pictured: my bestie, my doggo & I during NYE. I know, I know we look like a couple but we are not hahahaha
First, a brief 2018 recap.
I swear I intended for this blog to be back online before 2018 ended. However, loads were happening in my life and I just couldn’t prioritise being online by the second half of 2018.
I wrote my first yearly recap in the end of 2016. Back then, I also set myself some generic resolutions for 2017. You can read that here. I soon realised that the broader my resolutions are, the higher the odds of me sticking to them.
Of course, not everyone functions that way. It’s just how it works for me.
The thing is – I don’t believe in making plans just because a new year has come by. I usually plan according to what life phase I’m going through – starting uni, going on exchange, starting an internship, dealing with a certain issue, whatever.
Soooooo when January 1st comes around, I tend to sit down and make a big recap on what’s worked during the last 365 (studying/working/health wise). After that, I make a mental note (and a blog post, hehe) on what I wanna work on and improve – but not setting any specific goals.
Reading what I wrote for 2018 goals (I HAD TOTALLY FORGOTTEN I HAD EVEN WRITTEN IT!), I remembered I’d set these goals for myself:
- Standing up for myself more often
- Stop apologising for everything
- Taking care of my mental health
- Balance:
That time spent alone is balanced out with time spent surrounded by friends. That tears of sadness are not as frequent as tears of joy. That missing someone won’t suffocate me because I will see and be with friends I haven’t seen in a long time. That if I spend any days in bed feeling depressed, they balance out with the days I’ve been productive and happy. That my depression does not cast a shadow so dark on my lil’ self that I don’t even remember what I used to be like anymore. That insomniac nights are compensated by lazy Sundays sleeping in.
- And love.
Thank you, dear lil’ me from 2018. Thank you for writing these goals, and for working on them.
2018 was such a good year. Balanced.
All the time and effort put into studying started paying off. I allowed myself to open up even more and that gave me so many new amazing friends. I said bye to people who didn’t fit in my life anymore. Worked my butt off, made a ton of mistakes and learned way more than I expected to.
My days, not matter how hard they might have been, were filled with gratitude and love.
Everyday, I was surrounded by caring friends. I was eating as healthily as I could, nourishing my body, for it’s my home. On stressful days, I had people I could open up to – some of them miles and miles away. There were so many professors supporting me that I still can’t believe that was real.
I turned 23 (OH MY GOD IM TWENTY-THREE?) with a smile so big I look like a creep in all of my birthday party photos! That’s why you ain’t gonna see me posting them anywhere LMAO
Every time I came back home, I had the first love of my life, my sweet lil’ shihtzu Bambam, wiggle her tail and give me the warmest WELCOME BACK, I MISSED YOU!
When things started going downhill by the end of the year, I took a deep breath and reminded myself I didn’t need to do everything on my own. In fact – I didn’t even need to do all the things that I was doing! So, I rearranged my priorities and said bye to some projects. T’was so easy! No feelings of omg im a loser who cant do shite nor guilt for omg im jumping ship and leaving my men behind.
And, as swiftly as it’d started, 2018 was over.
NYE was spent with my bestestestestest friend Emma and my doggo. We dyed the lower half of my hair the colour of wine, which led to me learning hair dye sticks so easily ON EVERYTHING (clothes! furniture! the floor! bedsheets!) except the hair.
She did my make up and I decided that we should take some photos together. After all, it’s so rare that the two of us are in the same continent at the same time! She lived in South Korea for a lil’ while, then she came back, I moved to Europe, and I think that we saw more of each other in 2018 than all the time before that!!
At some point, I had the brilliantly stupid idea of using the Christmas tree fairy lights in our photos. It was all fun ’til we realised we were both tangled up and getting out of that situation would be a lot more troublesome that one would expect.
But we had fun. Even took some photos with doggo – who reluctantly allowed for that.
We made hot dogs and watched the fireworks set by my neighbours. T’was the perfect start for 2019.
Now, onto what matters… For 2019, I want
More of what I had in 2018!!! Mindfulness, mental health, balance, love, self forgiveness, video games, places to explore and photos to take.
I’m finishing my legal studies this July (I used to say “if everything works out, I’ll finish in July….” but IT WILL ALL WORK OUT, END OF!), so I’ll need a job after that. Hehehe. Oh boi.
Okay, so I guess I have one very specific resolution for 2019. I do not wanna be unemployed after I graduate. Welp.
Are you ready for 2019? Have you set any resolutions? Lemme know in the comments below or you can also tweet me @tweetsbysofi🙂
Oh, and a very happy 2019 to us all!
