last year (#3)

This year has been huge. I mean HUGE. And in a good way.

I almost forgot about my “last year” post series. Basically, around this time in 2014 and 2015, I wrote posts reflecting on what I would/wouldn’t change about my life if I had just one year left to live. I’m essentially contemplating how I’d like to spend my “last year” of life. My priorities didn’t seem to have changed much from 2014 to 2015, but this year’s post might be different…

First off, it’s kind of funny that I said in my 2014 post that I wanted to read David Copperfield, but didn’t actually get around to it until the start of this year… I suppose I’m not that great with prioritising when it comes to my TBR list. I mean, I’ve only read one of the four books I really, really wanted to read this year. In my defence, I can’t help it if people love sharing books with me; and maybe I can choose not to read the books people recommend or lend, but I really like a thoughtful recommendation, and I’m just trying to be a good friend by gratefully reading everything I’m given (trying to, anyway).

My points about running and writing remain the same this time around – they’re both things that I couldn’t live without. I’d definitely want to cut back on work hours, and maybe just do two or three days per week at the most. The rest of my time would be dedicated to finishing this story I’ve been working on, and also to reading, of course. I’d totally just go part-time now, but unfortunately that’s not financially feasible. If I definitely only had one year left to live, it wouldn’t matter but, alas, the future is unknown.

As for the points from 2015 – I don’t think I’d bake more. I don’t think I’ve baked anything since April or May this year. I really don’t remember. I just haven’t really felt like baking as much recently. Can’t say for sure why this has happened, but I suppose other things have taken over.

Travel is another point I discussed last year, and it seems like I came to the conclusion that I was overthinking it, but I probably wouldn’t travel more. In this year’s analysis, I’d probably flip that on its head, and say that I would like to travel more. Maybe not drastically more, but I should probably use up all of that annual leave I’ve accrued over the years… Where I’d go kind of just depends on who I’m travelling with.

And the things that I said I would change? I have been sharing this blog more. Well, ok, maybe not “sharing” exactly, but I mention it in conversations more, and I do so without hesitating. And point #3 about hugging – kind of still working on that, but I reckon it’s fair to say there’s been some improvement there.

Finally, there’s no doubt that sleep is vitally important to living, and I don’t think it should be compromised even in one’s final year of life. Of course, it’s approaching midnight as I’m writing this (to be fair, I do get to sleep in tomorrow), and I seem to be really terrible at getting to bed early, so I don’t think I’m very good at not compromising on sleep… Hypothetically, however, if I reduced my work hours, I’d have less need to get up early, and would hopefully be able to sleep more, right? Hypothetically.

But the reason I said that this year has been huge is not about all this stuff. This year has been huge because I (finally) really know who means the most to me, who I really care about and value, and which relationships I should devote my time to. And that’s essentially what this whole exercise is about – the division of one’s time.

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