NO, really, how is it June already?
We are now into the sixth month of the calendar year, the halfway house, and it seems like I have nothing to show for it.
Well, I know that’s not quite true, I just get seasonal depression in the winter months, summer for me starts in June, and summer for me is when I’m at my happiest.
The last 152 days, from January 1st to June 1st, have been some of the best days of my life, so the remaining 214 days – don’t forget the extra day as it’s a leap year- will have to be quite spectacular to better it, but, obviously I’m going to try!
I promised myself I wouldn’t talk about the weather in this blog, but as an Englishman it would be wrong not too.
I can’t tell you how the sunshine affects me, more than any drug could do – fun fact, I’ve never vaped, smoked or done drugs, so I can only use it metaphorically – but the sun literally injects me with a double dosage of serotonin, dopamine and cortisol, the most perfect concoction to make me feel good.
A perfect example was driving back from cricket training in the New Forest on Wednesday, windows wound fully down, the warm, dusk air was ventilating my musky smell outwards, my new song of the week – Linger by Royel Otis – was on full blast, nothing gets better.
Though, it was haltered for a brief moment as there was a roadblock containing numerous donkeys, but I was so high on life I even started talking to them, smiling as they trotted by.
Thursday evening was the first T20 Blast game of the summer at the Utilita Bowl, the poor weather held out and it was a superb evening of cricket, despite Hampshire losing.
The newly sponsored Utilita Bowl, formerly the Ageas Bowl, but for the OG’s the Rose Bowl, is a very social ground, you can walk 360 degrees around the whole ground, there is not one bad viewing area.
I can’t lie though, as much as I was intrigued with the cricket, I also had my networking hat looking for people to connect and chat with in the journalism industry.
Surprisingly, current Hampshire player Tom Prest was walking around, not in his kit though as he’s injured with a fractured shoulder, he saw me and we got chatting, I had previously interviewed him at the Hampshire media day back in March and we have mutual friends as well.
We got chatting about his injury and the potential starting eleven and just random stuff that any other 21-year olds would chat about, but we were interrupted as a young fan and his mum wanted a picture with Tom, from which he kindly obliged.
Shortly after, I had noticed a recent LinkedIn contact and now industry friend called Elliot, from who I worked with just a few days previous up in Chester for the NCCA T20 Finals Day, which got rained off.
He was the personal assistant to another connection that I knew, Georgie Heath, who was the co-presenter for the evening’s games.
I first met Georgie at the SJA awards back last December, and it took her a few seconds to recall my face from back then, but once we established that, we too got chatting for a good while about presenting, women’s cricket and life in general, she then had to get back to work… work that I would’ve loved to be doing instead.
I was itching at the bit to be out on the field and around the ground presenting to camera like she was, and best believe I would’ve stepped in to do the job if by some strange reason they needed me for the evening.
My mentality of always wanting to push myself, having the strongest self-belief, can work so well for me but it can also cause problems when I’m not as active as I feel I should be, because then I feel that I’m wasting time.
But then, on Sunday morning, after the previous night’s Chinese takeaway, the universe tipped its hat to me, with a note inside of a fortune cookie, that helped bring my mind back on level terms.
As I’ve matured, I’ve learnt to acknowledge the universe reaching out to me, and that was one of them moments.
In the last six months I have achieved more, travelled further, stressed less than many people my age or in my course, yet I have been putting pressure on myself because I’ve had a couple weeks of minimal activity.
And this fortune cookie note is a physical reminder to be patient, don’t force things, but be well prepared for an opportunity that will appear… I needed to hear that.
Read my previous blog here…
