As 2023 comes to a close I’ve found that my mind keeps drawing parallels with 2013. Ten years ago I had just graduated from uni and done an internship on the US election. I lived and worked in Chicago for two months then I travelled down the east coast of the States on my own for a month. That experience forever changed me as a person and opened my eyes to an entire world of possibility. “If I can help re-elect President Obama”, I thought, “I can do anything!”
However, I landed back in the UK with a huge thud down to earth and my optimism was soon crushed by about fifty job rejection emails. I was back living at home and back at square one. It was pretty depressing at times, I really didn’t know what the future would look like. However, I had this niggling, intuitive feeling that something good was going to come my way and I would recognise it when it did. After four months of not getting jobs, stupidly bravely turning down two offers which didn’t feel right, sometimes despairing, working in a bar, learning to play the ukulele and taking a lot of long baths, finally I got the chance to do work experience at the BBC. Without hesitation I moved to Manchester, got my foot in the door of the TV world and the rest, as they say, is history.
For me, 2023 has had a same same but different vibe. Sadly I haven’t influenced American politics of late, but I’ve been on a huge adventure in the last ten years, personally and professionally. And, as happened in 2013, I’m at a pivotal moment. Sometimes I’m despairing, taking long baths and getting job rejection emails. But I’m also tuning back into that intuition I had such faith in as a 22 year old. At the time I didn’t feel like I had a plan, I didn’t think I knew what I was searching for exactly or where I was going. With hindsight I can see that, subconsciously, I did. It gives me faith that there are so many opportunities for adventures in life if we can learn to trust our gut and believe that good things will come. Merry Christmas Pies and see you back here in 2024! 🍑
As I’ve been thinking so much about 2013, naturally I’ve turned to music to soundtrack my myriad thoughts. Here are some songs which I seriously cannot believe are now ten years old!