This post is not about my travels, so sorry if that’s what you were expecting! Instead I’m going to do a wrap up of my year. I saw a bundle of wrap ups in freshly pressed and thought it would be a fun idea. It’s also a part of the Weekly Writing Challenge, which is cool.
Now I haven’t been blogging for a whole year, or even for a significant part of it, so I’m not going to do a wrap up of my blogging, but rather of the big things that I have done this year.
0: This isn’t something I’ve done, but it has had a big impact on my life this year so I’m going to include it as step 0, which frames all the others. Late last year dad started working in PNG. This has meant that I’ve not seen much of him, and mum and my little brothers have been travelling quite a lot. It has been a big thing to adjust to, as well as the rest.
1: I moved out of home. I sorta can’t believe that it has only been a year, but in February of 2012 I moved out, into a student share house in prospect. Some of it was due to convenience, and some of it was because mum and I used to get on each others nerves a lot. Happy to say that having moved out, we get on much better now. As I said, the other main reason I moved out was for convenience – I got sick of having to drive a fair distance before even catching a bus or getting on my bike. In comparison, prospect was a 15 minute ride from uni (or 10 if I was in a hurry)
2: I took up cycling in a big way. This is another one that seems like I’ve been doing it for much longer. I bought a second hand road bike for about $700 late in 2011, and rode it around the hills a bit, but it wasn’t until January of this year that I started doing significant rides. In February I got an app called Strava, and since then, I’ve ridden about 6000 recorded kilometres, and climbed almost 100,000 metres. You can have a look if you want, here.
If you looked, you would have seen a big gap where I didn’t ride for a couple of weeks in May. This was because I came off my bike going down Norton summit road. I took a corner too fast and skidded across the bitumen. The bike was OK, and I didn’t break anything, but I had some pretty serious grazing and asphalt burns. Still, that’s just left me with some badass scars, and didn’t stop me for too long.
I did crash a second time, but this time I wasn’t hurt, although the bike was. I got hit by a van, at pretty low speed, but he managed to knock my bike around, and it was a job for insurance to replace. So now I have a new bike, a Trek 2.1, which has since done over 3000ks, and isn’t quite so new anymore.
3: I moved house. When my lease ran up in June, I didn’t renew it, because I was lucky enough to have a family friend who bought a house in Glenside with an extra room. They aren’t moving in until next year, and so for the last few months my friend Galen and I have been living in a two story house just to the south east of town.
4: I stepped down from my role within the AYCC. Not everything this year was positive. For the last three years or so I have been a volunteer for the Australian youth climate coalition, where my roles were to coordinate the Adelaide uni group, and also as a part of the schools team. The AYCC is a fantastic organisation, doing really important things in terms of combatting climate change. But eventually I had to leave, simply because I was burnt out. Managing your involvement and stress levels is a tricky and important thing to do, and I probably didn’t do it all that well. However, (here comes the plug) if you’re a young person in Australia who feels like they should be doing something about climate change, the AYCC is one of the most effective groups out.
5: I ran for (and was elected as) environment officer for Adelaide uni SRC. So you know what I was saying about burnout and managing my stress levels? Well that didn’t go to plan. I said no the first time I was asked to run, and the second, but eventually I caved. Election week was one of the most intense difficult weeks I’ve ever been through. I skipped most of my lectures and did very little study. Voting is optional at Adelaide uni, and only about 10% of students actually bother to vote, so many votes come from being able to talk to people and convince them to vote. Funnily enough, more (and more committed) campaigners often makes for more votes. It’s this popularity contest style of politics that I really hate, and why I didn’t want to get involved. In the end most of my ticket got up, but it was a shitty week, that took quite a while to recover from. Hopefully I’ll be able to do some good things through the SRC, and that week won’t have been a complete waste of time.
6: I went to Europe with Galen and Stella and Molly (and I’m still there!) So far we’ve been to London and Paris, and we’re in Amsterdam at the moment. But if you’ve read anything I’ve posted before, you probably know that. After this we’re going to Berlin, and then to Prague and then Spain. In fact after posting this, we’re going to book our tickets to Berlin! This is my first Christmas away from all my family, which is a little sad, but I still get to spend it with good friends, in an amazing place, so it’s not all bad. In fact, it’s pretty great!
That’s about it for this year from me. I hope you have a fantastic Christmas, and a great 2013.
