I had a look at my first posts and thought about how life has changed in ten years. I thought it hasn't changed a lot (because let's be honest, A LOT of the things seem to be the same in my life) but then I started thinking more about where I live, what I do, what I like, who I'm friends with and it turns out life has changed indeed. In 2005 I lived in the dorm, was still in uni working on my MA thesis, sat exams, spent an obscene amount of time in the library, gave presentations at academic conferences, worked as a volunteer at the Hansaetic Days, started renovating our living-room at my mother's place, translated the fairy-tale book (one of the best projects I've taken part in, ever) and hadn't even started teacher training practice yet (at least not at the beginning of the year). Now I live almost in the city centre, have a 20-year mortgage, check national exams, interview and assess the oral part of international exams, rarely go to the library, renovate my living-room, translate books,
am the chair of the foreign languages at work (and by now actually like it) and give at least 25 lessons a week in addition to doing a zillion other things; folk dancing, photography (not lately, though) and going to the cinema taking up a lot of my spare time. After an inexplicable gap of quite a few years I've turned back to listening to a lot of (new) music lately. It's liberating. Thank you, Spotify!
I'll start with people - if compared to exactly ten years ago then, leaving my family aside, I think there are only three people who I still regularly hang out with today. Shout out to my BFF, you've tried, HARD, to move as far away as possible, but to no avail :) Everybody else has moved, mostly physically moved, out of my life. However, the last ten years has brought me together with great people, either online or irl, from all walks of life as well as co-workers who I respect and hold close to my heart. This group of people has changed as well, but I have a feeling some will still be here in ten years' time. I also think there are many more people I communicate with nowadays than there used to be in 2005. However, it hasn't been my goal as I strongly believe in a few close friends rather than a great number of acquaintances. I actually strongly regret I haven't kept in touch with some of the people from back then, but I guess that's life. Oh yes, and I was quite infatuated with K back then, wherever he is now... Time does heal everything.
My love for Hiiumaa is the same, I still believe it's the best place on earth and it's safe to say that it's not going to change in the near future. In 2005 I hadn't been to the UK yet, I hadn't been to Canada yet, I basically hadn't been to anywhere yet, I hadn't travelled by plane, I didn't have any friends abroad (well, except Chris, but that was through work), I can't believe this has all happened in the past ten years. It feels like I've always been irrationally and hopelessly in love with the UK, but back then Canada was everything. Canada still is everything and my dream is to go to Vancouver, but it has made room to some other places next to it (mainly the UK, though). In the past few months and partly thanks to a certain pink-haired someone, New York has also become more of a bit of everything than it used to be and it scares the living daylights out of me.
I used to write a lot more here because there was no Twitter, no tumblr, no Snapchat, no Instagram, no Facebook, no AO3, no Fotki, there was just my blog. Sometimes I hate Twitter because thanks to it my attention span has been reduced to a big fat zero (ok, who am I kidding, I had major problems with my attention span and ability to concentrate back then as well, I'd gladly erase the whole process of writing my MA thesis from my memory, because that was torture extraordinaire). I hate tumblr with passion because it's a huuuuuge waste of time. Snapchat is even more pointless (hence I presently like it a lot). At the beginning of January I decided to start a project called Me As Emoji aka A Selfie A Day/Week/Month Keeps Away The Fear Of Me Taking Myself Too Seriously (don't worry, I'll try to spare you of all of the selfies) on Snapchat. It also serves as my New Year's resolution of trying to accept myself on photos. I love Instagram, I don't care about FB, AO3 is an evil death trap that I seriously wish I had never discovered and Fotki is a means to an end. What did I spend my time on back then? It was the heyday of Soulseek and music and MSN, also OkC (or maybe not yet) if I remember correctly. I used to read a lot of blogs. It was also roughly the time of burning films onto CD-ROMs (I think), I have hundreds stacked away somewhere. I didn't have a laptop back then, let alone any other gadget. I can't remember when I bought my first mp3 player (it came before my iPod that I bought from Toronto), it must have a been a bit later. I did have my first digital camera (or at least I could borrow T's who was FOURTEEN then. FOURTEEN.)...
