The first month of 2023 is over. It seemed to go on forever but not necessarily in a bad way. I usually get very melancholic around New Years. I feel the turning point with every fiber of my being and feel the need to reflect and evaluate. 2022 was a year of a lot of self-work for me. I´ve been looking inwards and working hard to heal a lot of old wounds. Its helped me a lot in my personal growth but also in establishing what I want in my professional life. So even though I´ve literally never made a New Years resolution in my life I did take some time at the beginning of January to jot down a few things I wish to accomplish. If not in 2023 then sometime in the near future:
- To photograph a cookbook.
- To shoot a wedding in Italy.
- Write more.
- Get a job for a lifestyle/food related magazine.
- Travel more (for work but also for pleasure).
When I wrote down those things I realized that there is actually a lot I can do myself to work towards those goals. Seems simple enough but for so long I´ve been held back by insecurities or angst for failure. I don´t know about you but I can easily fall into the rabbit hole of self-doubt and think: why bother.. someone else does it way better anyways. Well.. this year is all about taking one step at a time and working towards goals in a way that makes me grow, have fun and just be happy in general. And I´ve already started! I signed up for a world wide food photography challenge on Instagram and completed all three assignments with results I was genuinely happy with.
It felt so nice to have all this free time in January. I didn´t pressure myself at all to look for a new gig and allowed myself to spend time on things like the photography challenge and building this website! I just took the time, enjoyed it, pushed my creativity and then ended the month with 10 wonderful days back home in Iceland. All this might explain why I didn´t mind January to last as long as it did! Being back in Iceland always gives me a lot of energy.. especially in the middle of winter when everything is covered in snow and you´re forced to take it day by day since there is no way to predict the weather properly. I had a friend with me from the NL so it was a good mix of exploring and just hanging out with my people...even though I think the cherry on top was a visit we had at Hvammsvík hot springs where we had a little pregnancy shoot for my friend!
Even though I´ve been able to go back quite a lot this past year it always feels kind of strange. When I go back alone my life in the NL almost feels like it´s in another universe and then when I bring someone from my Dutch life with me its this weird collision of two lives that almost don´t feel like they belong to the same person. As much as I love having two homes it sometimes feels so strange and isolating. Most of the time I´m confused at what language to speak and want to introduce my Icelandic traditions in the NL all the while I´d love to sprinkle some dutchness in Iceland. Maybe this is completely normal and maybe it´s weird and insane.. who knows?
All in all this first chapter of 2023 was good and I have a feeling it will be an eventful year.
