Vigilantes Cudgelling Frozen Rockpools,

A whole year has passed since I was standing in the street bawling at my neighbours to turn down the noise during New Year’s Day dinner, which for some reason is more important to me than Christmas dinner. New Year’s Eve is for other people, I only like the fireworks. It’s a sad time of year, it’s more about reflection.

This was the year in which we lost my granddad and I attended my first funeral. When we think about who we are and our characteristics, we can attribute most of them to our upbringing. I can thank my granddad for some of my best ones, patience, politeness and measured approach to situations and conversations. On an everyday basis, he’s responsible for my language which cuts a stark contrast to the uncouth nonsense spouted by those all around the town from similar backgrounds. I wonder if subconsciously, he even was responsible for the way, I play football.

Since summer time, I’ve been without an amateur football team, I left one club due to corruption and politics, I did make an audible stance and try to rally support for a moral overhaul but those who stood most to gain from the change I proposed lacked the backbone to act and they’ve been made to suffer. I find myself on the periphery of another team but their training regime is less frequent and less intense, I’m finding it hard to cope with working out physically less.

Academically, I probably answered the question to my project too early, or maybe at the right time, the answer was negative. I was given a side project to prevent me from twiddling my thumbs, I’ve enjoyed this work more than anything so far and I hope that I can develop it into my main project over the final months of my spell. Flux in the research group has seen me try to replace one mentor with another – with chaotic outcomes, but I must say I’m grateful for the liveliness (most of the time). I published a paper too but the process of writing and submitting journal articles left me feeling underwhelmed and disillusioned. I have another article ready to be sent off but it’s out of my hands as to when we simulate launch sequence. The coming year will see me attempt a quick discharge from academia and enter the hunt for employment vacancies

I’ve not become a better person in 2008, I’ve only become a more robust version of the person I was, and this is a result that we might just have to settle for.