Hello and welcome to my podcast My Life and Other Funny Stories. My name is Dagmar Tomášková, I am an English tutor and coach and I created this podcast for English students who want to improve their oral comprehension. As always you can find the transcription of this episode and vocabulary list in the notes of the podcast. 

Today, it will be again a bit of a personal episode but the year is coming to an end so I was thinking that I could do a little year recap here with you. And by recap I mean, I will complain about this year because oh honey, this year was really something. I don’t know what I said in my episode from last year where I talked about 2023 but I remember saying something in a way that it hadn’t really been my year and I hoped 2024 would be better. If only I knew. Anyway, this is also the last episode of this year because I am actually flying to the US to visit my friend and spend Christmas and New Year’s Eve with her so I won’t be able to record any more episodes but if you want to stay updated, follow me on Instagram, I will for sure share something from my stay there. Ok, let’s go.

I can, not very proudly, say that 2024 was definitely the worst year of my life. I mean, I don’t want to sound like all I do is complain but really, I felt like I couldn’t catch a break. It started with a break up of my 6-year-long relationship in February and moving to a new apartment. It felt like I was starting my life over. But even before that, my health had been getting progressively worse and in 2024 I got to the lowest point of my mental, physical and social health. If someone here doesn’t know, I have been having stomach issues. And I know I talk about it a lot but it literally made my life a living hell so sometimes it is the only thing I can talk about. Anyway, during the year,  I was going to different doctors several times a month, undergoing so many examinations and trying to find out what the issue was. From April to July, I felt sick every day. Some days, I just laid in bed because my stomach hurt so much, sometimes I couldn’t sleep because of it and I had to push through every single day. I was very depressed and pushed away all my friends because I was not able to go out, to have fun and I wasn’t in the mood to talk with anyone. I couldn’t just not work, I just had to get up every morning and do my best. After July, it got better and I have had really nice days since then but it is still not good.

It looks like I have IBS, which is irritable bowel syndrome – something they diagnose you with when they don’t know what the problem is. Just to close this section off, I started working with a nutrition therapist and he gave me hope that I could get better so now I am working on it, don’t worry. I believe that it will get better soon.

I haven’t really travelled a lot this year. One of my bucket list points was to visit the United States in the summer. It is my dream to visit LA, national parks, New York and just have the time of my life there but with my health and also difficulties in finding someone who would go with me, I told myself that I would go in the future. I only visited Berlin for a few days and that is all. But then my friend Audrey asked me in August if I wanted to come visit her in Seattle for Christmas and of course, I said yes. So even though I won’t visit LA or national parks, my dream of visiting the United States will be partially fulfilled. Which makes me very elated and excited. I can’t wait to see my friend after two years! 

Okay, so that’s my health and traveling. My work life has also been hanging by a thread. I was really struggling to keep up with my deadly schedules. This year was filled to the brim with hundreds of conversations, hundreds of feedback texts for my students, creating and posting on Instagram, recording my weekly podcast episodes, and lesson preparations…don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining about that because there is nothing I love more than spending time with my students on conversations and preparing materials for them. It is just that with my health, I had to push myself so hard to be able to do that, that I got to the point of a small burnout in October. I had to make a decision and let go of one part of my work cooperation and therefore some of my students which was so painful. Saying goodbye to them after years of weekly talks and close relationships, my heart was breaking but there was no other way. If some of you are listening, I miss you already!

But where one cooperation ends, others begin and I had a fresh space for some new students who are total rays of sunshine and I am so happy to work with them!

I am also so excited that I fulfilled one of my small dreams and was able to organize my Harry Potter reading club. I loved every minute and with a few of the girls, we also opened a second part where we read the second Harry Potter book and it looks like we will meet each other again for the third one next year. We just loved it so much that we couldn’t let it go.

I am also thinking about reopening the course for the first book again sometime next year. Would you be interested? If so, let me know!

I learned again so much about myself, how to be a better tutor and I definitely managed to push myself further. I believe that the next year will be even better when it comes to my work life! 

There has also been some news when it comes to my personal life. Some really bad news but also good news. I don’t want to go into detail but as the beginning of the year began with a heartbreak, I am not finishing the year with it. Which is really nice. Really really nice. 

I have no clue what the next year holds but I feel a little bit more optimistic than last year. Albeit it will probably begin with another move, and I hate moving, I will celebrate my first day of 2025 in Seattle which, I think, is a good start to a year. 

I have to start working on my goals. Last year I didn’t make any because I was quite depressed but I am feeling in my bones that I can do it this year. 

Even though it was an awful year, truly horrendous, it didn’t kill me. And you know, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. And I proved to myself that I could push through pain, tears and discomfort. I could push through heartbreak and push out all the toxic people that found their way into my life. I can still be here for my friends, family and my students. I am open to change, to new love and possibilities. And if life gives me a hard time, I will get through it and come out stronger. And you can too.

And I got the statistics of my podcast for the year 2024 and it was quite nice. Apparently, more people listen to me than I think. Thank you for being here. Thank you for spending a few minutes a week with me. I hope we will meet again next year.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode and don’t forget that you can find the transcription and vocabulary list in the notes. Please give it a five-star rating if you liked it and I will see you next time, bye-bye.