The time of excessive tree decoration and cookie consumption has come once again. Who hasn’t bought Christmas presents yet, is rushing to the shops or prays that Amazon workers will just accept the company’s horrible working conditions instead of striking right before the holidays. And who has already bought all Christmas presents, may sit in a cozy café, reflecting on the year that will soon come to an end and the one that lays ahead.

There are better times to reflect on life than during December, when everything is cold and the day has something like three hours of sun. However, changing numbers on a year’s calendar hold a certain predisposition to think about endings and beginnings. And, just like that, you are knee-deep into something I like to call a Christmas Quarterlife Crisis. It’s just like a normal Quarterlife Crisis, but during Christmas — and thus with more glitter.

My own minor life crisis at the end of the year has actually more to do with summer than with winter and less with me than environmental changes. I’m usually a huge fan of change, because life without movement would be boring. But summer 2019 is marking the end of my third Bachelor-year and while I will stay in Nijmegen, some of my friends won’t. A lot of people in my surroundings are currently changing direction and try to figure out what to do and where to go with the rest of their lives.

I begin to realise that the past two and a half years of my life will probably be the fuel of tales I will annoy my children and grandchildren with. The people I met will become their non-biological aunts and uncles, just like they have become my non-biological brothers and sisters. And the days with Nijmegen as our home base will soon come to an end, spreading us all over the globe. If there ever was a moment where a cathartic scream was appropriate, it is now.

Life goes on and years go by. Some of the best things in life exist because of this rule — just as the worst are based upon it. It is exciting as it is scary. And whereas I don’t feel particularly excited about most of the changes at the moment, it sure was a marvelous ride so far. I will close this year with The Zombies’ brilliant song This Will Be Our Year — and recommend it to anyone who might lose direction and a feeling of home now and then.

Read Antonia Leise's blogs here