thank god it's friday

I don’t know if it’s just me or time seems to be moving a lot faster these days. I simply refuse to believe that it’s been 3 weeks since I joined my new job. And it’s end of March already? No fking way.

I haven’t written for a big audience in a long time. If you know me, you know that I have always loved writing but over the past year, life caught up with me. I don’t know if mid 20s for everyone is a whirlwind or if it’s because I moved to a new country or because I was finishing up my Uni, working 4 days a week at my unpaid internship and 20 hours/week nightshift at the job that paid for my life all at the same time, everything was always too much. Sorry to my friends and family that I haven’t called in a while but calling takes too much effort. It’s my least favourite method of communication. But know that I miss you and I love you. Life isn’t bad at all, just a lot.

I did try to start writing again in the past year and a half. But everything I wrote was stupid. I didn’t even get too far, I’d write 1 line and think it was the most unnatural, terrible string of words I’ve ever read in my life. In hindsight, I think I was just putting too much pressure on myself. I never learn my lesson, do I? It would’ve been great to put out something stellar and come back with a bang but again, why is that necessary? I want to write because it brings me joy. An audience is just the cherry on top. But if you’re here now, I appreciate you. Thank you for being the void that I’m screaming into.

The vice chancellor at the university I work at sends out an all-staff email sharing some bits of personal and professional life every Friday. It doesn’t delve into much detail but it’s a good piece of writing. A good piece of writing for me is when 1) it’s easy to follow and 2) the dots connect. He briefs us on how he had a plane waiting to fly him to Uluru for work the past Monday morning, his weight loss efforts and how he’s been trying to fix his car and the repair kits just arrived in the mail. Just regular everyday stuff that makes him human and not too intimidating and I dig it. I think he’s a good leader.

I want this to be the same, very newsletter-esque blog post (series?), personal and impersonal but insightful rant, nonetheless. So. What was I up to this past week? I either am at work or sleeping for most part of the 24 hours so it’s not entirely riveting. I wake up, go to work, come back home, go for a walk or gym with friends. After all that I have exactly 1.5 hours for myself. And that too sometimes is reduced by Binaya proposing that I buy us Hungry Jacks ice cream sundae after dinner. I want to read, journal, watch Netflix, catchup on my Youtube subscriptions but alas, such is the two-edged sword of a “stable work life”, you barely have any time for yourself at all. And forget having time for anything else besides one of these things on a standard weekday.

But I did have time for some reflective discussions with friends this week. All my friends think that my life would be better if I had a significant other. It’s funny being the only single person in your friend group and in the workplace. While all my colleagues are worried about what to do for school holidays, I just want to get drunk and swim with the sharks (the good kind) in the Whitsundays soon. I do not care for anyone’s schedule but mine, along with my paid leave balances and the numbers on the banking app on my phone.

“Find someone”, they say.

“But don’t look too hard”

“But don’t not look either”

“You’re amazing, you’ll find someone”

“I have a cousin who was just like you, but she’s now moved back home and is still single at 32”

“No pressure though”

Thanks for the confidence, guys.

But in all seriousness, they mean well. And I appreciate their input as well as their discussion on my singleness. It’s a good outsider input because most of these things already run in my head. So it does validate my thoughts though my life is pretty sweet at the moment.

Maybe it’s the gradual monotony that my life is seeping into, but I can’t help but wonder if this is all there is to life. My life’s purpose can’t be sitting in a stuffy workspace, making small talk that Australians oh-so-love and attending gazillion teams meetings in a day, no matter how much I’m getting paid to pretend to listen. But again, isn’t life purposes overrated? Humans aren’t special. Does a hippopotamus or an octopus or a tree have a life purpose? It just exists. I don’t know. My brain is always arguing with itself, and it does make valid points on both sides. What is the point of all this?

Very “why are we here? just to suffer?” meme of me if I say so myself.

At least I’m starting to write again. And I hope to do this every Friday. Let’s see what revelations are in store as a result of me venting to an invisible audience. Thanks again for being here.

See you next Friday. I doubt it but I’m hopeful.

Love,

Anusha

Some glimpses of life from the past couple days:

Comments

20 Things To Do Before 20

This post is a little different than the posts I usually do and it's "fun-er" than the rest of them too. I still have a year or two before I hit the twenties and that's where things get interesting. Teenage is probably going to be the most interesting part of our lives so I wanted to make a bucket list to make sure that this phase ceases in its full glory. So, this is my take on 20 things to do before 20 . Hope you enjoy going through it ! :) 20. Bunking classes 19. Reading a good book and crying 18. Not studying for an exam but still acing it 17. Having a "love at first sight" moment 16. Watching a TV series until you get sick....literally 15. Trying a food you can't pronounce 14. Having at least 20 crushes 13. Talking to someone through the night till dawn 12. Going for shopping... alone! 11. Watching back-to-back movie at a cinema hall 10. Dating someone who isn't your type 9. Going to a dance party 8. Drunk dial...

