Hello Again. It’s been… nearly 11 years.

And a lot has changed. I’ve changed.

When I received the email to re-activate my old Open Diary entries, I have to admit I was a bit torn. Experience has taught me that I will always look back on my younger years and cringe at old-me. And I’m not wrong. Heck, I could even look at my 32 year-old self (I’m 33 now) and shake my head. “Why did I do that?!” I will ask myself. Well, hindsight is 20/20 (HA! 2020, get it?! Shush, Toni 🙄).

So I’ve made the executive decision to leave my old entries as-is. In a way it’s kind of refreshing* to see how much I’ve changed whilst also reading about things I had long forgotten about. I’m systematically shuffling them into a chapter we’ll just call “Before”.

Because I really do feel like a whole lot as changed. My last entry was in April, 2009. Some 5 months after that I lost one of the closest and dearest friends I’ve ever had, my dad. I may touch upon this later but I had to do a lot of growing up after that. I moved out of my childhood home, strained a few friendships and family relationships (though some of that is not entirely my own fault), studied in technical college, attended and dropped out of university and then somehow ended up across the other side of the Earth. I’ve made some major lifestyle changes as well but we’ll save that for another time.

So, where does 2020 see me? I know it’s not looking good in the general scheme of things (I can only imagine what other people’s diaries are looking like these days; I’ve yet to browse!) Well here I am in London, still going to work (essential worker, yo), still cracking inappropriate jokes and trying to make the best of things. Because that’s all we can do, really. Take prudent precautions, sure. But don’t let it drag you down to its level. Life, I’m talking about Life. I know all-too-well how hard it can kick you in the nether-regions.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now. A certain tropical island on a certain Nintendo console is calling my name.

Ciao!

-Toni

*If you can look past the spelling and grammar mistakes, constant complaining, and the cringe-worthy l33t speech *shudders*