If 2023 was the year of Recovery where I had my brain injury/ stroke. Where I had to start life from absolute scratch again, learning to talk, learning to stand, learning to walk, learning to live with a non functional arm, a slightly slower mental capacity and the huge emotional shift that comes with all that.

2024 has been the year of returns. Returning to driving; until

December where I’ve had to stop again. walking more distances confidently and getting somewhat quicker, returning to a full gym (still for primarily for rehab but back in the correct environment), returning to work (changed but back) returning to foreign holidays. Returning to days out, nights out, returning to feeling a lot more like me. It also meant 2 returns to hospital for more cardiac things, yuck.

2025 is hopefully going to be the year of rebirth or resurrection (not that I’m Jesus)

I’ve got lots of things in the pipeline I’ll likely share in the future but for now I’m heading into 2025 with huge optimism, lots of plans and a confidence I’ve not felt in a long time.

Happy hours and broken bodies
Spilling down the street (la, da, la, da-da-da-da)
Traffic noise and screaming highways
But I don’t hear a thing (I don’t hear a thing)
Just “la-da-da-da, da-da, da-da”
No, I don’t hear a thing (la, da, la, da-da-da-da)
Just “la-da-da-da, da-da, da-da”
The same old, same refrain (same old, same refrain)

You slept on it, I woke up (woke up)
Diamond rings and pixie dust
Can’t nobody buy my love
I woke up for me

And I got ready for myself

🎵 – ready for myself, Nelly Furtado 2024