new year

2019 Goals

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Since I started my blog in 2013 (dang) I’ve shared my goals for the New Year. Normally, this would’ve been done with a reflection of last years goals, but honestly, I haven’t looked at those goals and I’m not ready for a reflection. It also would’ve been posted on either 12/31 or 1/1, but again, I wasn’t ready for that. So here we are, writing this on 1/2 because better late than never!

  1. Blog consistently and on a schedule. As you may know, I’m getting married this year. I’m also working a lot more and life is just a lot busier than it was in college. However, my blog is my passion, it’s one of the few things that I like to do so I want to devote time to it. I want to take time on Sunday afternoons to work on my blog. I’m really good at being lazy and my blog is the first to go when that’s what I want to do. I’m going to guarantee at least one post every Thursday.
  2. Make my bed every day. A lot of my goals this year are going to do with tidiness. I’ve been driving myself crazy. Don’t @ me mom, I know you’ve been telling me that for years. But really I’d like to wake up in the morning and make my bed.
  3. Tying into that, put my clothes away right after I wash them. Right now, they sit in my hamper, or on my chair until I either wear them or finally put them away. I’m lazy.
  4. Budget and save more. Right now, if I want something I just buy it. That’s so temporary and I really want to think about what I’m buying this year. Like I said, I’m getting married, so I need to start thinking more long-term about everything I do. We want a house, so I need to be more responsible.
  5. Prioritize my health. In 2018 I did the best with doing what I’m supposed to in terms of my health. I started going to doctor appointments regularly, stopped putting stuff off. There are a few more things I need to do (especially while I’m still on my parent’s insurance #honesty). Again, I need to start thinking long-term, I’ve been dealing with stomach issues for a long time, and still don’t know the cause. That kind of stuff, I’m taking care of this year.

Okay, so that’s that! What are your goals for the new year?

2018 Goals

Mary2 Comments

You had to know this was coming, so here are my 2018 goals! I decided to pick just 10 this year (again) so it is more achievable.

  1. Go to the gym a minimum of three times a week
  2. Work on transitioning my blog and online presence to more of what I want it to be and less of just quick fixes.
  3. Start working freelance
  4. Get organized
  5. Open an Etsy shop
  6. A solo-vacation (or maybe with friends who knows)
  7. Read 12 books
  8. Volunteer and be more charitable
  9. Write a book about blogging and publish it for the Amazon Kindle
  10. Eat better!

What are your goals for the new year?

Welcoming the New Year: 2017 I’m Ready for You.

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heres-to

2016 has been a rough year globally, and personally, however as December set in I began to take in about a million realizations that the new year will contain for me.

2017 is going to be a year of change, not just for me but for the world. I think there is a general consensus that 2016 was a shit year, but I’m holding out hope (and putting it into the universe) that 2017 is going to be a lot better. My goals (to be released later this week) will hold the fate of this blog, my “real” future and a bunch of other things I’m sure.

2016 brought me some good things, like I finally saw a therapist, cut off some people that were detrimental to my well-being, and God pushed me to some really good people which made for some really great friends. I hope that this  year, the friendship cycle that seems to constantly be rotating ends and the people I have found stay.

2017 will bring graduation, moves (maybe), a job (hopefully), and all around some major life changes. I don’t know if I have ever been so scared excited for a new year. It will also bring an administration I am afraid of, but will continue to pray for and protest. Women, it is time to fight for our rights, there are too many that have suffered, we can’t let it continue. Minorities, fight. Please fight. It is nearly 2017 and everyone I can’t believe there are so many large groups of being fighting for equality.

The next few days will bring reflection of old goals and the birth of new ones. I will not be posting my statistics of the year, if they’re even available this year, mostly  because there is not a single piece of me that wants to know how much they have gone down. 2017 will be different. I’m determined to make it my year.

2017, I’m ready for you.

2015 Goal Review and 2016 Goals

Mary5 Comments

2014 was a whirlwind of a year a year. It’s now time for me to reflect on last year’s goals and set my goals for next year.

