2026

This will be the year

January never counts as the beginning of the year, in my humble opinion. It begins the moment you hear birdsong for the first time. So, around February or March.

Besides, January came round with both a beautiful blessing and a vengeful spirit. The blessing was my boyfriend and I becoming official in what was perhaps one of the happiest moments of my life. But the vengeful spirit visited in the form of flu.

But this meant I was able to think about the plans for this year, my hopes and all the things I’ve manifested (I’m a believer in the Law of Assumption and Manifestation). I never partook in the ‘new year, new me’ fad, nor did I ever believe a gym should be without a walk-of-shame bar. But what did I want to change this year?

I want to change how I write for Substack. I want to write more on here with subjects I’d been recently arrested by, or those I had set up a personal curriculum for. If there’s any place to set up a platform for writing, it’s on Substack.

I also want to set up a social media account again, eventually. I know, I know, I have spoken against socials in my own writing, but again, if I want to interact with other writers and creatives and the literary world at large, this would be the best way of doing it now. In this way, I would also engage with my audience; with you, dear reader, wherever you might be.

Staying on the same vein of writing, I am also going to start querying for agents this year as part of my third attempt. We Leos don’t give up so easily. Hopefully, this will start at the beginning of March.

In my own personal life is where things get rather different. It is my mission this year to get a day job in an office and move out. It’s true I’ve been on the hunt for a full-time job since January 2024, and that I live with my father, but I feel differently about this year.

It goes without saying that I wish to travel. To new countries, this year. To new cities and theme parks.

In the year 2024, my life motto was ‘what a life’. I would mutter this as I’d begrudgingly perform the most menial tasks in the house. “What a life,” I’d say as I poured my morning cup of tea. “What a life,” I’d say as yet another friend posted about getting a new job on LinkedIn. “What a life,” I’d say as the rain beat down upon the windows.

This fortunately changed in 2025. It became “it is all working out.”

Now, it has changed once again: “Isn’t it wonderful?”

“Isn’t it wonderful that the crocuses are out?” “Isn’t it wonderful that it’s all going to work out?” “Isn’t it wonderful that my friends are so much happier than they were a year ago?”

Isn’t it wonderful that 2026 is the year? The year I move out. The year I publish my debut novel. The year I get my office job.

Isn’t it wonderful?