2017 in Review.

Have a look here for a video version of this blog. Maybe you’ll like it. Maybe you won’t.

 

2017 huh? It’s been such a strange one. Alot of great stuff happened to me, and also alot of terrible stuff. Here’s a heavily abbreviated list of everything I got up to in the past 363-365ish days (depending on when I finish this post)

• Trained down to London to meet some friends I made while travelling
• Began doing a course with and eventually performing alongside the Improv groupl, Dogface
• Was signed up for Jury Service (Very adult)
• Started working at Norfolk Adoption Service- Had the best time! Kind of wished I stayed now!
• Took a long weekend in Copenhagen– Went on a pub crawl, met a million lovely people
• Got to see the Norwich Pride festival-The day after I turned 25!
• Went to see a play, see an opera and a symphony
• Bought a fancy new camera, so we tested it out by going to a pig race…?
• Went camping
• Went crabbing
• Ran a fun run!
• Spent a few days in Stockholm
• Bleached my hair for a fancy dress costume (no really)
• Went to three beer festivals
• Went to a food festival
• Went to a festival solely comprised of tribute bands
• Swam in a river for no real reason and probably almost drowned
• Went to see the lights get turned on in Norwich
• Visited the smallest pub in England
• Had one of my best pals come down to visit for the weekend and got approapriatly drunk
• Saw one of my oldest friends get married- 25 seems like an appropriate age to get married, but I just can’t get used to it. Anyway best wishes to you, Sam & Siri!
• Quit my job, decided I had to get serious about becoming a writer (I’ll let you know how that goes in my 2018 review)

Well, when you put it all down into a list, it doesn’t seem like much. Were you interested in any more of my adventures-here’s a playlist! So you can waste your time listening to my droning voice. What fun!

Of course that is only a small portion of what I did this year, and about half of what I had planned for it as a whole. It’s certainly been a challenging year, I didn’t really care for it. But I know I can make 2018 the best year so far. (Report back here next year to see if I did that or not)

 

It was truly a year that everyone swore could never be worse than the proverbial-social-prolapse that was 2016, somehow managed to be both much better and a hundred times worse at the same time. While we didn’t have to live through quite as many beloved deaths of people we grew up watching (although there were still plenty), we were treated to watching many more having their careers killed through scandal and controversy, and just general terrible things. There were tragedies, terrorism and terrible decisions made by terrible people who were elected due to ignorance and general apathy. I thought people were glum throughout last year, but people appear to be almost suffering now.

Of course, alot of good stuff happened this year too, but people were so bummed out, they decided to ignore it and bury their feelings with stupid memes and Love Island. And i’m not talking about the royal engagement and the fact that Chris Pratt is now single. Alot of good stuff you might not have heard about:

• Scientists discovered ways to rebuild sections of the Great Barrier Reef
• Honey bee populations have increased by 27%
• Snow Leopards are no longer endangered! Hooray!
• HIV/AIDS is no longer the leading cause of death in Africa
• Conservation plans have been set in stone that will allow over 70 million trees to be planted in the Amazon
• In India, volunteers planted 66 Million trees IN TWELVE HOURS (That is alot of trees)
• Remember that ALS ice bucket challenge? Well looks like it’s doing some real good! (RIP Anthony Senerchia)
• Scientists have created a cure for burns that will heal without scars
• Scientists believe the hole in the ozone layer is shrinking
• And Austria, Germany and Australia have passed marriage equality laws! Here is to love!

For more things that have happened, check out this album on Imgur I shamelessly stole from.

You see? While many of this things are the world just recuperating from things that we are directly responsible for, the fact that so many of us humans can recognise these as problems and move towards healing the world in such unity is a huge, huge stride, and if we can keep up this pace, we can change the world. For the better, hopefully. Just remember, if you want to save the world, it needs to start with you.

Hope you had a fantastic year, friend, and if you didn’t, I hope you make 2018 a fantastic year instead. If you’re unsure of what it will bring, get a piece of paper and write a list of everything you want to happen, then make it happen. Don’t wait for fate to sideline you, make it your own, come back in 365 days warn out and aching, but fulfilled and happy.

Take care, friend, I’ll speak to you in a year.

Chris xo