It’s been a while…

I’m not quite sure where to start from. I haven’t written in months, I almost forgot how it feels like to have the luxury of sitting down, and writing about my mostly tormenting but occasionally comforting thoughts and feelings.

I haven’t had much time to reflect back on the year just gone, but I do know that with the exception of the horrific murder of our family friend Doros, things are, on the whole, miles better than a year ago.

Thanks to a rare stroke of luck, the Ministry of Interior decided to finally do something about the state of the blocks of council flats my parents and other Greek-Cypriot refugees live in, and after years of protesting, complaining and praying, my parents have now moved out!!! That was the best news not only of the year, but I’d say the decade, for us as a family and for me personally!Thank God, a huge burden and a constant worry off our back.

Also, I never thought a year ago that I’d be married to my boo! I’m now a married woman, though I’m still yet to figure out what the difference is from living together, other than we hopefully never have to worry about visa issues, immigration, getting ‘permission’ from my husband’s employer to go on holiday (!) and other ridiculous Cyprus immigration processes that we had to follow in the last two years.

After an eventful few months including changing jobs (which I often thank my lucky stars for), winning an MBA scholarship, a few other incidents and a brief summer break, I spent the last couple of months of the year studying part-time for the MBA, signing up to a local mental health NGO, volunteering to help them as much as I can with whatever I can, a short trip and a beautiful few days to Athens for boo’s first full marathon, training for and running my first half-marathon.

I also finally started Mind Matters, for now just a platform to raise awareness about mental health (Facebook, Instagram, X). I haven’t posted much on it yet, but I’ll definitely make some time to develop it and keep it going.

The year concluded with a nasty stomach bug that kept me bed-bound for the better part of my short Christmas break. I didn’t go to the Christmas villages I wanted to, I didn’t see my friends, and took me longer to finish my dreaded assignments. I didn’t do anything I usually do, even small Christmas traditions I started a few years ago. To begin with, I felt bad thinking about what I missed out on, but then I realised, it doesn’t really matter and I suddenly felt at peace.

I feel like, for the last few years, I lost my confidence, my courage, my spark, well, my self, and now I’m the busiest I’ve ever been, and stressed most of the time, I finally started to reconnect to myself. I need to, if I’m to manage not to be anxious worrying about everything I commited to do for the new few months or depressed and sad with everything else going on in the world (I only read the news once a day lately, I can’t handle more than that).

So, although I’ll probably spend most of 2024 constantly feeling tired, I wish to myself and everyone else first and foremost good health, and then calmness, peace of mind, staying true to yourself and enjoying the little things.

Namaste

Eleni