So I’ve lately been enjoying blogging for the sake of blogging, and it reminded me of the old good times when I started blogging as – I think – a 9-year-old. The sense of the blogging community was strong to me back in 2007, and I’ve recently felt it again. So in this post I’m engaging with a Share Your World series ran by Melanie from sparksfromacombustiblemind. I’m not sure yet how the ping-backs work and all, but I’m hoping to figure it out soon.
Anyway, here’s the link to the original post, and here are my answers:
Pick three words to describe this past year. (Please keep them PG. Thanks).
Books – I read a lot of books.
Exploratory – everything I did felt like an exploration of some kind, even though I did not at all times know what exactly I was exploring.
Melancholia – for the third one, I was looking for a word that expressed how I felt for the majority of the year. I could see that year in cold colours: blues, greys, sad browns. A lot of what I did that year was driven by feelings of nostalgia, of times and places, but melancholia was a wider term, more encompassing of what I felt. It involves sadness, bodily complaints, but also symbolises cold, dampness, sourness, earth, autumn, and adulthood. Besides, the feeling that I really didn’t do that much caused by the pandemic felt like I was rather inactive, like melancholics are, theoretically.
What were the best books you read this year? Or the best movie you saw?
For my summary of my book-reading in 2020, go to my previous post; but extracting from that, the best books I think were “Jeden miesiąc mojego życia” (multiple authors, 1981) and “How to write a sentence” (Stanley Fish, 2011). Also “Edgelands” (Paul Farley & Michael Symmons, 2012) and “Wild” (Cheryl Strayed, 2012).
Among the best things I’ve seen are Queen’s Gambit (2020) and Bilet na Księżyc (2013), both available on Netflix.
Because there was lots of time for looking inward, what is one big personal lesson you learned this past year?
Perhaps that writing is such a big part of me that I can’t go without it! And that it doesn’t have to be good. But it has to be done.
Do you think Covid has strengthened or weakened societal bonds?
Strengthened, because we realise how dependent we are on each other to keep ourselves going financially – without customers, local businesses die, and without friendly places to go to we feel bored and isolated. There were also plenty of social initiatives to support different social groups, and that itself has strengthened bonds, on various scales – from interpersonal to transnational.
Gratitude
What is a New Year’s wish you’d like to share with the world?
The same wish that Pracownia na Rzecz Wszystkich Istot wished us:
to live in harmony with ourselves and our surroundings.
kotersey 
Thanks Joanna for Sharing Your World! Welcome too! You gave some great answers and it’s always fun to find out about someone new (of course in a non-stalker type of way). Your bio says you study geography? Edinburgh? I have ancestors from Scotland, although where I could not accurately say. Nice to meet you and the very best Happy New Year Wishes to you!
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Hi Melanie! Thanks for the chance to participate 🙂 It’s very fun! And yeah, haha I get the non-stalker type of way, I totally agree. Yes, I study geography at the University of Edinburgh, though I’m in my final year now and my last semester there starts next week (11 Jan specifically). I’m from Poland myself, but have been studying in the north of the UK for a few years now. Scotland’s very scenic though, have you been?
Nice to meet you too and happy New Year!
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