Which puts me in a mood of reflection, it must be said.
One year ago, I was living in a different state, but more to the point, I was in a different state of mind. Life has changed a lot but with the benefit of hindsight I can unreservedly say that it has been for the better. As a teenager, growing up in the country meant that I spent most of my time wishing that I lived in the city. This led to a series of nomadic movements through cities starting on the Gold Coast, then Brisbane, and eventually Canberra. When the settled life I found in Canberra exploded a couple of years ago, and Brisbane tantalised me with dream job-offers, I returned, and that was where November 2007 found me: lonely in a city that had forgotten me, with a new job completely different to anything I had done in the past, and as a single mother in a place I knew only as a teenager.
When circumstances forced me to return to Canberra, I didn't want to come. It was a blow to my independence, it meant working in a way that I wasn't sure I could cope with, and it meant packing up what little stability I had and starting yet again. The decision was made on a whim but this time I chose against living within Canberra itself. The Village beckoned. The move itself was extraordinarily draining, but when I got here and settled in at the Cottage, I recognised a sense of relief - the hard work was over, and I could get on with working out who I wanted to be.
The good news is that I not only worked out what kind of person I wanted to be, but I'm now at least a few steps down the road to becoming that person.
The past twelve months have possibly been some of the hardest months of my life, but here I am, at the other end, and relatively unscathed, too. That's not to say there's no scars, but they're fading, and the lessons I have learnt from them have made me far and away a better person. Every journey needs bumps, for how else are we to learn along the way?
2 comments:
Happy one year blogaversary, almost. :) I haven't made it through a NaNoWriMo yet. Don't want to commit and fail again so I'm just going to write along, unofficially.
Nobody minds if you don't make it to the 50,000. It's a challenge for yourself. Sign up and then register as one of my buddies. I promise no one will give you a hard time if you don't make it over the finish line. I love reading your writing, and would definitely like to read more :)
L
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