2015 Goal Recap

  1. Study abroad. One of my big goals for the year is to study abroad for the fall semester. I really hope this works out, I’ll keep you guys posted once I find out if it’ll work out or not. Well, I’m going to IRELAND. I’ve booked my ticket, I register for classes in about a month. This does seem to be working out. I went to Ireland, it was great. I never registered for classes, it wasn’t as easy as I thought it was going to be, but I did it. Check! 
  2. Take care of self– mind and body. I need to start eating better and caring more of myself rather than just filling myself with crap. I don’t want to set a goal like lose ten pounds or anything, I just want to be a healthier person in general. Well I gave up fried food for a while and I felt good but that was for lent and then I stopped. I need to do it again. I don’t think I’ll do it as extreme but definitely cut a lot of it out.  Making my own food when I was away really helped me just be healthier. I knew what I was making and I knew what was going into my body. However, there is always room for improvement when it comes to my personal health mostly because I don’t care enough about it, it’s something I want to strive to get better at. 
  3. Get shit together. Sorry about the swearing, I just feel like I need to get my life organized in way that makes it more maintainable and less stressful. I would say I’ve been a lot more organized. I’m not waiting for answers, I’m getting answers.  I think I’ve been way more organized recently. It’s helped my mind a lot and it’s something I want to continue with. 
  4. Do not take anyone’s crap. If someone is treating me badly my goal is not to take it. I can be a pushover sometimes and I don’t want that to happen anymore. I am standing up for myself. I’m not letting people take advantage of me. Okay that might not be fully true, but I am stopping a lot of it. I think I’ve definitely did a lot better with this in 2015. If I’m uncomfortable with something I’m finding myself more likely to say something about it. 
  5. Develop a plan of somesort. I don’t have a life plan, a five year plan, or even a one year plan. I want to have a plan that I can help guide me so that I feel like my life has some order to it, or at least feels that way. Still don’t have one of these. I have a more clear idea of what I want to do. I have my classes for the rest of college planned out too if that counts for anything. Sometimes you can’t have a plan.
  6. Be more creative. I want to inspire my own creativity, craft more, paint more, just create more. I would say that I have been. Being creative really helps me to relax so the more creative I am, the less stressed I am so I’m really trying to do this more and more. I think I’ve been more creative. I go through spells of creativity. 
  7. Blog 3-5 times a week with good, strong posts. I don’t want my blog to slack like I feel like it has this year because I blogged everyday. While it had it’s advantages I don’t feel like I was very good at finding a post everyday that was strong, I hardly planned ahead and there were some days where my posts were just bad. I also want to spend the few days off organizing and elaborating more of the blog itself in addition to the content I produce. I don’t want to talk about this haha. I know that I have not done this. I know my blog is lacking my personality. It’s really making me ask myself a lot of questions about my blog. I am considering going back to daily blogging. It’s a very touchy subject for me that’s hard to find people who can relate with it because I feel like most bloggers are comfortable with 1-2 posts a week, maybe three. I don’t know. I need a schedule or something, so if anyone has any tips, I would be glad to take them. I think since I wrote the update I did it most weeks. It’s just part of my personal problem where I’m an all or nothing person. I either have to have a set schedule or I don’t really do what I’m supposed to because I’m a procrastinator. 
  8. Positivity- I don’t have to be the most positive person but make an effort to be a positive person in people’s lives. I don’t need to be an optimist like I said before, I just want to be a positive influence in the lives of the people around me. I would like to think that I have been more of a positive influence on the people around me. I think it’s really important to be the positive light in someone’s day. You never know when all someone really needs is encouraging words. I think I’ve done a lot better with this recently. While my nickname is still Debby Downer, I think my influence is more positive than negative. I just have a lot of depressing fun facts. 
  9. Surround myself with people who truly care. I don’t want to waste my time with people who only want to be with me when I’m the backup option. I don’t have to be the first, but I don’t want someone to hangout with me because they don’t have anything better. Check, check, and check. I don’t think I have to add anything to this because I could hand you a list of names of people who I know care about me. I guess if I could check this off six months ago, it can still be checked off. 
  10. Care more. I care about people a lot, probably to an annoying point where I always ask what they need or what I can do for them and I constantly make sure they’re okay because I worry but I need to care more about myself. I need to care more about what I do and how everything affects me long term. I do care about myself, but I think a lot of times I put other people’s needs above my own. I don’t want to say that’s a bad thing, because as a Christian, I think it’s very important to take care of the people around you before yourself, however I do think there’s a point where if you don’t take care of yourself you won’t be able to help anyone else. Every now and then I get to that point and I need to say “Okay, yes you should help your friend, but if you don’t do this, you won’t be able to do that.” I hope I accomplished this. I think I did. 
  11. Develop a passion for something. I have a passion for my blog but nothing else. I want to have passion for something I can do long term and maybe for the rest of my life, more than just a hobby. I don’t know if this just comes down to something as simple as just not being a passionate person. I wish I was but I’m not the kind to just be passionate, I don’t know why. I am passionate about travelling, and blogging is allowed to be a passion. Social media can be my career, maybe not for me, but it is a job and it can be my passion. 
  12. Work and try harder. I do a lot of things very half-assed. I want to do things in a way where I give it my all. Everything I do should be my best efforts not my an attempt or a try it should be great. This semester definitely showed me that if I put forth my best effort in everything I do I can succeed and I really am trying and working harder.  I think I succeed in this. I’ve put a lot of effort into everything I do, so maybe I’m not doing as many activities, but I’m putting so much more effort into everything that I do.
  13. Don’t waste time. I feel like I waste so much time just laying around and doing nothing I should do something effective with that time. Ehhhhhhhhh…….. I don’t know what to say about this.  Well, I think I use that time more effectively. Lately I’ve been using it to read. While I was away I used it for homework time or blogging time or picture editing time. Just time. 
  14. Be more self-confident. I don’t want to look in a mirror and see things I don’t like about myself or want to change, I want to walk out the door confidently and happy with how I am. I mean after last nights blog post I would say that this answer is more complex. I am content with how I look but I am not confident enough not to care what other people might think when they see me. I lost weight, so I think that helps. I’m not 100% happy with how I look, but I am usually 100% happy with who I am and that definitely helps the confidence.
  15. Be more receptive of compliments and criticism. I don’t take either of these really well, compliments tend to make me feel uncomfortable because I question the motives and how genuine the person giving them is. I tend not to take criticism well because I think I’m always right and that’s how I like to live life, but I need to take into account other people’s opinions when it comes to what I say and think. I’m trying. Like there are certain things that cause me to basically shut down and be unable to think  about anything else, but I’m still trying. I don’t know, can I just say yes? That would be lying, and that’s not what New Years is about. I don’t like compliments or criticism. There we go, honesty.

