Happy New Year! Can’t believe it, another year gone. And so much has happened in my life. 2023 ended with my first NY Eve party in many years.
It’s now been two years of transforming my life into what I want it to be. This past year I’ve continued working on myself. I’m still going to the gym twice a week even though there’s been times I didn’t go as much. But I always went back to it. Others have even noticed as I actually have muscular arms for the first time in my life! Now I have started doing other exercises daily at home to work on my dad bod.
I have continued to do yoga at home most days. This blog has still been a great outlet for my feelings and experiences. My IBS has been pretty bad most of the year. Instead of giving up though, I made the effort to see a specialist. Now I finally feel like I’m on the right track with my diet and gut directed hypnotherapy.
Can’t talk about another year gone without mentioning my amazing kids. I had so many proud dad moments in the last twelve months. They were in their last year at their primary school and both continued to do extremely well in all of their subjects. Going into the high school, they have been accepted into an advanced learning path. Both of them got to speak in public on many occasions due to being captains at the school. They even met the Prime Minister. My daughter’s anxiety was up and down but she made so many positive steps towards dealing with it. They stepped out of their comfort zone by going to school camp and had a brilliant time.
I feel like we got closer too. Being happier with myself has improved my relationship with them, not that it was bad before. We went away together for a couple nights, which we haven’t done often. They are such beautiful souls and make the world a better place just by being in it.
As for my passion for acting, this past year wasn’t great. I did get to help out backstage on the first local musical production of the year. It was a lot of fun and reminded me that there’s so many great people involved with that group. Because I was away for a few weeks later in the year, I couldn’t get involved with the second show. But the worst part happened when I worked on my audition for months for the first show happening this coming year and didn’t even get a small role. I started to question everything.
One thing I learned about myself is that I’m stronger than I used to be. I was upset for a short time when I didn’t get into the show, but something happened. First of all, it really hit home that I have friends now. After so many years of having no one, there were people there for me. And I just picked myself up a lot quicker and focused on other positive things in my life.
I definitely questioned why I continued to practice my singing, as I only started that to get involved with the arts council shows. It continues to make me happy though. I got to sing an Ed Sheeran song at my teacher’s concert, definitely felt like I improved from the previous one. Then something happened. My teacher called it a breakthrough. After focusing on my breathing for a few weeks, suddenly my pitch was so much better. I’m so excited to continue this year, might even learn an instrument like guitar.
My loneliness definitely crept in a lot, but it was less frequent. I felt so busy all the time. My trip to Canada to see my friends and family was a highlight. So many of them commented on how much I have changed for the better. I’ve started hanging out with a couple of different guys from the arts council. One of them loves hockey so it’s nice to have someone here to watch it with. Our teams happened to play each other on New Year’s Eve so we got together for a few drinks. He invited others to celebrate that night. So I got to party on NY Eve for the first time in about twenty years. I had such a great night. We swam in the pool, we played drinking games, and I got to catch up with friends. Another year gone. Bring on 2024…