January 2021: The Month of Apathy.

So apparently this is my first post in 2021, which is madness because first of all, what a mess of a year so far, and also- where did the time go?!

If I could summarise January 2021, essentially it has been miserable weather, work, and attempting to not isolate myself from other people. As much as I have been okay, I have had long streaks this month of apathy. I have very rarely watched the news, except just the main bulletins online, played a lot of video games (on the Nintendo Switch), and watched far too much Netflix.

Honestly, the highlight of this month for me was when for a day, heavy snow fell across the country. I woke up at 08:45am on Sunday 24th January and it was absolutely beautiful. I decided the moment I saw it, that I needed to go outside and take photos. I went to my nearest park, and it was amazing. Everyone was socially distanced, children were laughing, a few couples were throwing snowballs at each other, and there were a couple of people like me who were taking photos. I got to the end of the park, turned round and for the first time in a very long time I just thought “This is all so normal. This is what a happy society looks like”.

I think what the big takeaway from this post this, is that if you are struggling, please talk to someone. Anyone. Whether it is a family member, a friend, your GP or a mental health organisation like Shout (text 85258) or Samaritans (call 116 123). This is something I honestly haven’t been doing, and I’ve been negatively impacted as a result. As I mentioned at the beginning, nothing has happened- but that is what I’ve been struggling with. It is depressing realising what is going on in the country and realising that Coronavirus has been impacting millions of lives for a year now. Realising that in my country, the UK government acted far too late on pretty much everything. Realising that everything seems to have a caveat attached due to Coronavirus (whether it be progression, buying a house, seeing loved one etc). But we are all in this together, and seeing the amount of people who have had their first dose of vaccinations in this country gives me hope.

On the plus side, at least I did my cervical screening! If you have a cervix, are over the age of 25, and haven’t done this yet- it is incredibly simple to do (takes 2 minutes at the most), and it is incredibly beneficial to get this done.