CANDID'S 2023 CURTAIN CALL 🥂✨

 

Haha, guess who’s back again! It’s your favourite awkward and inconsistent creative soul with another ramble, Here's a wrap-up of my year, basically journalling, as well as a sneak peek into my life for those who are unfamiliar :) 

This might be a long read (length is subjective) so apologies to all my people suffering from a short attention span. Love you still <3

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The year 2023 of the Gregorian calendar has been a heck of a ride. I know everyone says that every year: I do not have any excuse to defend myself saying I'm different from them. Life has just been that interesting hehe

I am grateful that this past year has been crazy, with several ups and downs of equal magnitude. All these new experiences have moulded and will continue to mould me into a better and stronger person than I was in the past. January me is definitely not the same person that I am right now (as of the time of writing this in December 2023). It’s all simply a little thing most of us like to call “character development”

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Achievements of 2023

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I'd consider it the cherry on top out of all the out-of-character impulsive things I’ve done this year.

 

      Completed my first year of uni

      Eternally grateful for the surprisingly good grades I got. Hope this academic year will be as successful, especially since things always become tougher as one advances.

·       Learning new languages

      Earlier this year I attended online Korean classes. However, I did not manage to complete the course since my main course was already tedious and time-consuming. I continued with Korean on Duolingo, as well as adding Japanese on the side in case the redundancy of one becomes boring. It is my intention to one day become fluent enough to hold philosophical conversations just to flex. Or maybe just enough to understand K-dramas and anime without subtitles.

      I'm just kidding. Just learning for fun at the moment. And in case you’re wondering, yes, Asian pop culture has heavily influenced my interest in these languages lol. 

          Gigs

      This year I’ve gotten a few small gigs for editing videos and a few that involve graphic design. It doesn’t pay much, I don’t expect it to especially since I’m still learning, but my portfolio is growing and it’ll help me a bunch someday. In the career path that I'm following, a good portfolio can take one a long way.

 

·       Reading and writing

      I may not have achieved my writing goals for this year; really trying not to beat myself up for it because there is a lot on my plate that I always have to do, which in turn makes me sideline my writing time. However, I do acknowledge the fact that I did manage to write plenty of haikus and a few poems. Heck, I even performed two of my poems, one from last year and another that I wrote this year, in front of a live audience! Those were very big moments for me; spoken word is a genre that is still new for me yet I got out of my comfort zone to do it. I’m honestly proud of myself :D

      As for reading, it’s also been a struggle, but I’ve completed 7 books this year. I’ve also read comics (particularly webtoons and manhwas) though I haven’t exactly kept track of those hehe. Maybe I’ll start giving reviews of the stuff I read, I don’t know. We’ll see :)

 

·       Music

      If I had a pound (mbao) for every time I sang I’d probably be living in a king-sized mansion by now. I sing everywhere and anywhere and this was the year I got back into singing in front of an audience where I’m part of the church's worship team. It’s been a while since I’ve found myself there and I thank the Lord that I’ve been granted this opportunity to serve Him.

      When it comes to instruments, I haven’t made as much progress on the piano as I would have liked. I had been avoiding the instrument due to events that happened to me in the past, but I got over it and started practising it more. Also got to learn a little guitar in a bid to be more versatile (plus I wanna serenade someone in the middle of the night outside by their window at some point in my life lol) It’s been difficult to keep the practice consistency on this since I don’t have easy access to a guitar, but hopefully I’ll be able to buy myself one soon.

 

·       AOBs

      As an introvert growing up in a strict African household, I took the liberty to change my social life. To live a little more, y’know? I want to appreciate my circle of friends who have directly and indirectly motivated me to live life to the fullest. Honestly, it might sound cliché, but really, they are the best gift I could ever ask for <3

      I’ve gone to plenty of events where I met plenty of new people and made new friends. Heck, I even attempted a Steve Harvey cosplay in one which came out better than I expected for a first-time cosplay. Shoutout to my mother’s eyebrow genes that literally carried the whole look :D

      Changing my wardrobe (though a slow process) has improved my self-confidence a lot. Dyeing my hair was one of the riskiest decisions I’ve made (mostly because of the fear of my folks rather than the fear of my hair falling off) but I'd consider it the cherry on top out of all the out-of-character impulsive things I’ve done this year.