2016 Goals.

2016 is a year of a few big goals, I just want to accomplish a lot and one of them is kind of not biting off more than I can chew, so I’m going to start that with my goals.

  1. Take better care of myself- I feel like I am so weird about chemicals that I put on my body, so I need to be more careful about what chemicals I put into my body too.
  2. Blog better and often- I want to blog as much as I can as often as I can. I want to be a better blogger. This is the only post besides LNBM that goes up past 7 pm. I want to utilize drafts and just be better with planning. I don’t want to be a daily blogger, but I want to be a frequent blogger. I don’t want to commit to a certain number of days, I just want it to be often.
  3. Find an internship- self-explanatory. I want to expand my professional horizons and make sure I know what I want to do.
  4. Give 100% to everything- this ties in with biting off more than I can chew. I want to do a few things but put all of my effort into those few things that way I can give 100% to everything I’m doing.
  5. Create more- I just want to be more creative, make sure I’m always expanding that part of my mind.
  6. Be more open to new ideas and things- I want to try more. I always do the same mundane things and I want to keep all of the new of 2015 going.
  7. A year scrapbook- part of being creative and  part of keeping track of my life. I take so many pictures, I want to do something with them. I want it to be a yearly thing, so I will see how it goes during 2016.

What your goals for 2016? I know I did about half of 2015 but I think that makes it more attainable and more focused than when they’re all over the place.

