Well, now that it is a little over the half-way point in this year, I thought it was a good idea to maybe do a little life update and ‘review’ of the year so far, haha.
At the beginning of the year, I had a few resolutions. One of them was to be healthier. This has both worked and… not. 😛 I have been eating pretty well, but I’ve been slacking exercise wise. However, in September I plan on buying an exercise bike for the spare room. The reason for this is because it works out cheaper than going to the gym and paying a membership fee. Plus, I can work out anytime I want, three times a day if I wish. I will have the motivation necessary knowing I don’t have to put any effort in to get to my exercise location, haha.
Another resolution was to have a night a week where I had a technology free night, with no phone, no laptop and no TV. This has not worked in the slightest. I haven’t had even one of these nights. 😛
However, the aim of this night a week was to force me into doing something creative more often, like spending time just me and my camera, or a notepad for poetry or crafts, or even just reading; and I’ve done these things.
Even without the aid of an evening a week, I’ve managed to do all these things anyway. Since out of university for summer I’ve written a bunch of poems in my spare time (something I never do unless it’s for my course), and I’ve been doing my weekly photo project, which has had me working on my photography regularly too. I’ve also been reading a lot more. I absolutely love reading; it’s one of my favourite things to do, but I found that in the last year or two at university, I’ve just not been making time for it. Any spare time I had, I wasn’t spending it reading. I’ve really changed that. Since the beginning of the year I’ve read seven or eight books in total. Which, considering in the whole of last year I read maybe half of three separate books, and none the whole way through, I thought was pretty good going.
I’ve also been doing crafty things, and really enjoying them! I finally finished customising a denim jacket I started on last year and then forgot about, and now it looks awesome! I also went to Art in Action this month, which is an art festival with workshops down south. There I made a clay Green Man mask and it looks amazing. I’m really proud of it as I’ve never really done any clay molding before then!
My final resolution was to DO things more. Last summer, I spent most of it doing… nothing. We had so many plans and so many things we wanted to do, but we found that money limitations and weather really restricted what we could do. This summer, I wanted to do ALL of the things I had planned. And I’ve definitely been busy!
We kicked off the summer by redecorating our house. Its just a student house, but it’s also somewhere we have to live in for two years, and I wanted it to be somewhere I enjoyed being. So we completely revamped everything, and now it looks awesome!
After that, we went to Download Festival! And boy, can I tell you… it was INCREDIBLE. I finally got to see Slipknot play live after wanting to for over ten years, so that was a dream come true. Plus all the other bands I saw were amazing. It was such an incredible experience, despite the torrential rain and the very unreliable tent. I met awesome people and generally had an awesome time!
These last two weeks I’ve spent with my family down south for my 21st, which was really awesome. We went to see Cirque du Soliel: Allergria in London, something else I’ve been wanting to do for over a decade and I finally did! I also got to spend some time with my nieces who are adorable and I don’t get to see often now that I’m living so far away.
It was lovely to spend time with everyone and I had such a blast the whole time.
Next week we are going to Venice for a few days courtesy of Dom’s parents for his 21st, which is incredible and I am so excited for! This will be the first time I’ve been out of the country in seven years, so I am really really looking forward to it! Plus I’ve ALWAYS wanted to go to Venice. We’re going for three days which will be really awesome! I may even manage to get a tan for once!
We are also planning a trip to Wales at some point in August for a long weekend to see Dom’s old hometown and his friends and stuff- something else we wanted to do last summer but couldn’t in the end. So that should be awesome if we can sort that out! I also plan on going to see my friends and family in Yorkshire in August and have a belated celebration for my little brother’s 16th birthday which is tomorrow!
To finish off the summer, we are planning a big house party right before we start back at uni for our final year, which should be amazing if we can pull it all together in time!
Overall, I think I’ve done really well in my maintaining of resolutions! And I’ve had the best summer so far! I passed my second year with a 2:1 and I’m looking forward to my final year as a student! I think it may be the best yet!
Overall, this year has been great so far! I feel like a lot of stresses and toxic negativity has been lifted from our lives from last year, and that this year has overall just been better! Here’s hoping the second half is just as good! ❤
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