The end of the year tends to always be very busy. There are presents to buy, Christmas dinners to organise, essays to research and trees to decorate. This year was no different; it was just even busier. My mum came to visit for a week-end, I went to the university """ball""" (very loose understanding of the word ball) and I had a photography project to finish and hand in before the holidays.
After all of this was done, I worked a couple shifts to win back what I'd spent on presents, packed my things and got on the Eurostar to head home for a few days. As I was enjoying a complimentary breakfast in business class (apparently, this is what happens when my mum books my tickets), I took a moment to think back on 2012.
There's this great thing on Facebook this year called "2012: Your year in reviews." Using what I'm sure are very advanced algorithms (not), it tells you what are the twenty major events of your year. I thought it'd be pretty lame; turns out it got my year quite right.
Although it did select this:
Well... Almost right.
2012 was a pretty big year for me—and that's an understatement. I turned 18, I voted in presidential elections for the first time, I moved into a house that I picked without even consulting my parents and signed a rental contract with my name on it (!!!!), I got a seriously cool job, I went to freaking New York, I made some incredible friends that contributed to big changes in how I go about my life, and last but no least—I reached 10,000 views on the blog.
Most, if not all of these things have one thing in common: they resonate with a sense of adulthood that I wasn't expecting so early. Of course, leaving home and moving abroad when I was only 17 certainly accelerated the separation from teenagehood (French understanding of teenagehood, it stops around 18 rather than 20 to me.) But as I was lying on my university halls bed, eating Ben & Jerry's from the tub while watching Twilight (this is pure fiction by the way), I most definitely did not feel like an adult.
I recently had a conversation with two good friends of mine about The Future. After a fancy greek dinner with fancy skewers and fancy fried chorizo and super tasty tzatziki, we sat down with a glass of wine and discussed Real Life Problems, things like job opportunities and youth unemployment and asked each other important questions such as 'Would you rather work for McDonald's or The Daily Mail?' The view I had on these issues was pretty pessimistic. Looking at what goes on in the outside world these days, my first instinct is to hide under my covers.
However, when I think of 2012, of all the amazing things me and my friends went through, I feel like my generation might actually be ok. It might be a hell of a ride, but at least we've been taught to fight for what we want and hold on even when things look terrible.
So—2012, the year I sort of became an adult. But only just. I still sometimes have cereals for dinner.
Obviously, your mood is more optimistic than you think. And fighting for what you want is a good way of life, trust me.
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Pokou, pokou
Mamounette