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A New Era Begins

Mary6 Comments

I wasn’t going to post today because you know, a break since I’ve decided not to blog everyday for 2015 but I can’t start the year off with no post, I have to do something. So here’s to 2015 my friends.

I guess I should maybe layout a plan for the new year in order to “get my shit together”. I am going to blog 3-5 days a week in order to keep my creativity. You may be asking, why not 4 and meet halfway, well the answer to that is I hate even numbers for some odd reason. I hope you got that pun, if not reread until you do. Anyway, I hope to have one post a week that is part of a series. I have a few ideas but I’m not quite sure what I want to do yet. Like a Motivational Monday type thing but not that really, I’m working on it. I also really want to plan rather than get on and just write. If I plan the chances of the post being better are much higher. I would also just like to acknowledge that my week will run Monday through Sunday that way I follow it so if I tell you I feel like I have to follow it. I can already tell it’s going to be hard getting used to not blogging everyday, I will however be on WordPress usually everyday.

I love the word era just because it means so much. Like the end of an era is so finite, like once an era ends it’s done and sure you can look back on it but it’s finished. Today we aren’t finished we are adding another year to our lives. Another birthday, Christmas, school year, just another year of life and that is to be celebrated. This is the start of firsts too, people will get married, have kids, start relationships, I mean I don’t know if any of these will happen for me, but it could be my first time living in a different country (hopefully).

If you’re reading this, I want you to know that you can make 2015 the best year of your life if you make an conscious effort to do what you want to do and limit your influences from other people. Negative influence hurt you and you don’t need that. Stay positive and cut out those who don’t care. The best part of 2015 is for you to be you, and anyone should be able to do that! If you cannot for whatever reason or situation you are in, I hope you have someone to talk to and if you don’t, you have me! Being who you are is one of the hardest but best things you can do for yourself, so make 2015 the year of you.

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2014 Goal Conclusion and Goals for 2015

Mary6 Comments

newyears

A year ago today I set goals for 2014 and then updated the progress of them in June. As a final goodbye to 2014 I thought it would be appropriate to share with you the final progress of the goals and where I stand with them on the last day of the year. The regular font will be the initial goals, bold where I was in June and italicized will be where I am now.

