#so thank you 2024 f1 season <3 you were wild & crazy and i loved you

[its-all-papaya]

i would like to write an essay about my first season as a formula one fan - about choosing Lando Nowins in March and ending the season smiling about a WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP - but i finish seasons every few months, and i never actually get any of the profound, poetic words out. because the world keeps moving. i'll switch off sky sports and i'll open my work laptop and i'll forget to process that this is the last time i'll do that in 2024. i'll write game dates down in my planner and forget that i don't have to check the f1 schedule tab of my browser anymore, not for awhile. i'll watch other teams in other sports and cheer for other athletes that i love, and i'll never really let the sadness or the accomplishments sink in, because i'll never really remember to. maybe i'll watch another championship before march. maybe i'll win one. but i'll keep writing down dates - keep checking that tab - and in a blink, it'll be time again to wake up at 4am on fridays and grind my teeth on sunday mornings and smile when lando smiles and send 45 texts in a row, all caps, to people who don't care about oscar piastri. i won't spend days waiting for f1 to start again - i haven't got time to - but i know this: next march, when i wake up before dawn for round one, i'll feel all the months all at once. i'll think "how did i go so long without this?" and "is it really time again already?" at the same time, in the same way, and i've never done it in formula one, but i've been a sports fan long enough to know this: it's going to feel just like coming home.