The past 12 months has been a wild emotional ride. My personal life saw me breakup with an amazing woman after a short time together, which is always difficult. My younger sister went through a divorce and cancer. My older sister has faced serious career issues that has started to impact her wellbeing. My mother attempted several times unsuccessfully rejoin the workforce. I’ve seen friends struggle with mental and physical health problems that I know I could not have handled and the loss of loved ones.
On the positive side my nephew Andrew got engaged to the stunning Danelle and his career has gone from strength to strength. My nephew Harry finished primary school (where has the time gone?).
In my career I’ve gone through three different jobs in the past 12 months; marketing and communications, director of strategy, and then finally being responsible for the client and staff experience. This last role has given me an opportunity to step up and interact with senior executives across the organisation on a regular basis and has left me understanding how different their world his and the need for office politics when dealing with multiple projects potentially costing millions.
I got to travel overseas again, this time spending a lot of time in South East Asia; Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Sri Lanka. It was a reminder of the amazing opportunities I get in life. Angkor Wat, Cambodia could be a stunning life experience by itself, add in feeding and bathing elephants in Thailand and sleeping under the starts on Halong Bay, Vietnam and I can’t but say I’m blessed. I loved meeting people from different parts of the world and hearing their ideas, hopes and dreams especially when they differ from my own – it shows how much I still have to learn.
I have watched my best friend’s dream of home ownership slowly be built in his new apartment, and his hopes to build a life with a lovely woman who has overcome so much in her life. This new woman has opened my eyes to the local art community in Melbourne and reminded me of how music can makes us fly.
I unfortunately watched the world become less stable, populists with extreme views that attack minorities gaining more political power all over the world. The bombing of civilians in many countries become standard operating procedure and yet people wonder why the world has a refugee crisis. I hate it when I hear the word ‘them’ to attack whole groups, like these people are not part of us / humans.
I worry about what this means for the future, for my nephews and nieces, for my friends and for the world community. Will we increasing fight each other for resources and power, will we attempt to destroy people’s souls in detention when their crime is wanting to live?
I still believe in the overall power of the community and that humans are on a path of cooperation and coordination to solve our problems but I’d be blind not to think we aren’t in the one step back phase with the potential for worse.
It is the obligation of each generation to leave the world and their community in a better place. To make life a little easier so that art, cultural and entertainment that enriches our souls is available to more people and that less people have to live a subsistence life. We should all contribute, even if just a little, to make someone’s life a little easier when there is no direct benefit to ourselves other than our souls.
Bring on 2017, let it be the two steps forward for our friends, our communities and the world we live in that we all need and deserve.
Nathan's Insights 