And here it is, my end of year reflection for 2008! Just as long and wordy and insightful as all the others. 
Just for shits and giggles: pay some attention to the things I said at the end of last year, by the way - and then see what’s come of them. Isn’t it funny how new years resolutions are so utterly useless and life always throws you curveballs and what may be true and right at this moment, can be bollocks in six months time?
January - March
We started off 2008 dressed as rockstars and drinking champagne, which might be a bit symbolic for this year. It was a fun party, everyone looked lovely, and we ended the night/started the morning by driving home through thick fog at 6.30am. It was a good start of the first bit of the year that didn’t feel very right for me. Despite a fun time in Brugge with Olli on our retreat weekend, I was quickly growing disillusioned by work and all of its awful politics and was struggling to make ends meet time-wise because of the increasing workload of my study. Affairs and lies and drama galore at work, and at the end of March I decided that it was time to change things. I started sending out job applications. Also, Olli and I were starting to think about buying a house in Den Haag area, and Olli and the boys started a band, which they loved fiercely.
To distract myself from winter and work ickiness, I thought up the Rock Rock concept, and got everyone enthusiastic about it.
April
April started off very cold. Of course this happened to be the week that I was spending in a tent in the Ardennes on a communications training. I was an intern with the communication trainers there, they taught Uni students about the values of communications, conversation techniques, and working together. All this in falling snow and freezing cold, which was a bundle of fun in that not really kind of way. In hindsight I’m glad I did it, the students were amazing – but the trainers team sucked and the weather as well – so I won’t do it again. But I do have those laughs with the students to look back upon, the laughter fit I had when I realized it had snowed in the night, as well as those hours sitting in a deserted forest listening to blaring loud In Flames, so I’m glad I did it.
Afterwards, all things except work turned for the better quickly. Not only weather-wise, but for me as well. I was finishing up the last bit of my study (which was a LOT of hard work), was going to job interviews, but I had a lot of fun with friends. The Fantasy Fair was brilliant, we watched the last show of the 10 dB’s which was hilarious, we went to the Parkway Drive gig… and most of all, Olli and I found a house in Leidschendam that we started bidding upon.
May
May started off with our own impromptu festival on a camping in Ommen: Rock Rock! We had a great time. The days were sun-laden and the nights were frigging cold, but we had a good time just sitting around the campsite, listening to music and talking and laughing. Just goes to figure that you don’t need a great lineup to have a good festival feeling anyway. I really hope we can make this into a tradition; that first festival of the year is a really good feeling.
Right after, though, limbo started. My job interviews were not getting back news, and neither was the house in Leidschendam. One frustration-filled week later, it turned out that both had fallen through and it was back to the drawing board for us. And I wanted to get out of my job so badly.
Where it came to houses, we did find another house that we thought was awesome, but it was kind of expensive, so we kept looking.
I spent the rest of May working frantically on my portfolio so I could finish off my study and get my degree. Just before May ended, I turned in my portfolio, it was approved, and then there was the beautiful wedding of Wendy and Arno… which was so full of warmth and happiness that I completely recharged for a while there.
June
June was maybe one of the best months of the year. I graduated my study and obtained my post-bachelor’s degree as Trainer & Teamcoach, I got ridiculously drunk (and hungover) at the Popomeet in Alkmaar – and that was already a great start of the month. There was another job interview at this company in Leiden that was really promising, too. The only shitty thing that month was that I got my wisdom teeth removed and I had a sore face all week. And smiling hurt. That was SO depressing – to ache every time you smiled.
But then everything came together; I had my second interview in Leiden and an offer pretty much in the pocket, the pain in my mouth went away, the sun was shining… and I quit my job. And suddenly I felt like I could take on the world. Also, my boss was happy to let me go quickly, so I could finish up the month and then I suddenly had a month off until I started at the new job in Leiden. Also, we bought ourselves Tangy, which was awesome.
But first… first there was Graspop Metal Meeting, where I partied my ass off with friends. Sun-laden, beer-filled, music-filled fun. Is there anything better than that? Soilwork and Sabaton rocked my socks off, In Flames was a lot of fun, Iron Maiden was impressive, there was fireworks and laughs – it was all great.