  1. Blog everyday- I would like to try and really do this as well as have some sort of schedule for the postings. Well I think I’ve only missed one day, even if I’m posting after midnight. However, I think I have made up that post I missed. But, I stopped with the schedule it wasn’t working for me. I think I kept it for two or three months, which I find impressive. I blogged almost everyday and if I missed any days I’ve made up for them in the past few days or in the course of the year. After I publish this post I will have 365 posts published this year. I did not use a schedule because although it helped sometimes I felt that it stifled my creativity. In the future I hope to do some series or have a Monday or Friday feature, but not everyday like I had planned. 
  2. Reach 300 followers, this is just a personal goal and if it doesn’t happen it’s totally okay I think it’s something I want to try. Well I’m almost to 200 so it seems attainable. However, I think blogging is so much more than the number of followers, but also the quality. The people I’ve talked to in comments have lead to a friendship. Blogging is a place where I can speak my mind freely and people who share the same opinion will find me or those who disagree will find me and let me know. I hit 300 followers at the beginning of the month and I cried a lot of tears from happiness. I never imagined it would happen considering at the start of the year I hadn’t even hit 100. This is more than followers, it’s friends as I said in June. And to those of you who I talk with frequently or infrequently thank you for being there. 
  3. Make a really good friend at school, someone to hang out with and get meals with on a regular basis. I did make really good friends at school last semester, you know who you are. I love you guys. When I wrote this I was talking about different people. This semester I have made really good friends, again you know who you are but you have all touched me and helped me more than you know. 
  4. Get a new job, and this doesn’t mean quit my current job because it’s a good safety net but I really need a new job to make more money. I did better than this, or at least in my opinion, I got an awesome internship, that’s paid and I’m making more money. I’m very happy where I am now. I think this something that I could just check of my list as soon as I got my internship. A better opportunity at a place where I wasn’t so miserable.  
  5. A more positive outlook on life- I really need to stop being so negative and hating everything, and I want to try to be more optimistic.  I think I have been slightly more optimistic so far this year. I don’t think I’m as negative as I was, but I still wouldn’t say I’m optimistic. I will never be an optimist, I’m what I like to call a realist, other people would say pessimist. I am happy with my attitude if I can influence in a positive way rather than a negative way, even if my outlook isn’t so positive, which it is more so now. 
  6. Go to a party for more than 30 minutes. This is something that I just need to do for myself, I don’t need to drink or do drugs or whatever people do at parties but I need to experience college better. I think after last nights post it’s safe to say I haven’t done this and I won’t be doing it anytime soon. I went to a party. Not a big party, just a small one. I went for a few hours, which is really more than the half hour goal, so check. 
  7. Try to overcome my anxiety. I just want to figure out and calm down so it’s not so bad because it hinders me from doing things that I really want to do and that needs to stop. I think after my semi-regular anxiety updates we know where I am. Right now, I’m in a bad place, tomorrow I could be in a good place. I think it’s really inconsistent and I still need to seek help. I never found help, but it’s gotten better. I think when I’m uncomfortable or in situations that I don’t like or places I don’t like it gets worse. I think that’s why it was so bad at school last year because I hated it, and that’s why it gets bad at work, because I hate it. Now, it’s better at school because I’m comfortable and the anxious feelings only come for a little and panic attacks become a lot less frequent. 
  8. Stop cracking my knuckles- pretty self explanatory. Well I forgot about this one so it’s not going well consider I still crack my knuckles all the time. I forgot again, whoops. 
  9. To be passionate about something- I feel like a lot of things, but I don’t feel like I’m really passionate about anything and I really really want to be. I think I’m passionate about blogging. I love it. There are some night where it’s 11:00 and I have work in the morning, where I think to myself “Shit, I still have to write a quick post for tonight.” But even then it’s not like I hate doing, I’m more annoyed at myself for staying out too late or doing nothing all night and just not doing it. I’m also becoming very passionate about Arrowheart, working on new designs, promoting it on social media and such, I’m really excited about it. I am passionate about my blog. I love blogging. I love logging on and responding to comments. Yes, I regret blogging everyday because my content is not as good as it could be but I still love to do it. I could talk about my blog and how I want to improve it for hours. The hardest thing to do is find something worthy of writing about.
  10. 300 YouTube subscriber, which I’m seeing as kind of unrealistic right now but it’s something that I would like to hopefully achieve this year. I stopped YouTuber, and I talked to Hiba about it for a little bit and she’s encouraging, but when we looked at the broader picture I’m not sure it’s a good idea. I realized all it takes is one big person to like your videos and you’re channel will spiral and that’s not something I want. I don’t want to be YouTube famous, and I’m not saying that’s what would’ve happened to me, but if it did, I don’t think I would’ve been able to handle it. For now, I’ll stay behind my screen. I tried Dear December and I love editing but I just don’t have strong enough ideas, I’m not passionate about it. I don’t care enough to make quality content, I would rather put in my time and energy here rather than there for the time being. 
  11. I would like to better recognize those who actually care about me compared to those who only want things from me. Slowly but surely I think I’ve been doing that. It’s hard but I’m trying, sometimes I don’t know what to do. I do this now. I distance myself from people who don’t seem to care as much and focus on those who really do. It’s hard to cut people out from life but it is not good to have negative influences in your life. You shouldn’t hang out with people who don’t appreciate you, that’s what 2014 taught me. 
  12. I want to remember to tell those I appreciate how much they mean to me.  I try to tell everyone that I appreciate them, but I’m not sure if I always do that, I think I’m trying though. I think I do this. I try and tell people that they matter to me, I try to acknowledge that their presence in my life is important to me. 
  13. I need to keep in mind that I am really lucky especially when things are bad. I don’t do this enough. I think more so lately, especially when things go my way. I should do it more when I’m not happy though. I think I do this more so now. I don’t think a lot of people do this enough, but I have been better at. 
  14. I would love to learn something new, so suggestions please! I need a cool new hobby! I don’t think I’ve done this yet… I’m not sure what to do! Leave me comments of what to learn! I never got around to this unfortunately. I did join newspaper at school so maybe that can kind of count. 
  15. Joe Sugg. Look him up, I’m in love with him. Tell him to love me. Well I hate to tell you guys but I’m not in love with Joe anymore. I have a real life crush on Connor Franta, like an actual crush. When I watch his videos he’s like everything I look for in a guy and it sucks because of two reasons 1) He might be gay, 2) He has no idea who I am. So if you want you can tweet him my twitter name (@mrmilligan13) and just tell him that I’m perfect for him, feel free :) I am no longer in love with Connor because he did come out as gay. I actually don’t have a crush on any YouTubers or anyone for that matter. This makes my life that much more boring. 

