Tag: change

So long, 2015

I started 2015 unemployed and in bed with a fever, and mused that things could only get better. That turned out to be somewhat prophetic, though I missed the bit about things first getting worse.

But things getting worse was probably the best thing that could have happened, because it convinced me to give up.

I will remember 2015 as the year I gave up. I gave up on further academic studies. I gave up on a career and a dream. I gave up on what I believed (and to come degree still believe) to be my calling and in the process gave up a significant part of myself.

Conventional wisdom says winners never quit. I say conventional wisdom is an idiot. A well-intentioned idiot, but an idiot nonetheless.

For quitting freed me up to try something new. And it has paid off beyond my wildest dreams.

With little more than an hour left before I bid 2015 farewell, I look back and have to say that this was a great year. As awful as it started, and as discouraging as the first two thirds were, the final four months have surpassed my wildest imaginings.

As I told my colleagues when I wished them a happy New Year earlier, for the first time in many years I’m excited about the new year. Between my new job and the new adventure of fatherhood lying ahead, I can’t wait to see what 2016 will hold.

Happy New Year. I’ve a feeling it’s going to be a good one.

On choosing me

My sister and I were very much church brats growing up. We weren’t pastor’s kids, but my first ever friend (and, for a few weeks in the fourth grade, fiancée) was. My father was head of the Sunday School (by second grade it was my job after church to run across to the school whose premises we used for Sunday School and unlock the classes before the others arrived) and organised all the church youth camps while my mother cooked for them. My first bee sting was at one of those camps.

The second Wednesday of each month was spent playing on the church office floor while my mother received the offerings collected by the deacons during home visits the previous week. Sunday mornings I sat with my dad among the elders, and my sister sat with my mum in the choir gallery.

This is going somewhere, promise…

On re-invention

Wait!  Don’t go.  You’re in the right place.  If all else fails…use a hammer has just had a bit of a makeover.  What do you think?  You like?  It’s not yet permanent.  I’m still experimenting with the new theme and haven’t decided whether I’m keeping it, but it’s growing on me.  In any event, go check out the new About pages while you’re here and let me know what you think.

Why the change?  This has been a good week.  But this past week things have been changing.  I’ve started exercising again (motivated, in part, by the discovery that I had gained six kilograms since April).  I’ve started making progress with my reading for my degree.  I’ve started writing again (okay, so I opened a new document on my pc and stared at the page for half an hour – that’s the most writing I’ve done outside of this blog for months).  I’m just, like the epic song by Nina Simone says, feeling good. Continue reading “On re-invention” →