July - August
Because I had the month off, it pretty much rained for the first bit of it. I didn’t mind too much. I spent a lot of time recuperating, gaming, and going out for drinks and tapas (there were lots of tapas) with nice people. The most important thing though was that Olli and I decided to start bidding on the expensive house in Nootdorp anyway, and we bought it. We won’t be able to get the key until March or something, but it was still a huge thing. And the house is SO beautiful. <3
In the last week of July the weather suddenly turned gorgeous, so I went to the beach with Lie and Bren, and then it was already time for our birthdays – for which we had a good party. On Olli’s birthday we had a power outage though, which lasted until late August. We took that as a sign to start redecorating soon, which we did.
But first there was the new job, which started off very pleasant but hellishly busy. It was a hell of a relief after the drama-fest of a job I had left behind me… just WORK, with all its ups and downs and smiles and frustrations. For now it’s good enough, but the relief of it had me dizzy with happiness for weeks on end.
It was only two weeks, though – because I had two weeks off in August for going to Lowlands – which was BRILLIANT with good music, fun, the most perfect festival weather I’ve ever had, playing bongo’s, hanging out with Lie and Olli, blowing bubbles in the sunshine and oh did I mention the perfect Editors gig already?!) - and going to England. First Olli and I played the tourist in London, which was a lot of fun, and then we hung out with the nice Euromeet people in Towchester.
September - October
I was busy with my new job, and at home we were very busy redecorating the computer room in our apartment. Wallpapering, painting, the works. Our house looked like a bomb had gone off because of it, but in the end it was definitely worth it. There was more constructive stuff that I did; I resolved to finally finish off my story Shards, preferably before November & Nanowrimo. Which I did; I wrote over 40K in a month and a half and wrote some heartbreaking stuff that I’m still happy with. It needs some edits, but it was very satisfying to write.
Brenda, Wendy and I hung out a lot together, we discovered the sauna in the Hague that was more than decent and a beautiful way to spend a free Friday afternoon. There were also lunches and laughs and hanging out with Lie and some fun concerts (Scars on Broadway and In Flames).
November
This might very well be the first time in seven years that music was more important than writing in November. Because for me, this year’s Nanowrimo kind of didn’t do it for me. I wrote my 50K, but the last 15K were the equivalent of pulling teeth. It’s because I already wrote Shards of course – and it turns out that I had just way more emotional investment in that story, which made Frostbite one hell of a letdown. I might finish the story one day because it does have potential, just not now.
Thankfully though, there was more than enough music highpoints to make this month one made of rockage. First there was the Soilwork gig which I’ve lamented before, but OMG that just completely blew my mind. I have never partied harder during a gig, I think. Then there was Slipknot, which was brilliant as well (Corey <3), and we finished off the month with Rodrigo Y Gabriela and a good night out.
Of course, there was also the reiki initiation, which was very interesting and wonderful as well. I’m glad I shared it with Wendy, it was really special. I should update my list of coincedences, btw. Because I have a few more to add to the list which make me wonder if I should really believe in this.
December
And December was mostly winding down, looking back. A heavy flu, a cool Flogging Molly show, but mostly just working and looking back on the year… and somewhere down the line I decided fuckit, I want to have fun. No use wondering how things could be when you have the opportunity to experience them, right?
That’s basically the thought of this year. The first bit of it utterly sucked… looking back on the whole work situation I’m surprised how long I managed to hold on in that toxic environment. I’m so glad that I now have something that doesn’t suck out my soul AND earns me reasonable money. But oh, the music, the laughs, hanging out with the boys in the jamplace and with the girls in the sauna… the shitloads of tapas I’ve had, the cocktails, the sushi. The Popmundo meets, new friends. Somewhere a switch was flipped, and I suddenly had a brilliant time. So no, I’m not going to lament on the first part of the year which was made of suckage. I’m going to focus on how we managed to change it all around by getting a new job, a new house, on music indulgence and writing out my heart story this year, which was Shards… and on giving love to those around me… how easy it is, in the end, to love.
It was like an awakening. So yeah, this year’s End of Year song is called “As The Sleeper Awakes”, it’s by Soilwork, and I’m going to thoroughly enjoy it when we play it on New Year’s Eve.
And for next year, I expect many more indulgences and new experiences. Because that’s what life is for.