New Year, New Project!

TL;DR. Ich schreibe für die kommenden 364 Tage jeweils einen Text, den ich mit dem Ziel veröffentliche, meinen schwammigen Zukunftsplänen mehr Kontur zu verleihen.

First of all: I wish you a happy new year! I did not expect such roller coaster rides as we have experienced with the year 2020 - how could I? It all starts as you expect and then a pandemic stumbles into our lives and suddenly new processes take hold in your and my everyday life and everything seems unfamiliar. Let it be the putting on of masks when entering stores, or offices, skipping visits to concerts, theaters, and operas, a limitation of the number of people at cozy outdoor barbecues, or finally the feeling of uncertainty that is henceforth involved in all decisions, reports, and news. You probably have learned a lot of new things: Positions you now take a stand on, loads you've never been exposed to before, but especially the appreciation of areas in life you previously took for granted. Before I continue to build totally awkwardly constructed sentences that are sure to harbor their share of grammatical errors, let me get to the point.

For me, not only 2020, but also 2019 was a new experience in its own way, because I started my professional life in 2019 and moved to Hamburg for it. After studying full-time with enough paid and volunteer side jobs, I faced the 40+ hour job. Since I couldn't gauge how much energy I will or will have to expend in this new world, I paused all other paid as well as volunteer work. After two years, I am now at a point in my life where my plans can only be roughly formulated and my personal goals are very vague. This condition does not suit me at all!

I enjoy starting arbitrary, temporary projects that sound like a good idea in my head and then trying to continue and ultimately complete them as disciplined as possible. With 2020 being a peculiar Christmas, I didn't travel halfway around the country as I usually do to give my entire family and the usual Christmas traditions their visit. Instead, in preparation for the reflective season, I considered how to express myself, my gratitude and emotions to those I would have otherwise met in person over the holidays. In the end, it became text form, because in addition to messaging on social media or various messenger services, I picked up pen and paper and expressed my colorful thoughts in blue on white. I enjoyed it more than I expected, so I came up with the idea: "Why don't you write a text for every day in 2021? Yes, all 365 days. All of them." Now that probably seems a little over the top, and when I look at the jump from "Write a few texts" to "Write a text every day for 365 days!" I can see the absurdity.

Now of course you may ask, "why don't you do that for yourself and leave me alone with it?" A great question! I have several explanations for that right away, all of which certainly play into the answer a bit. In such endeavors, I have found in the past that I bring more motivation and perseverance to the subject when I am accountable to someone or something. While this is a very artificial imposition of non-existent accountability, because I am not accountable to anyone for such projects, it still helps me stay on track. Another factor is the format. I don't have a concept of what I'll write, whether I'll (always) make it multilingual, whether I'll provide a video to accompany each post for the lazy readers like me, what the focus of my content will be, whether it will get any focus at all, whether this site will get a major overhaul in a few months, or how much time I'll even be able to devote to this project once the workday starts again. I would always base that on your feedback and my mood. I am always looking to learn something new with all new projects. Be it new knowledge that I gain through any research, or even simple skills like writing quickly something that reflect the construct that my gooey brain has built. Finally, there is the fact that I got myself a camera. It wants to be used. It will feed this site with pictures and videos.

This blog is by no means meant to be a diary. I will always try to write texts about topics or thought processes that have occupied me or maybe will occupy me and to move the whole thing to a less personal level. In the end it needs a little entertainment value so that you don't fall asleep while reading these texts.

Do you have any unusual resolutions for 2021, or do you find both this and every idea like it pointless? Leave a comment below!