My obsessions? What's life without them, right? I actually can't remember... It was slightly past the time of "decathlon is my life" (but only slightly, Roman Šebrle and Reval Cup still seemed to be in the picture, a lot) but a bit less than two years before Take That took over my life. It might be pathetic but I consider Take That to be one of the best things that has happened to me in the past 10 years. TT has changed me more than decathlon because I was no longer a teenager when it hit me and I was more open to all the possibilities that came with it (both emotionally and financially). Decathlon was just watching TV, going to competitions and cutting out stories from newspapers (yes, actual cut-outs!), TT was so much more. Thanks to Jason, Howard, Gary and Mark I still keep in touch with some fabulous people and I've travelled a lot. They have made me smile, they have made me more confident, they have broadened my horizons ("they" meaning the band and the fans). I met up with Vi in Toronto in 2007 after knowing her for just a couple of months on the TT forum, I travelled to Oslo and then to London for a birthday party and Concert for Diana, and then to Zurich for the Beautiful World tour (in a way this trip saved me on so many levels, because I had been crying for a month straight before going there), and then a month later to Aalborg. It was all during the same year! A couple of years later came Manchester (The Circus 2009) and Munich (Progress 2011), meetups in Amsterdam and Oslo, it's been pure joy. But back to 2005, obsessions? Apparently I watched a lot of skiing and also track and field, at least that's what I have been writing about. It was the brief period of me actually doing swimming as a real training with an actual instructor. It was the time when Priit Võigemast was very much in the picture. And apparently also Johnny Depp. When isn't he? I already loved LOTR and HP, these books have changed my view on everything I've read later. I bought Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code TEN years ago, it seems like yesterday. I used to watch ESC back then and I still do, it's just a bit less important of an event. Oh, Bryan Adams, obviously, 2005 was the year of Anthology. The X-Files? They finished making it in 2002, so I guess I had seen it all by 2005. SPN hadn't started yet, let alone Merlin, The Vampire Diaries, White Collar or any other BBC goodies. Except Midsomer Murders, but that doesn't count. What on earth was I watching? Alias!!!! It was all about Jennifer Garner and Michael Vartan back then. Maybe also Dark Angel? But they also stopped making it in 2002... Films? Even all the films by Jake Gyllenhaal came later. I wasn't even obsessed with accents yet - how boring was my life exactly? Not that my latest obsessions are particularly interesting, as far as Louis is concerned, it's pathetic to tell you the truth. Another Jason all over again, I can see SO many parallels, but there are also things that weren't there 8 years ago. #WontActMyAge
On a sidenote - I've just read that my waterproof jacket is TEN years old (it's the best jacket in the world) and so is one of my summer dresses. Oh, the thing that has changed, I didn't wear any dresses or skirts whatsoever, not even in summer. Now I'm proud to say I wear dresses and skirts to work and to everywhere else. However, I am not so proud to say that they tend to get shorter and shorter as the years go by.
Has my blog changed? Of course, loads. For one - I used to post under irvikkala in the early days. I also used to write in Estonian, now it's mostly English, I blame it on ... life? I used to write a lot more about language. Now I use language to write... I think I had more time to think, at least that's the impression I get from the posts. Nowadays I post more photos and videos than actual text posts, I blame it on the lack of time (both to write and to read what has been written) and the changed means of communication (fewer words, more visuals). I did start with my photoblogs 10 years ago already, I didn't remember that! Some things remain the same, though - I'm still as cryptic as hell and don't remember what half of the code words stand for in my (older) posts (except the really relevant ones). Also, I post the things I'm passionate about and I actually haven't lost the ability to laugh at myself (I just don't write about the stupid things I do daily).
A summary of going quickly through much of 2005 - I bought this/did this/watched this TEN years ago?!?! OMG, I'm old. Here's to another ten years. Cheers! We'll go out with Evu tomorrow (because we've known each other for almost 10 years now and it's directly thanks to blogging) and celebrate Peeglitagusel maal's birthday very properly, I promise :) Preferably with some pink drinks ;)
.JPG)