So I don’t think I did half bad for 2014, I make a lot of goals so I can accomplish a lot. I did the same thing for 2015- developed 15 goals for the year of things that I hope to accomplish not change which is why I like goals rather than resolutions.

  1. Study abroad. One of my big goals for the year is to study abroad for the fall semester. I really hope this works out, I’ll keep you guys posted once I find out if it’ll work out or not.
  2. Take care of self– mind and body. I need to start eating better and caring more of myself rather than just filling myself with crap. I don’t want to set a goal like lose ten pounds or anything, I just want to be a healthier person in general.
  3. Get shit together. Sorry about the swearing, I just feel like I need to get my life organized in way that makes it more maintainable and less stressful.
  4. Do not take anyone’s crap. If someone is treating me badly my goal is not to take it. I can be a pushover sometimes and I don’t want that to happen anymore.
  5. Develop a plan of somesort. I don’t have a life plan, a five year plan, or even a one year plan. I want to have a plan that I can help guide me so that I feel like my life has some order to it, or at least feels that way.
  6. Be more creative. I want to inspire my own creativity, craft more, paint more, just create more.
  7. Blog 3-5 times a week with good, strong posts. I don’t want my blog to slack like I feel like it has this year because I blogged everyday. While it had it’s advantages I don’t feel like I was very good at finding a post everyday that was strong, I hardly planned ahead and there were some days where my posts were just bad. I also want to spend the few days off organizing and elaborating more of the blog itself in addition to the content I produce.
  8. Positivity- I don’t have to be the most positive person but make an effort to be a positive person in people’s lives. I don’t need to be an optimist like I said before, I just want to be a positive influence in the lives of the people around me.
  9. Surround myself with people who truly care. I don’t want to waste my time with people who only want to be with me when I’m the backup option. I don’t have to be the first, but I don’t want someone to hangout with me because they don’t have anything better.
  10. Care more. I care about people a lot, probably to an annoying point where I always ask what they need or what I can do for them and I constantly  make sure they’re okay because I worry but I need to care more about myself. I need to care more about what I do and how everything affects me long term.
  11. Develop a passion for something. I have a passion for my blog but nothing else. I want to have passion for something I can do long term and maybe for the rest of my life, more than just a hobby.
  12. Work and try harder. I do a lot of things very half-assed. I want to do things in a way where I give it my all. Everything I do should be my best efforts not my an attempt or a try it should be great.
  13. Don’t waste time. I feel like I waste so much time just laying around and doing nothing I should do something affective with that time.
  14. Be more self-confident. I don’t want to look in a mirror and see things I don’t like about myself or want to change, I want to walk out the door confidently and happy with how I am.
  15. Be more receptive of compliments and criticism. I don’t take either of these really well, compliments tend to make me feel uncomfortable because I question the motives and how genuine the person giving them is. I tend not to take criticism well because I think I’m always right and that’s how I like to live life, but I need to take into account other people’s opinions when it comes to what I say and think.

I know this was long so thanks for sticking around if you did. I hope you all have a good new year, thanks for being there for me during 2014. Everyone who reads this means a lot to me, more than you think.

What are your new years goals?

