A few months ago in How Far Can Your Neck Stretch and How to Be a Giraffe in a Crisis, I talked about the pressure that we can put on ourselves and how we can respond to that. I want to talk more about this since I have recently started a job in hospitality where by January, I will have done quite the tour of the central belt! It has been an ‘interesting’ experience going to different places and learning things that I didn’t know before. However, it is not a job that I feel I am thriving in and that I see as a long term solution. Despite this, I guess it has shown me what I don’t want. Although I am aware that I need to earn money to keep up living in a flat and give some thought to the future and other ‘adult’ stuff, I don’t want to sacrifice my happiness for the sake of an easy, less complicated life.

There is a song by Rend Collective which talks about this joy in not just existing but ‘living alive’ which I hope will demonstrate my point and what I hope I can achieve in the new year.

It can be scary, I know. Since starting work, it has properly hit me that I don’t have the security of being a student anymore. I also find it scary not having much of a clue of what the next few months will be like so I’m struggling to feel as content as the song encourages us to be which in turn has made my social anxiety play up more over the last few weeks. I am still working through how to use my ideas about the future but I know that I want to use my creativity and helping people with their mental health and I will keep you posted on any developments that I have with that.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you find it helpful. As always, feel free to get in touch with any questions/feedback/comments, I always love to hear it. Stay tuned for the next instalment.

Until next time

Kathryn