Sensations

PC: lovethispic.com He isn't cute. Cute doesn't even begin to describe half the person that he is. Cute is momentary, flimsy. And he is the furthest from flimsy as one can get. He is beautiful. His voice is beautiful, his laugh is beautiful and the way he looks at me, he makes me feel like I'm the most beautiful girl he's ever laid his eyes upon. He is a blazing flame. And I am but a mere moth. I'll get burnt, I know it. He doesn't promise me otherwise, either. Deciding it will be worth it has made all the difference. I could say I love him, but those three words can never justify the kaleidoscope of sensations I feel when I'm with him. He is all colors in one, at full brightness.

The Day I.....

My heart was still fluttering and it was only aggravating the situation further. It meant I still hadn't died, didn't it? But Why ? In the recent times, everybody has the day they’d die tattooed on their arm immediately after birth. It probably makes for a more sustainable living as people know their days are numbered so nobody does anything stupid at all. When someone is born, the medics check the Total Health Factor (THF) of the baby and calculate the day to which that person could live with no health-related obligations. People have THF ranging from 10 to even 35 years. People having THF lower than 10 are sent away, nobody except the government knows where. My THF is 16. And the date tattooed on my arm is 20th November 2311. Today. My providers had once told me about a time when death was uncertain. People lost the value of living because at one point everyone was just surviving for the sake of it. And the other major problem of that time was pe...

How I Met Your Mother vs Friends

Photo:Pinterest I watched How I Met Your Mother for the first time when I was in 7 th grade. At that time, the jokes most likely went right over my head and I probably didn’t understand the context to many things but still something about Ted Mosby resonated with me, even then. I have always struggled with keeping my love in check like him which has led to various failings throughout the years but Ted’s always had my back by being one step ahead. For these reasons and more, I whole-heartedly love the show. On the other hand, I watched F.R.I.E.N.D.S. a couple years later and thought it was mostly nice. I’d all but forgotten about it until last year when, for some reason, everyone started talking about it. I, by no means, thought it was a bad show but I couldn’t fathom why everyone liked it so much . People started labelling it superior to HIMYM which didn’t sit well with me. So I decided to re-watch F.R.I.E.N.D.S to gain perspective which led me to the conclusio...

My Solace

My mom had been pestering me to clean my room since ages and there was always something that I used against her to put it off. Yeah, I am no clean freak ...... but my mom is. I am not all up for untidy rooms but no matter how often I put everything in place, somehow a day after everything gets messed up again. So I don't bother much. This morning I finally succumbed to my mom's pleas and decided to do it anyway. I started with my study table as it needed the most immediate attention. And as soon as I got started, I unknowingly rummaged through old notebooks and rough copies. On the last page of EVERY single notebook, there were those scribbles of short poems and extracts of how my day was going on. It got me smiling and a sort of ecstasy spread through my veins. I had always been the kind of person who expressed her feelings through words and .... I haven’t changed one bit. :) The thing with me is - I don't speak much. I was never the person with the largest gro...

Poems- I

Picture by my friend, quite a long time ago. I wouldn't call myself a poet. A good one, atleast. But every once in a while someone else takes over. Enjoy! Wrote this one last night because I had an exam. And I felt like doing literally anything other than studying. My favorite line: You took me in your arms And like waves we collided Wrote this one some two months back. Just because. My favorite line: But my heart forgets.

A Fatal Combination

I kept looking for answers in you Little did I know, You were the question And separation was all the answer I ever needed. When we loved, we'd turn the entire world rosy, shouting our love for each other from literal rooftops. Other days, the love would just vanish making me question the reality of those feelings. Sometimes, we'd talk through the night and only stop when dawn would knock on our respective window panes. Other times, we'd go multiple days without so much of a hello. Somedays, you'd have your hands all over me and I'd be writhing under your touch. Other days, you wouldn't so much as hold my hand. We were always too much and never enough. A fatal combination.

On moving 6629km alone away from home

It was a fresh start, one that I needed desperately. Applications and documentation had taken so much of my time and sucked so much of my energy, I don't think I quite comprehended what the move was going to entail. While I was open to changes, I don't think I was aware of how much transformation across all aspects of life it would take to acclimatise myself to my new reality. I was just happy for a fresh start. Nothing else mattered. But turns out, getting on the plane is the easiest step in all of this. The amount of transformation I've gone through and learning I've done in the past couple months is truly insane, to say the least. Recently, a friend back home asked me how I was doing living alone and I thought about it. Honestly, it hasn't been all good or all bad, but the important thing has been rooting and balancing myself despite it all. Not sure if anything I've written will be groundbreaking or something that hasn't been already said 7 million time...

Forever, Always . . . Infinity

There are two kinds of hurt. One is immediate, earth-shattering You wail, scream Weep for the person beyond measure When the self-pity ends, You pick yourself up, Oneday. Other one is slow and steady Creeping up on you when you least expect it. And when it arrives, It leaves back nothing in it's wake. Enveloping you in darkness It neither has an end nor a beginning Only a constant rhythm of hurt flowing through your veins. I don't know which is worse.

...I speak my mind =)