Five-Year Reflection — February 3, 2026

“If someone knew you five years ago, chances are they hardly know you at all today.” — Vex King

Good Vibes, Good Life Calendar 2026

Where was I 5 years ago? Let’s see: 2021 — that was easy. I’m going to need to check my IG. I dug up “Image 03-02-2026 at 15.31.JPG,” a photo-of-photos from February 2021, and had to find my old computer to even open it. (I’ll add the scan once it’s copied into /public.)
Here are a few snapshots from that month.

If you like iPhone automation stories, I just published a small iPhone Shortcuts Library with the exact tools I use. I’ll keep adding write-ups like “How I Automated x with iOS Shortcuts” and “A shortcut I built to input only one image to ChatGPT instead of 10.”

I was living with my ex-ex — one of those relationships that lasted longer than it should, and it felt impossible to picture an alternative. I was working at a Royal Mail hub and interviewing for a job in my field as an industrial product designer. During Christmas 2022, Royal Mail opened this location to handle the holiday surge.

Winters (roughly November to February) are so dark in the UK — after 4 p.m. it’s night, and even daytime has only brief windows of open sky. I wasn’t feeling my happiest. The relationship wasn’t right; even though we were engaged, I’m not sure I said yes for the right reasons.

I was about to start an additional three-month contract for the 2021 census with the ONS (Office for National Statistics). We had three dogs: Gringo (mine), Bob, and Reggie (his).

I ate pizza whenever I wanted — most days. Handmade, huge. I’m 1.73 m and weighed 60 kg, so I figured there was no reason to eat differently. I ate what I liked.

Random photos from that time: Paul bakery boxes, the best palmeras in England, Ferrero Rocher chocolates, pancakes, sweets, brownies, croissants (frozen from Aldi) baked every morning, all washed down with orange juice with pulp.

Because of the new work-from-home job, I had to get an office chair. I discovered (with a lot of hesitation) that the first one was the best: a Kneeling Balancing Chair. Since then, I’ve had four of the same — one in each house, workplace, or country I’ve lived in.

I barely remember most of these moments. I’m grateful I snapped photos — as random as they look — so I can come back to them. I also relied on the app 1 Second Everyday until they shifted to a subscription model.
1 Second Everyday – video diary

A few months later I went to the doctor, asked for therapy, blood tests, and a vitamin D check. I felt numb and didn’t know how to get out of it. I’m usually a chatterbox, but I stopped talking.