2022 in a nutshell

Christmas, finally the time of rest, serenity, days of carefree mind, but also the end of year, customarily the time of summaries, drawing in.

2022 was a quite memorable year for me. In Poland it started off with a huge mess around the tax system reform, called Polski Ład (the Polish deal or the Polish order, or actually disorder). The modification turned out to be a spectacular botch-up making the headlines for a few weeks, until 23 February 2022, when some of us still hoped the military conflict could be averted.

On 24 February 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine. I saved first ten days of the war to posterity. I believe such notes make up the biggest value of blogging. Now, as I am writing the post, I can bring back the shock and commotion of those days. The war keeps going on and most Poles seem to have come to terms with it, which is sad, yet natural response to a critical situation.

Economy-wise, the topic of the year was inflation, predicted well in advance, materialising harshly and affecting mostly the poorest, for who dwelling upkeep and nutrition expenses make up the biggest portions of their budgets. The price level spike has been handled quite leniently by the Polish central bank, consequently we enjoy the lowest real interest world in the civilised world, somewhat below -10% (NBP benchmark rate is 6.75%, which CPI stood at 17.4% in November 2022).

As virtually all pandemic-related restrictions were lifted, I holidayed three times in 2022 – I went to the seaside on my own with my bike in May, then flew with my friends to Sardinia in late August / early September and in early November I visited Budapest with my girlfriend.

Besides, I drove twice to Wisła, where my girlfriend has her second flat, in August and then in October. I am also setting off there on Wednesday for nearly two weeks (next post due on 8 January).

In early summer I experienced the toughest depression episode in my lifetime. At first I thought it was an autistic burnout and just the effect of being somewhat overwhelmed by excessive workload, my parents’ problems with health, ups and downs in romantic relationship issues and war-related fatigue. I thought I would cope with the burnout, yet things were getting worse and lousy mood evolved into a full-blown depression. The “happiness pills” began to work around September, but in July I decided to take up therapy sessions which I should finish in January. The therapy has set me back a lot, but it was worth it, although it might not prevent another relapse of the disease.

Love-wise, I installed Tinder in March 2022, to go out with one girl for a month, give up on her. Then, upon deleting the account on the app and the very app, in June I met a girl with who I had paired up on Tinder. I thought we were anything, but a perfect match, but she carried on trying to pick me up. We met for the second and third time and it clicked. We have already had some crises, we have overcome them moved forward. Surprisingly, after being on a verge of a break-up a month ago, out relationship is stronger than before.

I keep fingers crossed for a better tomorrow. May 2023 bring us all health and joy and keep troubles at bay!