I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions (mainly because I am abysmal at sticking to them), but for me, 2012 presents a long-awaited beginning which should at least be documented in the semi-permanence of the internet [purely for it to be lost in cyberspace and then one day rediscovered by some unsuspecting hacker who probably hasn't even been born yet, you understand].
The dawning of 2012 marks the final steps towards probably one of the biggest and slightly more mental decisions of my life. In a matter of months, nay weeks (job, flights and accommodation permitting), my pale little English face will soon be finding home amongst throngs of German ones as I set up life in Frankfurt.
Yes, at 26 bizarre and wonderful years of age, I am going to leave my mother country and attempt to live in a land where to be honest, I can hardly order a coffee and my ability of asking for cake with it involves saying "Kanne Ich........... [long pause as I point widely]...die kucken?" (Apologies to anyone who can actually speak German and is aware of the shocking language assault I just performed, please bare with me.)
It might seem like a mad, hair-brained idea (my mother is less convinced it is now following several lengthy discussions about it over the last ten months) but I'm a believer of destiny and calling and I'm as sure as I can be that moving to Germany is part of an incredible plan for my life. Sure, if you'd told me three years ago that this is what 2012 would look like, I'd have probably thought you were, well, not altogether there, shall we say?
It certainly wasn't part of my original life plan dreamt up years ago when, aged about six, a teacher asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. In that version of my life, I was probably the secret sixth member of the Famous Five, grew up on the dark Heathcliffian moors and could talk to any book character I pleased. Or I was a secret mutant human, part of Xavier's school for the gifted, best friends with Bill and Ted and able to ride any horse I wanted. I probably also told this teacher I wanted to be a jockey or a vet or a Thunderbird or something. I definitely never imagined living in another country (living in fiction was enough, obviously). Not until I was 13 at least and began to harbour desires of being a journalist in the Big Apple a la Sex In The City (although I had no idea who the heck Carrie Bradshaw was) did my life plan ever consider a bit of healthy emigration.
But now, now I'm actually alive in 2012 and it isn't some ethereal, slightly futuristic number given to a year in the distant future, now, I've come to realise that my life plan doesn't really matter. What matters is that I live in the destiny I've been called for. I cannot wait to live in Germany no matter how daunting it may seem. There's only one go at this life so I might as well give it my best shot and take the bull by the horns.
You're welcome to join me for the ride.
