Six Times Over

Maybe it’s time for me to stop blogging – this is a thought that came to me many times during this year. Simply because of the fact that it’s been 6 years since I started and I’m not sure how far I’ve come. Although this doesn’t come from a sense of worthlessness that dominated 2013 and for which I wrote this blogoversary post. However, I must say that I have lived everything written in that post to the hilt. That could be one of the reasons why I had such a fantastic year.

The fact that I have considered giving up blogging came to me because of age – both mine and my blog’s. I’m in my late twenties. If there were a checklist (as I am sure there is), I am not hugely successful, or lucky in love, or famous, or even plain hard-working. I’m just a regular next-door girl who has just been writing here (if you want to call it that) and who has been plodding on because there was nothing else I knew I could do with the words inside me. The fact that I’ve come so far (both while blogging and in life) with little or nothing to show for has made me think of taking down this blog. That I haven’t done so is purely because of selfish reasons.

In all my honesty and due to a long-standing tradition, I write this blogoversary post to sum up my year and start a new one. Some people say that don’t make lists of things they want to do or how they want to live. I think it helps me to make lists and make plans of how I would like to get what I want. So, here’s a list of the wins and losses during 2014.

Wins

• Took my first, international solo trip
• Did very well at the workplace
• Mended my relationships with family and old friends
• Cut down on eating junk food
• Almost gave up drinking soft drinks
• Took health seriously (sometimes a little too seriously)
• Ran, gymmed, made drinking green tea a habit
• Spoke to Elif Shafak over the phone
• Wrote 34028 words as a part of my book’s manuscript
• Took a long overdue girl trip and stayed with all old friends
• Listened to my heart all through (oh it works like a charm!)
• Learned how to cook some of my mom’s special dishes
• Let go of the toxic remains of a pseudo-relationship
• Completed the 100 Happy Days challenge (This is important because I believe I am fickle.)
• Completed 100 Book Quotes on Bookhad blog, with F, obviously
• Forgave myself
• Crossed off Kerala from my childhood travel list (FYI the list is, Kerala, London, Paris in no order). The travelogue.
• Wrote 2 poems I am very proud of: Transgression and Abundance 
• Won the bet kept with AamilTheCamel (He’s at 44 books. This is a brownie point. Although I think he’s done admirably well.)
• Learned how to use Excel
• Formed a strong opinion on men, feminism, and how I want to live my life
• And of course, read some wonderful books. My book of the year: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 

Losses

• Lost a friend I genuinely cared for
• Didn’t contribute to the Bookhad blog as much I should have
• Got slack in some places and let negativity take over what was working well for me
• Let down my guard and allowed bad habits to creep in at the end of the year
• Wasn’t consistent
• Lost my temper often; a downside from the time when I had a hold on it
• Wasted a lot of money on unnecessary expenditure
• Had at least one heart-wrenching fight with every important man in my life

A note for F here. This is because I hopped over to the Bookhad blog the other day and I was casually reading. It amazed me how he’s held up that blog. This is to say that I love him more than the brother I never had. I’ve seen him muster so much courage to keep going this year. (I don’t call him my SamWise Gamgee for nothing.) Seeing that blog makes me very happy and his dedication to Bookhad is admirable. If only I could have half the loyalty he does. So, F, if you’re reading this from “up north in UP” know that you’ve been a source of inspiration for me and I love you more than ever.

Next year, if only I can have every bit the courage I had in this year, and if I have a 7th blogoversary I’m sure it will say a lot of other good things. Courage, I have realised, is the bedrock of living a wholesome life.

Happy new year to everyone. And a happy blogoversary to me.