Christmas, connection, and new chapters

And a thank you!

Happy Wednesday!

This is the last edition of The Best of Intentions for 2023, and it feels fitting to reflect a little. It’s felt like a big year.

Whatever your plans over the holiday period, I hope that you are able to get some rest.

Me? I am looking forward to being a bit like this cat…

Photo by Aleksandar Cvetanovic on Unsplash

For those who are new to The Best of Intentions, it’s great to have you here, and if you’ve been following this for a little longer, then welcome back!

I can see that publishing my first post on November 1st rather than another date, like the 6th or 27th was a deliberate move. Calculating even. To me, it felt more official somehow by hitting publish at the beginning of a new month. And forgive the cliché, but it also felt like I was starting a new chapter in my life.

This new chapter was prompted by a couple of shifts this year, both professionally and personally. So here’s a quick review:

Professionally: I quit my job

This, by far had the biggest impact on me this year.

Making the choice to leave my teaching role was exceptionally hard, and it took a number of years of building myself up thinking, this is the year, only to then decide now’s not the right time.

I miss many aspects of the profession, and I would certainly never rule out stepping back into the classroom again¹, but I know that taking some time out was the right call.

Personally: Turning 40

It’s funny, as turning 40 didn’t feel like a big deal.

On the day, I threw a party, invited friends, and ordered a large cake (it was delicious). And then my husband and I, along with a smaller group of friends danced till late. Fabulous.

I can still remember my mum having a garden party back for her 40th birthday over 30 years ago, and to my eight year old brain, 40 seemed old! (Sorry mum). And while I know that 40 isn’t old, the messaging from society and wider (western) culture has largely tried to remind me that I am now over the hill and should go and sit in a corner somewhere and be quiet.

But if anything, now that I am 40, I no longer feel defined by much of this messaging, and I feel that I have more agency about the messaging that I am open to. And I am excited about what this next decade has in store.

And then what feels somewhere in the middle of the personal and the professional: I started a newsletter

I have joked with friends that turning 40 and quitting my job was a result of a mid-life crisis. But I’ve found that starting a newsletter is actually much cheaper than buying a sports car…

However, on a more contemplative note, in the short time that I have been writing here on Substack an overarching theme has emerged of connection. This connection has been felt at an individual level, as I started this newsletter as a way to reconnect with myself after experiencing burnout from a job, and to also reconnect with one of my first loves - writing. But connection cannot exist in a vacuum, and I have found the community here on Substack to be one of the most precious and inspiring aspects of the platform, and for what this means offline as much as it does online.

So I wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported this newsletter, and I am really excited to share some new thoughts and ideas with you in 2024.

Sarah xx

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And now for something completely different…

I wanted to share with you some books that I have read this year that have just stood out for me, whether it was an original story, insightful dialogue, well-developed characters, or all of the above, these books reached the dizzying heights at the tip top of books I loved/enjoyed/learned some cool stuff from in 2023.

So, here is the inaugural (and not so modestly named): Best Book Awards!²

Some of these were not published in 2023, but I only managed to read them this year - that still counts, right?

📚 The Best Books Awards go to (and in no particular order):

• Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin

• Good Material, by Dolly Alderton (just finished!)

• The Guest, by Emma Cline

• Romantic Comedy, by Curtis Sittenfeld

• Japan - A short history, by Mikiso Hane

• Friendaholic, by Elizabeth Day

• Really Good, Actually, by Monica Heisey

• Stone Blind, by Natalie Haynes

• Sorrow and Bliss, by Meg Mason

• I’m Sorry You Feel That Way, by Rebecca Wait

• The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, by Charlie Mackesy (I bought the book after watching the wonderful animation on BBC TV last Christmas)

• Undoctored - The story of a medic who ran out of patients, by Adam Kay

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This newsletter will return in January after a brief hiatus as I am travelling to Vermont for Christmas (🤞 for a white Christmas!), but there will be some work going on behind the scenes to revamp a few bits, which I am looking forward to sharing very soon.

1. Which is something that I did back in October when I completed some short-time supply/substitute teaching work.

2. I was born with this surname, so I’m going to capitalise on it 😜