Another year has been and gone, and what a rollercoaster 2021 was. With national lockdowns, remote learning, changing schools and playing, well, not a lot, of rugby for me, it was a complete whirlwind.
To start 2022 with positive intentions, I've decided to look back on my 2021, and review it.
Starting my own blog! In February of last year, I became very fed up at home with doing nothing, so I researched people's blogs, website building and I took the step into the unknown to form this blog - Ashleigh's rugby blog. Since then, I have written 39 blogs, gaining views on each one. My most popular being "A letter to my first rugby coach", reaching 100+ views! Creating a blog was one of my best ideas to come out of 2021, however it's quite hard work at times.
Finishing school with grades 6 and above! School was challenging, both mentally and physically. Having a lot of my GCSE years online made it particularly difficult to learn and take any content in, but I was so pleased to receive my results. We had an amazing leavers day, thanking everyone that had been there over 5 years, ready to move onto bigger and better things.
Starting to play rugby frequently. With the COVID-19 pandemic, training and games were uncertain, there was no schedule to our training, we kind of just turned up as and when. In September 2021, we began training once weekly and playing games more often than usual, sure we had a few postponed but we got a few games in.
Seeing people speak up. 2021 was a huge year for women's sport, but rugby in general stepped up a gear. In January, the #icare campaign took the world by storm with women and their supporters standing up against misogynistic men. Rugby is for all, and so it should be. @rugbyforall.co started the #rugbyforall hashtag after reading England Rugby's proposal that trans women would have to undergo safety checks as they may be a 'safety risk'. So many other brands and people have spoken up in 2021, too many to name. But thank you all for your work for changing the perspectives.
Watching incredible sports. 6 nations, Olympics, Euros, Premiership, etc. Some of my fondest memories from 2021 were from watching sport. The 6 nations is my favourite time of year, watching 6 teams battle it out is a brilliant spectacle year after year (bring on 2022). The Olympics was huge for all things sport, we saw Tom Daley win his first gold after many years in diving, Simone Biles was incredibly brave, both team GB rugby 7s teams narrowly missed out on a medal, Sky Brown was on the podium at only 13 years of age, and so many other incredible events! Both the premierships have been a brilliant watch so far, with unexpected victories and losses all around the country. And finally, as a sports fan, I watched the Euros with passion and hope, I, as millions of other people, watched the England football team fight all the way to the final, where they sadly lost on penalties. A moment to reflect on for the whole country. (Qatar they're coming for you)
So, another year has been and gone, and a new one's just begun. A new year full of great opportunities for you to become the best you can be. Here's to 2022!
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