eh? I’ll take a deadlock over a loss any day.
“This year, I hope I collaborate
With others like me
For no man should be an island
I’d rather be a peninsula”
I didn’t collaborate, but I made some really solid plans to. Plans that ought to begin coming togged soonish, fingers crossed.
“This year, I hope I plan ahead
And fail at dilly dallying
Succeed at getting off my butt
And getting to just doing”
This is funny. I planned ahead. And also dilly dallied. And a few times, got off my butt and got to just doing. A few times, but not nearly enough times. Sigh.
Thank you, 2017. I hope I’m better when your successor rolls around.