Light – December Reflections

Hello again,

It’s usually my custom to gather all the journals I’ve kept during the year and to evaluate them in December. So that’s what I did today. I’ve kept 6 complete journals. That’s an average of a journal every two months. But I have also written in two other journals and reached the half-way point: one of them is dedicated to my writing plan and objectives, and the other is for my miscellaneous daily events.

The broad picture of 2011 is that I’ve spent the first half mentally stagnated, but experienced an impressively outgoing and social life, while the second half of the year witnessed more industry on my part and less social activities.

My football career is mostly affected by 2011. First, a lingering illness from the previous year handicapped my regular training sessions. This was followed by another two weeks of being without a car due to the accident I had in March. When I returned to the team they appeared to have changed and I figured it was then time for me to make a professional decision. Hence, I quit my old team and transferred to a different club.

The first two months were smooth. I found myself regaining my technical skills and adroitness and even scored numerous goals against my old team. Unfortunately, things began deteriorating soon after. The administration kept “holding off football practice” by prioritizing other sports, such as basketball and volleyball. And when I found my stamina evaporating and the excess pounds piling up, I registered for a referee course at Fifa. I figured I needed to widen my options.

And hence I stand at the end of 2011 with the following reflection: my club’s administration thinks so ill of football that they are not only prohibiting us from practicing on our own pitch, but they also pulled us out of the first official Women’s Football League in the country! On the other hand, I’ve made such an impact on Fifa’s staff and Kuwait’s League of Referee’s that they all want me to pursue refereeing instead. On the bright side, two newspapers interviewed me on my football during the year.

In terms of the Masters, I’ve been studying and writing chapters. The problem is that writing is a process; when I’m done with 20 pages, I spend the next week rewriting / editing them. Overall, I’ve written about 70 pages for my first chapter. And then I was told that the whole thesis should be around 80 pages! This changes all my calculations and means that I have to start again from the beginning. I am disappointed in the MA’s administration because I asked them before I started writing about the length of the thesis. I was told that length is not an issue and I could write as much as I wanted, “Even if it’s a thousand pages.” So I think it’s quite unprofessional to tell me this before and then declare 80-100 the length of the thesis. Oh well. I guess I’ll have to try harder then in 2012.

I’ve been less prodigious as a writer this year, mainly because the first half of it was spent in a slump, and when I decided to ‘get my acts together’ I concentrated on football and on my thesis. Still, I managed to write two poems during the year which I performed at Taste of Jamaica’s 4th Slam Poetry Competition last Friday and won 1st Runner Up for them. I also wrote a short story that I haven’t yet published. Mainly, however, I spent the whole year working with Star on our first novel. As it is our debut novel, and as my schedule is packed with responsibilities, we’ve decided to take our time with it and sculpt it well. We’re thinking of completing it in 2012. So stay in tuned for more on that. Finally, I’ve published one article in Bazaar this year, and because of it I was approached by an amazing Italian who asked me to write for En.V, a socially active magazine that is based in Kuwait and whose main aims include the discussion on human rights, women’s rights, and news about the environment. So I’m so glad for my Bazaar exposure.

In terms of work, or my 9-5, that’s a bit shaky and I foresee another career move in 2012. I’ve spent much more money this year than any year prior to this… So job security is important, but I need a location that would cultivate my talents rather than suppress them.

In a nutshell, my 2012 goals are the following:
1- Be done with my MA Thesis
2- Acquire interesting life skills.

Light’s out.