2020 – What a Year!

And it all started so well…

I’m sure you’ve heard lots of takes on how 2020 is the worst year… like, ever – but I want to go through a few positives of the year from the perspective of this irrelevant site.

What Did You Actually Do This Year?

I actually posted a fair few entries this year, so it’s nice to see I tried to keep the content going, despite the whole panoramic happening. I discussed my ever-present concern over my content, my self worth, my job and my future. I learned how to make terrible croissants, reviewed items from Joom and wrote a poem or two. I even made a terrible meme about my own mortality.

For Glass of AJ, 2020 has been just fine. You even got content at least once a month because of the challenge I set myself in January. Okay, August was the exception, but I posted more than once in a few of the months, that more than makes up for it.

What Made You Proud?

I think I’m most proud of my attempt at a podcast. My favourite episode was probably “Episode 4 – That’s Just Prime!“, if only for the memes and my inability to escape the allure of Amazon Prime. Jeff Bezos is still tickling my bank account for more coin.

At the end of the day, I think the GOAJ Podcast was a weird and inconsistent mess. But how can you learn something new if you don’t give it a go? I think if I did try it again, the format would definitely be best if it was scripted, and the topics across the episodes had a cohesive subject. If there were any topics that differed greatly from the others, it could effectively be a different season of the same podcast. Maybe this could be one of the projects I start up next year. Watch this space – ___

Ah, what a lovely space!

That was a terrible joke, I’m sorry.

Favourite Blog Post?

In terms of my blog entries, I think my most favourite piece had to be “I Learnt How to Make Croissants… sorta“. I had way too much fun writing it and actually spent a long time trying to tweak the language to express the chaos of my attempt, but also allow the piece to flow. I think I got part way towards a good flow but the piece is mostly chaotic. It’s quite fitting that my favourite piece of the year is one that I couldn’t get quite right.

It’s a representation of this year I guess. Not quite what I expected but all in all, not as bad as it could have been. That’s obviously my personal experience though.

What Went Wrong?

It was almost too good to be true that 2020 would go off without a hitch. A lot of people really thought this year was going to be the bees knees (feel free to insert your own idiom) but that wasn’t the case for a lot of folks.

Remember when World War 3 was a meme-y topic of discussion? Now we have memes about cringeworthy Zoom meetings. masks and social distancing. The world has changed drastically, and it’s been hard to adjust to the “new normal”. In fact, there are people still adjusting or outright refusing to.

All I know is that I tried to keep a sense of normality on this website, but eventually corona-related topics crept in. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Although the terrors of the world warrant the need for escapism, this platform is about a person’s life and the things that happen in it. I am a part of this world and live in reality… mostly, so it was bound to happen.

2020 – What’s Your Verdict?

Overall, a year of ups and downs. A year of inconsistency and varying styles of posts. A year of trying new things and trying to keep old things going. Another year of me figuring out who I am and what that means.

All in all, 2020 actually seems like an average year if I look at it this way. I guess it’s true what they say – life goes on. Despite the absolute train wreck of a response the UK had to the coronavirus pandemic, I still managed to perpetuate the same lifestyle I had before, just with even less outdoor activity. And more fear. Yes, way more fear…

An Announcement

To make up for this literally being the last post of the year and the only post this month – Glass of AJ-wise – I’m going to let you know about something I’ve been doing for most of December.

I’ve been taking a selfie every single day since December 8th to express self love. I’m sure you can tell within my writing, I can be quite negative about things, especially myself. I realised I was saying a lot of mean things to myself and putting myself under a lot of pressure. Those aren’t really helpful behaviours, especially for someone who struggles with low self-esteem and can never complete a to-do list.

I’m supposed to be my own cheerleader, my own hype man – but I ended up being my own worst enemy. So I decided to literally force myself to face my insecurities everyday and realise how stupid they are. To help myself realise that I’m mostly demotivated because I am taking away my own confidence.

Negative thoughts don’t get things done, they just stop them in their tracks. Although this is a learned behaviour with years in the making, I’m hoping I can turn things around and be a positive force in my own life, as well as the lives of other people. If you’re interested, you can follow my self-love journey @selfloveade on Instagram.

Thank you for being a part of my life and supporting my creative endeavours in 2020. Happy New Year!

Yes – even you, random internet traveller.

Stay Thirsty!

Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Sign up to my mailing list!