December 30, 2022
It’s that time of the year. I’m sitting at home trying to write a review of what I’ve done since my last review. Like everyone, I want to make some sense of what happened in 12 months, I want to find the elements of a good story. But it’s hard.
Why? Because there’s no underlying scenario. It’s just life happening over an arbitrary period of 365 days. Some stuff is awesome, fun, fulfilling. There are sad, sometimes tragic moments. But most of the time, it’s average.
We humans are the ones who want to give sense to life by connecting dots that tell a story. It’s what keeps us going. It’s a good thing, but somehow I’m just not in the mood. I guess that I’ve read enough yearly reviews by others on social media so far to add mine to the list. The world does not need one more yearly review.
I’ll stop here because I realise this sounds depressing and I am in a far better mindset. Instead I’ll just list a few random things that happened to me over the last 12 months:
- My beautiful mum turned 80
- I took a shit load of pictures, including a small number of good ones that I am proud of
- I rode my bike in the Dolomites, and that’s enough to make it an great year
- I got cold, hot, wet, dirty, hungry and thirsty on my bike (fortunately not all at the same time)
- I skied powder
- I ran a lot in ski boots, got very cold and failed to finish the Patrouille des Glaciers
- I only cracked a rib
- I got one year older with Lillie, my rock
- I yelled a lot at Lillie while she was becoming a better photographer (she did get better, and of course my yelling did not help)
- I spent another season riding and shooting photos with my buddy Luca, and it was awesome as ever
- We watched our son Ben grow up. His yearly review includes: jumping into an airbag with his mountain bike, riding down the Rhine in 5 weeks with Lillie, taking up tennis, taking up piano, learning how to read. Now that’s a good story
- I kept my business afloat, maybe I even grew it a little
- I managed to pack my bike, fly with it and rebuild it on the other side, with just a little help. As a result, I rode awesome gravel in Finland and made new friends
- I learnt a lot about ADHD
- I didn’t do enough strength training
- I drank good wine and ate fine cheese
- I had a few sleepless nights worrying about meaningless shit
- Again, I didn’t pull the weeds on the tiles in front of the house and it’s an absolute mess
- I spent way too much time on video calls (the worst nightmare for an introvert).
- I just got a powermeter and don’t know what to do with it.
Can this make a good story? I think so, but I’ll leave it here. What lies ahead? I don’t know, nobody knows. There’s no script. It’s just life happening.
Have a great 2023 everyone!
