Auld Lang Syne
31/12/2020
By Charlotte
2020. The year the world stood still.
As this year draws its final breath today, it would be nice
to look at some of the pivotal moments which shaped the year.
Through the summer breeze, and winter frost, many people will, over the next
few hours, be reflecting, on the ride they endured these last 365 days. Indeed,
the year has been filled with highs and lows.
On a personal note, I experienced some hours of turbulent change;
I went from sitting amongst Oxford professors and Cambridge interviewers in
January, to work coaches, in early September. I‘ve sat in a room full of doctors, and
scientists, to a room full of accountants and office workers and managers and editors and columnists. There was also
the transition to go from sitting behind a desk to a screen...
For young people
especially, I do believe this year will remain a series of fragmented and
distorted pixels, arranged in the memories. The world is a big place, yet this
year shrunk to the size of our homes, which leaves those who have just escaped
the confinements of a classroom, with sense of bewilderment as they try to
navigate the next steps in their lives. How do you find your place in a
changing world dealing with an unprecedented crisis? Do you become part of a
lost generation? Naturally, we turn to our survival instincts, but,
unfortunately, these are unable to help us truly find sustainable paths.
Indeed, there are careers, and finances and a whole host of topics to begin to
contemplate in the years of youth. With the burden of a global pandemic, it
goes without saying that the only way to move forward, productively, in the
current climate, is to take a moment to step back, at least until the storm
passes.
With reference to some lows of 2020, I have watched excited friends
venture off to university, only to be locked up in a foreign city for months
with little or no support; I have seen relatives be told to stay home for
months alone; I’ve seen hard workers told hard work isn’t enough to keep your
job. We’ve all seen the stories of the pain the NHS has suffered; I can only
hope, once the pandemic is over, the government nurses the NHS back to
flourishing health, and gives it the treatment it deserves. In a similar way to
how the NHS has nursed us so heroically in 2020. My thoughts are also with
those who have lost their loved ones over the last year and suffered harsher
hardships than myself, which are plentifully scattered across every tier
throughout the British Isles.
There have been highs though, and moments of true character.
Clapping on our doorsteps,
zoom calls, socially distanced walks, its all there, in the memory of 2020. I,
for one, have had to learn to leave the classroom behind and step forward
alone. I will always be grateful for re-connecting with dance, writing, books and
running in 2020, all passions of mine, that if perhaps the pandemic had not of
occurred, they would have slipped from my grasp, just as they were beginning to
at school. I have also loved helping others learn and putting whatever I know,
to good use. As a teacher, there is no moment like it when you watch a student
turn a challenge into an accomplishment, and you know, discretely, that
somewhere along the way, you were a part of that change. It has been one of my
greatest privileges in 2020.
To end, this year has been a rollercoaster. Last January, I
was being interviewed in Scotland’s highlands for a medical school place (all I
will say in Scottish is…auld lang syne), and to conclude this year, I am working
full-time in a finance team, balancing the demands of employment and
responsibility. Sandwiched between, are cycles with friends, walks with family,
zoom calls, picnics, isolation, writings, runs, decisions, tests, new people,
reconnections, BBQs, cries, laughs, fights, forgiveness, and a newly adapted
appreciation for the power of focus.
Focus on making your 2021 the best it can be.
Happy new year and enjoy being your own version of Bridget Jones tonight; we're all stuck in.
Charlotte
Take a cup of kindness from this year.
Scotland, for the sake of old times:
1) 1) Unroll one sheet of readymade puff pastry.
2) 2) Slice horizontally (down the width) into
two.
For each slice;
3) 3) Spread a tablespoon of cranberry sauce
over the surface. Draw a fate line with a knife separating the top and bottom
half of your slice.
4) 4) Add chicken sausage meat to the lower
side of the slice.
5) 5) Add a layer of mature cheddar cheese or
brie.
6) 6) Fold over the top half of your slice and
use a fork to seal the roll.
7) 7) Glaze the roll with egg whites and add
some more cheese on top.
8) 8) Cut the roll into eighths.
9) 9) Bake for 20-25 minutes at 180 degrees in a
fan oven.
Enjoy!
Thank you so much for reading!
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