2022 - What a year...

Well now, I must say... 'it's been a while'! Here we are at the end of 2022, the 30th of December to be precise, and my last post was literally donkey's years ago. In fact, it was a decade ago.

So let me begin. COVID (our global pandemic) is still in existence here in New Zealand, and now we are seeing yet another surge in the rising numbers. Both my husband and I managed to contract it over April this year but swiftly got rid of it. He had it for a period of seven days and I retained it for close to seven weeks. But now, in spite of its presence in the wider community, we are both keeping well and healthy. However, visits to see my eighty-year-old mum in Mt. Eden are less frequent, as I live in fear of perhaps being asymptomatic or a carrier, then sharing it with her unwittingly.

This year with COVID still being a very influential factor in our lives, I was made part-time, which felt quite strange. I guess it was because we had come out of or through hybrid and online teaching and learning, and although some of my ESOL students had gone back to their home countries our international student numbers at my school were still quite sufficient. 

Anyhow, it meant that I had more time to assess my life and venture into new areas I would normally never have had the opportunity to do so. Over COVID lockdowns, I had undertaken an online Proofreading and Editing Diploma and completed it. So having time off from my full-time teaching commitments meant I could exercise the power of my writing and editing penmanship. I did two things.

Firstly, I completed my memoir; 'Menopause Madness; I Survived - You Can Too! The Outrageous Memoir of a Menopausal Woman.' And secondly, I kicked my side hustle into action and did some freelancing for a Proofreading, Editing, and Copywriting place online. However, between completing my memoir and sending it out to 43 publishing houses (I kid you not - a new cover letter for each publisher, and the various new and completely unique list of requirements for each publisher - took forever to organise) and working online into the dark hours of a winter's night - I soon burnt-out by September and was forced put an end to my side hustle as it interfered with work commitments and my health.

So here I am... at a bit of a crossroads. 

I've been given a new contract for 2023, which looks to be making my permanent part-time position as an ESOL specialist, into a fixed-term part-time position. I can only guess that this will probably come to a bitter end by the beginning of 2024. Do I stay and fight for the role I've been trained in and have done for 22 years, or do I resign at the end of 2023 and re-establish my skills in Copywriting, and Proofreading, Editing? This option gives me the time and opportunity to focus on self-publishing my memoir...

Well, Bottom's Up - Here's to the New Year 2023... may it bring peace and happiness to you all and some sense of stability for me.

Cheers,

Veena 

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