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Takeaways of 2023

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       If you don’t communicate, how will they know?

    

      Do it for the plot

If there’s a wise saying that Gen Z has come up with one social media, it is this one. You might be thinking, What is this plot that you speak of, Candid?

It’s how I got the courage to recite my poems in front of an audience. It’s how I meet new people and we have meaningful convos with them or even just vibe and chill. It’s how I got to know what school politics is like (It's chaotic in general, the team for the post I was vying for lost by 1 vote and that was kind of frustrating but we moved on lol).

It is to be noted, however, that this ideology can create toxic patterns in one’s life if overused and used incorrectly. One should consider the consequences that may incur, especially if it is something would affect other people. I may sound like a textbook, but yeah. Don’t come quoting me saying that you took advice from me and that it made things worse for you.

 

·       Unknowing people you know

This is a reference to Selena Gomez’s song which usually trends at the end of the year. Although the song talks about losing tight bonds with a person who one might have thought would be the peanut butter to their jelly, it's good to point out the bonds that are lost because of drifting, or misunderstandings between friends.

In a case of misunderstandings, I came to learn the hard way that reconciliation does not always mean reconnection. There's no need to force rebonding after forgiveness especially when people distance themselves from you. Things cannot always go to how they were before.

Drifting is different since most of the time it goes unnoticed. Nobody warned me that this would happen to me and almost all of my friends. Even with potential love interests. If you’re reading this, you’re probably among the few who I still keep in touch with once in a while, even with just sending memes. I came to the understanding that our lives and interests change so there’s not much to talk about, or perhaps some things cannot be shared or discussed until certain levels of friendships. And that’s okay. Wishing you all nothing but blessings and success : )

Perhaps one of the notable things I can mention under this, is how as I was transitioning into my second year of uni, a lot of people that I know went to study abroad and I only got to know about it much later. It made me realise that where people have placed you in their lives is not the same as where you have placed them. Sometimes they value you more than you do them, sometimes it's vice versa, and that's okay and totally normal. We can’t send all our contacts ‘Happy Birthday’ messages nor can we text them all after every five business days. Frankly, if I were in their shoes, I would have probably done the same thing, possibly for the same reasons they did. But it’s okay now, a warning for stuff like that happening would have been nice though.

 

·       COM!-MU!-NI!-CA!-TION!

This is definitely my biggest takeaway of the year 2023. It's gotten me out of mulling over whether I had unknowingly offended someone, wondering and creating false realities in my head that would only land me in disappointment. 

If you don’t communicate, how will they know? If you don’t communicate, how will they know? If you don’t communicate, how will they know? If you don’t communicate, how will they know? If you don’t communicate, how will they know? If you don’t communicate, how will they know? If you don’t communicate, how will they know? If you don’t communicate, how will they know? If you don’t communicate, how will they know? If you don’t communicate, how will they know? 

Have a crush on somebody? Tell them. Someone is pissing you off with a joke you don’t like? Tell them.  Do you feel like you have unresolved issues with someone? Tell them. Is your hairdresser doing the wrong hairstyle? Tell them. Someone’s outfit is giving? Tell them. You’re withholding a compliment that you want to give but you’re scared? Just tell them.

 

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If you've read all the way up to here (or even just skimmed past everything), thank you for taking the time to open the link <3

I won't go into any more stories. Apologizing for any errors or spelling mistakes that I may have overlooked. Christmas festivities have taken a hoard of my time and energy. Hope I’ll post more of my writing and make it impactful to whoever may read my works. Dear brethren, parting is such sweet sorrow that I shall say goodnight till it be morrow.

Goodbye to you, 2023, thank you for everything, and hello 2024, let's see what you have in store for me! :)