2019 has been a mixed bag of a year so far, as they all seem to be lately. It started well enough – though I was feeling tired and a little burnt out (yes, “millennial burnout”, I have become that person), I was still feeling quite creatively inspired and motivated to get through this year. January passed in a blur of work chaos – January in a school is always chaotic if you work in IT, as I do. Then the end of January brought with it two of the worst work weeks of my career to date – my system crashed through no fault of myself, or my team, and due to an unfortunate series of events we ended up having to restore about three weeks’ worth of maintenance and restructuring in a number of days. Just as that started to clear, two major features of the system went down, causing another week of complete chaos. I was left completely powerless, putting out fires and taking the blame for issues that weren’t remotely my fault. It was my own personal hell, and honestly I’m only just coming out of the dip in my mental health that followed. While I handled it fairly well on the surface, it definitely has quite the impact on me.
The latter half of February has been much kinder, filled with good music, good friends and … plants! Today marks the first day of the university trimester, and I’m ready to get back into studying and creating. Aside from editing the wedding I shot back in January, I have been woefully slack with photography. Work was just too much, and any creativity in me just left my body. Artists that can create during a depression live in a very different mind to me – I may reflect on my mental health in my work, but I certainly cannot create in the midst of a spiral.
However, I have a very inspiring trip coming up that I am very excited about! Liz and I are headed to New Zealand in May, for a roadtrip down through the North and South Islands. Despite being so close, I have never actually been to New Zealand before (outside of Auckland airport, at least!) and I am very excited to be able to take a leisurely trip through such a beautiful country. If that doesn’t get my creatively inspired again, nothing will!
Until then, there’s still a lot happening – a wedding, three (yes, three!) Melbourne trips, a Sydney trip, a new tattoo, a few local gigs, a music festival and a comedy show. Not to mention assignments, a personal project I want to get off the ground, and my actual full time job!
The Jungle Collection visited Canberra for the first time!
That’s your little update for today, I hope everyone is doing very well! I’ll be back very shortly with a roundup of my first ever wedding photos!