2023: January blues are here this year

Happy New Year! We're officially two weeks into 2023 and Christmas feels like ages ago. Now, I have a confession to make. This post was originally going to be published last week after the first week of 2023.

However, life got in the way and things took a turn, so instead, I'm posting it about halfway into January.

This post was going to be 'My Firsts of 2023' and while it will include some of these, it's more of a round-up of my year so far and lessons I've already learnt. So, let's get into it.

2023 Firsts

For every New Year in my life, I've celebrated with my family. If we went to friends, it was together but since Covid, my family and I tended to stay in the comfort of our own home. But the 2022 celebrations were a little different.

New Year in 2022 was the first time my sister and I actually celebrated the New Year without our parents. We decided to go to our local pub with some friends, which turned out to be a very fun night. The pub had a section of it that turned into a mini nightclub, so we were dancing the night away.

That meant that the first person I spoke to in 2023 was my sister. Once midnight had arrived and we were officially into 2023, my text went to my parents to say we were leaving the pub, my first drink was my pink gin and lemonade that I had for the countdown and the first lesson of 2023 that I learnt was:

Never wear heels to go to the pub/club if you're going to be standing all night.

I made that mistake at my sister's graduation, but clearly, I hadn't fully learnt the lesson yet. But now I have so remember flats are the way to go!

My first song of the year was technically Auld Lang Syne, but if I go with the first song I chose and the first music artist I listened to, it would be Olly Murs' Best Night of my Life. Heading on over to movies, I've managed to watch a fair few this year. The first film I watched, however, was Disney's Up as I needed to watch it for uni to compare it to Pulp Fiction, which was my second movie of 2023.

My list of movies in 2023 then managed to increase when I found myself with spare time on my hands...

January Blues are real

After New Year, I had a plan of being the most productive person I could be. I was going to religiously do a morning routine, a night-time routine, workout four/five times a week etc.

And for the first week, that happened. I went for walks, powered through my university studies, wrote my first article of the year for FormulaNerds and was pleased. But by the end of the first week, my sister had fallen ill and I was feeling the effects with a sore throat.

We powered through so we could go to my friend's 21st party, but that's when the January Blues became tangible.

The second week of 2023, only seven days into the year, I tested positive for Covid.

My plan of productivity went out the window and I was bedridden, isolating in my room, sleeping. Having Covid for the third time at the beginning of the New Year wasn't how I envisioned my 2023 starting - hence why this blog post is later than planned.

But, having now tested negative, I'm slowly recovering and actually looking back on the past couple of weeks, I've learnt some valuable life lessons.

Lessons of 2023

Despite only being a fortnight into the new year, I feel as if I've learnt a lot of lessons already. As well as learning the lesson of shoes above, I've learnt not to feel guilty when you're ill.

When I had Covid and was isolating from my family, it was hard not to feel guilty because I wasn't able to help them. I was resting in bed but things took a turn for the worse one evening and I kept everybody up late.

I found it difficult to not keep apologising even though I knew I couldn't help being ill. From that, I learnt it's okay to be ill sometimes and not be able to do everything.

This leads me to my next lesson relating to work. Whenever I'm not doing work, I feel bad for not doing it. I feel that if there's work to be done, I should do it. However, not being well meant that I slept and watched films for several days - this did mean I'd watched 10 films already in 2023.

Lesson number two is that it's okay to take time for yourself and have some time off from work. Yes, things need to happen, but if the world isn't going to end if they're incomplete, you can have time for yourself.

The third and final lesson (other than Top Gun: Maverick is the best film of all time) is to always appreciate your family.

My family is the most important thing in the world to me and without them, I wouldn't be who I am and would also struggle a hell of a lot more in life. So to them, thank you!

With that concluding this post, what are some of your firsts of 2023? And have you learnt any life lessons yet?

Until next time...