Even though I often abandon this blog for months on end, sometimes I feel the need to return to it just to touch base and clear my thoughts. It's also nice to write for a non-academic purpose every so often, something I do very rarely these days to the point where I find myself automatically slipping into a critical/analytical voice unless I try very hard not to! 

In honour of the new year I thought I'd do a quick post to round up my (last) first term of the year at Durham in traditional fashion, as well as 2017 as a whole.

To be honest, Michaelmas term was a blur, but a vast improvement on last year's Michaelmas term which was - in no uncertain terms - horrendous. I moved into a new house with new people which has been a lovely experience so far. We're a bit of an unexpected group (if you'd told me in first year who I would end up living with in third year I wouldn't have believed you) but I think we work really well together. We all have very different schedules and do different degrees, so it's rare that all four of us are in at the same time during the day, and even rarer for more than two people to be having dinner at the same time! Having said that, we do find time to do things as a house, whether its watching Black Mirror (and regretting it afterwards), our weekly Apprentice viewing sessions, having a house meal out, or cooking a whole (vegan) Christmas dinner from scratch together!

The experience of the new house itself has been... mixed. Possibly my main general criticism of the house is that the walls are SO THIN (my room shares a wall with the bathroom so I can hear literally everything anyone does in there) but I tend to permanently wear headphones anyway. Beyond that we've had a few maintenance issues, the most important one being that our boiler broke on the first snowy day and we spend a couple of days with no heating or hot water. Luckily our landlord brought round some fan heaters so we didn't freeze, but it was still a pretty chilly few days and we were relieved when our swish new boiler was finally fitted. Along the way I learned how to repressurise a boiler and bleed radiators, so don't every say the university experience doesn't teach you anything! Apart from all that I love my room to bits and its so nice to live just across from one of my best friends and to be able to just nip into the corridor for a chat if I want. In that sense it's a bit like being back in college, but I don't have the added anxiety of potentially encountering some randomer on a trip to the shower.

All in all 2017 was a pretty great year in basically every area. Some of the highlights include:

2018 promises to be a big year for me, and most importantly a year of change. I'll be graduating from uni in June which is both scary and exciting, especially for someone like me who enjoys continuity and stability in her life. But I'm trying to look on the bright side and just see it as a new chapter which doesn't mean the old ones cease to exist, and which is full of possibility and the potential for positive change.

On that note, here are some quick 2018 goals, nothing too big or unrealistic, just a few things I'd like to achieve or keep focused on over the course of this year:

And that's a wrap - here's to the end of 2017 and the start of a brand shiny new year!

x