Lucky 2013?

Approximately ten months ago, I told my family I was running away to Canada. My 2012 wasn’t going quite the way I wanted it to – I was making myself sick with stress and anxiety, and I felt like the only way I could escape my situation was to run away.

Those of us commonly known as adults will realize however that running away doesn’t solve any of our problems. It simply puts them aside, allowing them to wait patiently for our return in order to reappear, worse than before.

My decision to run away was hindered by a small cost issue (do you know how much travel insurance is for two months in Canada!?) and I had to face up to the fact that my life was going nowhere in a hurry if I chose to stay on the path I was travelling.

I imagine that many of you had these moments in 2012, so I want to tell you there is a way to make 2013 better. And running away isn’t it.

I recently heard a psychic making predictions for 2013, advising which star signs were destined for happiness and success, and which would struggle, but the most poignant thing she said (and quite possibly the most accurate) was that it didn’t matter what the stars said – we each make our own luck.

I believe I have had a very lucky year. Sure, it started badly but once I made a decision to eradicate the things from my life that were making me miserable, wonderful things began to happen. And while I’d like to believe they were all part of the plan of the way it’s meant to be, I also can’t help but think that I worked damn hard for those things, and actively decided I wanted them.

I left a job that was keeping me up nights for one that made me smile when I got up to go to work. And while that one wasn’t right for me either, it paved the way for me to go out and try things on my own.

After almost a decade of being single, I set myself the challenge of going on five dates in five weeks and while I was looking for strangers to have dinner with, the one I was meant to be with waited patiently until I could see what (or whom, rather) was in front of me the whole time.

With nearly three and a half years of blogging and writing under my belt, I continued to write the things that I like; pieces that I hope make you laugh, smile or even shed a tear. And if you happen to want to assist with keeping our country’s retail sector alive too, then all the more reason for me to write about the fashion scene in Melbourne.

I travelled to Daylesford, Mt Hotham, Echuca, Brisbane, Phillip Island and Sydney this year. I watched my football team lose a grand final. I moved house, bought a car and met some of the most amazing people I am lucky to call friends.

And none of this would have happened if I had run away to Canada. So on the eve of 2013, I ask you – what do you really want? Do you want to run away from the aspects of your life that might not be working out? Or do you want to work out why they make you less than amazing, and then do something to eradicate the negativity.

You are the only one who can change your life. Stop believing that one day ‘the way it’s meant to be’ will just happen and start doing.