Reverb 10 is an annual event and online initiative to reflect on your year and manifest what’s next. The end of the year is an opportunity to reflect on what's happened, and to send out reverberations for the year ahead. With Reverb 10, we'll do both.This year, for me, has been a strange one - a period I believe everybody leaving University experiences - basically joining the real world and figuring out the person you are going to be now there's no longer a shield of hungover, unwashed studentness to hide behind.
Every day in December I'll be given a prompt from a variety of selected people and authors to give me an idea to write about. Today is the first day:
Prompt: One Word. Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Explain why you're choosing that word. Now, imagine it's one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you?
Necessary
This was not the the first word that came to me after reading the prompt. 'Struggle' was in fact a strong contender and I have definitely felt this year to be a struggle. I never thought I would move home after finishing university, I had actually planned on travelling for a year, but I unfortunately graduated at a rubbish time and left uni with no money, a huge debt and no job prospects. I was luckily offered a job quite quickly, (albeit in a sector lightyears away from what I studied to do) and, despite a slight reluctance at having to postpone my travelling plans for a permenant job, I accepted it and moved home.
I always knew this year was going to be hard; after 3 years of living away from home, making new friends, going out every night, I was now miles away from all my friends, living with my parents and working 9-5. There were points at the beginning of the year where I would wish I could just fall asleep and wake up a year later. I knew 2010 was going to suck but I kept telling myself that it was a means to an end so I could save some money, build up some work experience and then be all set to travel and move out in 2011. In this way my experiences in 2010 were necessary for my plans for the future.
However, here I am - December 2010 - the month I thought would never arrive, and I can now look back over the past 12 months and appreciate that this year was not just necessary financially or for my career, but necessary for my growth as an adult and a person. My business experience; working 9-5 and earning a salary, acting (most of the time blagging it) as a professional, having responsibilities stretching beyond organising Friday's bar crawl, and being accountable for things that affected other people's lives. My relationships; appreciating my friendships and working to overcome the distance between us, realising the people who also put the effort in are the friends worth keeping and who will probably be friends for life. Also learning what it's like to be in a relationship; the benefits it brings and the changes you go through to make it work. Learning that if you want something, you have to work for it - in any area of life.
In this respect I feel the year 2010 has been necessary to my personal growth, and from what started as a stop-gap between chunks of my life, it has become the link beetween being a child and becoming an adult.
I predict my word for 2011 will be discovery as I will be embarking on the next stage of my life; travelling, moving to the City, closer to friends but further from my boyfriend, living on my own again, new job, new friends, new lessons to be learnt and more life experiences to be discovered.
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