Leilanie Stewart

2024 isn’t even at the halfway point, and already it has been a rollercoaster for me. Thankfully, my writing has been a source of calm in my life, and family time has provided welcome respite from pretty much everything else that feels like chaos swirling in my head. I’m not one for melodrama, though as an introvert, my battery gets drained to pretty much zero quite easily – and much has happened already in five short months to drain it.

In February and March, I had a health scare and was in hospital. While this was happening, there were issues with our house. Work stressed added another layer onto the above and I found myself served a giant turd-sandwich.

Bad luck comes in threes, supposedly. I’m not particularly superstitious, but I’ve definitely met my quota for the year so far, I’d say. As an introvert I tend to try and save my energy and avoid social situations, as much as is humanly possible. Around the end of last year, while having an introspective moment, I decided that I would make an effort to be more extroverted and reach out to make new friends. I became friends with a new person, who seemed to be sad and lonely, and an interaction that led to me feeling sorry for this person became the starting point of our friendship when I invited my new friend for coffee.