Goals and Resolutions for 2019
January 04, 2019
Happy New Year! First of all, I can't believe that this will be my 7th year of blogging - or rather, the 7th year *in which I will blog*, as I started my blog in mid-2013. Anyway. In this post I thought I'd look back on the highs of 2018 as well as assessing how I've done in terms of the goals I had for the year. In the New Years' post I did this time last year I said that 2017 had been pretty great for me, and to be honest 2018 was even better. If you've been following my blog for a while none of this will come as a surprise, but I like the idea of gathering it all together in a single post that I can look back on in the future.
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| an unrelated photo which nonetheless sums up my 2018 |
What with graduating from university it's safe to say that 2018 was the Year of the Academics, so here are some of my academic highlights:
- Graduating from Durham University with a 1st class degree (and breaking the 80% barrier!)
- Getting the highest overall grade for my course and the highest third year geography grade
- Receiving 94% on my dissertation and it being 'highly commended' for a national Royal Geographical Society prize
- Being 'highly commended' for three essays in the 2018 Undergraduate Awards
- Getting a scholarship for my Masters course
(Wow OK, boasting over). And here are some personal ones:
- Visiting Paris and Seville, two cities I had never been to
- My uni fieldtrip to Jerusalem (alright technically this is academic but I'm talking about the wider travelling experience)
- Spending the post-exam period living life to the fullest with my housemates and having so many fun days out and evenings in
- Making the decision to move to a new city
- Starting the process of learning to drive (again) and passing my theory test (again)
So, how did I do compared to the goals I set out at the beginning of the year?
- Finally decide on my masters of choice, apply and get accepted to one of my top choices: Yep! I definitely achieved that one, hence the scholarship.
- Graduate uni with the best possible mark I can reasonably achieve: Also yes (see above).
- Watch all of David Lynch's films: Sadly I did not achieve this in 2018 (in fact I barely watched any films) so this is one for 2019 when I also plan to finish The X-Files.
- Listen to new music/artists: I discovered a few new ones in 2018, including Zolita, Allie X, Lola Blanc, Bleachers and Transviolet, but there's definitely more scope for finding new ones in the coming year.
- Travel more: As mentioned above, I went to Paris, Seville, Jerusalem as well as Edinburgh which is pretty good.
- Care less about what people think of me / my opinions / interests: I definitely managed this. It's not something I've ever struggled hugely with but I think I've been on a downwards (upwards?) slope with this since I left school so things have continued in that direction.
- Don't be afraid to speak up in group situations, academic or otherwise: This is hard to assess, but when it comes to my MA course having done so well at undergrad has given me a huge boost and helped reinforce the idea that I do actually have something worthwhile saying.
When it comes to this year, I have been unusually inspired in the resolutions/goals front and I've got quite a few typical resolutions. But rather than just aimlessly stating them I also want to think through how I'm planning to achieve them.
- Blog more: I'll never set myself a schedule for X blog posts per month or anything like that, but I do want to continue to document parts of my life and interests. After all, I've been doing it for so long now! The best way I can think of to achieve this is just to keep track of when I have the urge to write something, and go with the flow when inspiration hits.
- Keep learning Arabic: This time last year I took a course of beginner's Arabic and really enjoyed it, although it was incredibly difficult. This year I'm planning to take another course in Spring Term and do 15-30 minutes per day of self-study using a combination of the textbook I got last year and an app (that I still need to identify).
- Waste less time on YouTube: I spend a stupid amount of time on YouTube, which hasn't been helped by my discovery of the studytube community this year, which is ridiculous as my studying experience has nearly been and gone - I do not need study tips from teenagers doing their A-Levels. I think the best way to ensure this is to regularly update my subscription list and unsubscribe from people I no longer desperately want to watch, as well as being discerning with whether or not I watch the videos that come into my subscription box. If I'm not thrilled at the prospect of watching something, there's no point adding it to my 'watch later' list and then feeling like I have a huge list of videos to 'get through', at which point it feels like a chore.
- Get my MA and find a job/internship: OK this is the big one for this year really. Self-explanatory.
- Learn to drive: This is the other big one. Also self-explanatory.
- Read more: Somehow (probably due to final year) I got out of the habit of reading in 2018. I was always reading *something* but nowhere near the rate I used to, which I only really realised when Goodreads informed me I only read 12 books in 2018. To be fair that was only counting new reads and I'm a serial re-reader so I definitely did read more than that, but still. To achieve this I've set myself the challenge of reading 30 books on Goodreads, which seems like not a lot but I want to be sure I can do it while also finishing degree number two.
- Drink more water: This is standard but I mean it this time. I got a reusuable metal water bottle last Christmas and I need to make better use of it.
And that's my year in review and the next one planned out!
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