Closing Thoughts

Or, Q reflects on the chaos of the past year for both themselves and everyone else

So, uh, it’s been a bit of a wild ride. In deciding to write this I went back through my camera roll to the beginning of 2024, and some of the things that happened even just to me over this past year have made it feel like an entire decade has passed. In the wider world around me, things have shifted hugely, although not necessarily in a direction anyone is happy with.

I began the year with shingles, and that feels like quite an apt metaphor for how the rest of the year turned out. Whilst laid up in bed, I absently followed awards season, and whilst not in bed a few months later in March, lamented Lily Gladstone’s loss of the Best Actress award. Once I had recovered from shingles, mostly, I had my first appointment with my gynaecologist, an MRI, and a definite diagnosis of adenomyosis all in the span of two weeks. Bit of a wild two weeks for me.

The world decided it was a good year for elections, with many countries - including my own - deciding they’d had quite enough of whoever it was who was in charge. Depressingly for me, I was born a month too late to vote in my own election, but the outcome was what I could have predicted anyway, and I wasn’t so disappointed, at least in the beginning. I feel somewhat compelled to comment on the US election, and I will limit myself to saying only this: Godspeed, US Americans. The French had an election which I paid some attention to - they are my closest overseas neighbour - and quickly paid less attention to when I realised it would have no bearing on how much French cheese would be coming into the UK. I have priorities.

It would be remiss of me to rundown the year without mentioning the ongoing, and horrifying, conflicts happening across the world, and I thought I’d do it now so that I can end optimistically. The war in Ukraine is ongoing, and has been for several years. The genocide in Palestine is inexcusable, and I cannot conceive of any just reason that more world leaders haven’t spoken against it, and stopped the sale of arms to Israel. I never thought I’d live in a world where I could watch people die, and see no one help them. I feel similarly about the conflicts in Sudan and Congo, and I am of the firm and unmoved position that if we have one purpose on this earth it is to help other people, and we must help the oppressed, the suffering, the scared, to find safety and justice, and to be able to live in their own homelands. It is not enough to offer refuge, there must also be a movement to get them home again.

There was rioting in my country this year. It’s a relatively small island, and riots that seem localised at first, often spread fast, and they did. Explaining them would take its own post, and I have no interest in giving any more attention to the perpetrators than this, so sadly I will have to advise googling it if you want to learn more. I have no mixed feelings about these riots, organised and driven by racist mobs and fueled by hate speech online. They were awful and inexcusable and wrong. They were fed by misinformation and anger, which is how all awful things start, and I am grateful for the fast action of the court system, that many of them are now facing prison sentences. I am not often grateful for the legal system, it has many holes, but I am grateful for this.

2024 hasn’t been all bad: Syria is free of its dictator, the Olympics happened, which is always fun, Taylor Swift released a new album (shut up I liked it), Hozier continued to suprise us by throwing more music at us (again, I liked it), Justin Welby resigned (this will mean nothing to people who aren’t CofE, apologies), Ocean Vuong announced he was writing another novel, Sally Rooney released her new novel, and we all held space for the lyrics of defying gravity (or probably just Ariana holding Cynthia’s finger…). In personal news, I finally have an official diagnosis, as previously mentioned, I got a near perfect A* on my English Literature A-Level exam (applaud here please). I started this Substack and have interviewed two wonderful people, Jenna Nesky and Ottavia Paluch, written many rambles, and hopefully educated some people. I got my poetry collection accepted for publication, turned eighteen, and saw Taylor Swift live, all over the span of two days. I got into and am now attending my dream university (though there are accessibility issues), and I made new friends.

I have made many fumbles, I have ignored people by accident and then been too embarrassed to un-ignore them, and I have failed a lot. But, I still have all my friends and all the important organs are functioning, so I’d say I’ve done pretty well. The world in general has done all right. We’re here, we’ve got another chance to get it right, and we can all keep failing at whatever it is we’re trying to do. Life isn’t perfect, but it is alive. I’ll see you all next year.

- Love and sparkles ;)