Blogging has been a bit slow over the last few weeks as I've been enjoying the remainder of my time as a Fresher. So this post will be a fill-in of what has happened recently, but is mostly a check-in point for the year. A progress log, if you will, of how my year has been going.
So Friday was the day I said goodbye to the Swansea Student Village, where I've been living for my first year of uni. The process of leaving was a surreal feeling, watching everything gradually being packed up over the last week or so. I may have been back and forth from home a lot throughout the year, but I still became immensely attached to the village. It was like a tacky little holiday camp, but has left me with some incredible memories. What was nice about the last few weeks was that my housemates and I seemed to come together and become closer than ever before. Admittedly, I've had my ups and downs with the people I've lived with, and I've felt let out on numerous occasions, just because I feel like I'm very different to some of them, but none of that seemed to matter over the last few weeks. Obviously, the idea of being separated for three months dawned on us (and in my case, a lot longer, as I won't be living with them next year) and we've all kind of clung onto each other. We've made the absolute most of the Swansea night life and spent way more nights in watching films and TV shows together as our little family. It's been really nice, and I'm really going to miss my little crumbums next year (inside joke - anybody seen We're The Millers?).
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| Ready for the summer ball. I'm going to miss these freaks! |
Now onto the evaluative side of this blog. At the beginning of the year, I set myself a few goals for the year. They weren't strict resolutions, just a few things I thought would improve my 2014. So how am I doing so far?
Blogging: So far so good, right? In January, I set myself a target of at least one blog post a month. As it turns out, I have a lot more to talk about than I expected to, and I've posted twelve posts since that target. A few of my posts on what I would consider to be more important topics have done pretty well too, which I'm happy about. Apparently, I can speak a lot more sense than I thought sometimes! I'm just enjoying documenting and writing about some of the things in my life and I definitely want to keep this up.
Living: In January, I didn't think I was using my time wisely enough. This probably came from the fact that deep down, I was disappointed with my first term at university. It wasn't anything like I expected it to be, and I felt like I wasn't doing enough to enjoy it. But I do think I've done a lot more in the second half of the academic year. I've gone out a lot more, I've expanded my friendship group and I've generally made more of an effort to be open to new possibilities. As a result, I do thing I'm living a lot more. Obviously, I still spend a massive chunk of my time in front of my beloved laptop... but baby steps, guys. Baby steps!
Image: The goal was to either change myself until I could find an image I was happy with, or to ease myself into being comfortable in my own skin. I expected fulfilling this goal to be a lot harder than it was. This year, I'm beginning to realise that, holy shit, I'm not ugly. Am I overweight? Yes. Does that define me? Not really. Obviously I have my down days where I look in the mirror and see precisely nothing that I like, but those days are becoming less frequent. I've found a balance between dressing and finding an image that I'm comfortable with, and not giving a damn what other people think of me. If I feel good, why should I care about what other people think? The other night, I got called a 'fat bitch' by an absolute idiot in a drunken state. Had that happened some time last year, it would have sent me into a spiral of self hate. But you know what? I really do not care.
Positivity: I have a friend who says I'm the most pessimistic person he has ever met. The more he says that, the more I play up to it, because our friendship thrives from that kind of banter. But whilst I have a strong ability to be a pessimistic hypochondriac-diva, I'm actually more positive now than I've been for a while. And I think my response to the previous three goals has proven that. So yes - so far, so good!
There's one more thing that can't go without a mention. After my Gran died in April after suffering with dementia, I promised myself I'd become more involved with related charity communities. So this weekend, I signed up to a Memory Walk in aid of the Alzheimer's Society, with all of my family. It's such a wonderful charity who do a lot to help people who suffer from dementia and their families. The walk is sponsored, so if you're in a position to donate, here is a link to my JustGiving page, where you can also find some details about the work the charity does and the event itself.
So that concludes my June check-in. Here's to another six months of positivity!
Until next time, muchachos!
xoxo