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2014: A Reflection

Mary1 Comment

Okay so I don’t know much about Bethany Mota except for the fact that she looked flawless and I follow her on twitter and she looked great and hadn’t slept in two days, I can’t even look like that after a good night’s rest.
Another boat, you could say I’m a bit obsessed currently.
Here I am, looking pale and yellow hair. The dye isn’t working in my favor in my opinion. It might be time to dye it back again. Well here’s my finished piece inspired by the love of travel.
I know the picture is a little dark but these are my sisters, Sarah and Julia. Julia is on the left, athletic looking from field hockey. I think I drive her crazy when I’m home because I’m constantly attacking her with hugs or climbing into her twin sized bed with her until she whines at me to get out. Sarah is on the left with her stance that screams CHEERLEADER because that’s what she does and loves. Whenever I’m home I go into Sarah’s room at the end of the day to either catch up or rant and she just laughs at me. I’m so proud of the both of them growing up, I can’t believe Sarah is going to be 16 in less than a month!
I felt really conflicted about this poster and whether or not it was sending a postivie message. I’m still undecided.

2014 has been a really weird year for me. Things happened that I never thought I would. I lost and gained a lot of friends. I did things I thought were impossible, I had an internship, I became happy at a school that I wanted to leave constantly. I struggled with anxiety worse than I ever have but once I began to get comfortable with where I was it significantly got better. I became a better blogger (thank goodness) and really ran with this blogging everyday thing- some days. A lot of people have really changed and affected my life, some in a positive way and some in a negative way. I traveled far up north and had a mini-vacation with my friends. I went to a party in the fall. I’ve found people who I like to spend time with and can actually tolerate for more than a few hours. I hate that I want to say that 2014 has been a rollercoaster for me, but that is accurate although it is indeed a cliche.

January

In January I committed to a blog post a day. While at home I worked and hung out with my friends. I tried to see as many people from high school as I could because they were still some of my closest friends. I dreaded the idea of going back to school. I was home for most of the month but went back to school with a lot of snow days. We would get emails upon emails of telling us where to move our cars next and asking us to avoid trees or certain entrances to buildings to avoid falling snow and the possibility of trees falling due to ice. It’s funny how about a half an hour below the state line they can’t get rid of snow even remotely as quickly as above it.

February 

I always find February to be one of those months that just drag on and on, even if it is in fact the shortest month of the year. Sarah turned 16, which was just weird that my sister can drive. The best day of the month for me at least was February 15. Why? Because it’s a great sale on chocolate. I actually did my first haul with chocolate here, which is funny in my opinion. Again, lots of snow days and freezing weather. This is when my visits home became more frequent.

March

When March came around we were still having snow days. I had spring break and came home a few more additional times. School was getting rough, I kept looking into transferring and I just was not happy where I was. I was going home to avoid time spent there. My anxiety was rising and panic attacks were the new normal for me.

April

In April I went to Boston to visit Lindsay, this was a blessing in more than one way. Sure, I got to visit Lindsay and travel which was great, but I never thought that the journey to the bus stop would have given me so many friends. In February my friend Molly who I had Arabic and Biology with offered to drive me to the bus stop so I wouldn’t have to leave my car for the weekend somewhere in Baltimore. I had hung out with Molly and Gabby a few times before but not a lot, they were also friends with Logan, who I had hung out with a few times before. They were all great people that I just for some reason never spent enough time with earlier. I would probably say this is one of my biggest regrets of 2014, missing an opportunity to have these great friends earlier in the year just because I said no to hanging out with them. I should have said yes. I wish I would have said yes. My friend Meag joined us for the ride down and she ended up hanging out with them the whole weekend I was gone. After I got back I started to join them and even though I had friends like Zoe and Rachel before I left I got back and things were different. I was invited and included in a group of people, people seemed to really care about me. I’m not saying Zoe and Rachel didn’t care about me, because I know they do, it was just different being in a group since the three of us had different friends as well.

May

May came with the end of the school year, when I was just starting to get comfortable with where I was. I met Eric in May when he started hanging out with my new group of friends too, I’m really grateful for this because he is now one of my really good friends. I did not know that when I met him. Zoe and I hung out at May Madness with Rachel a little bit. Then I went home for the summer. At home I worked and saw Lindsay and Jade a lot as well as Katie, Alex, Margaret, and Hannah from work. At the end of the month I received an internship where I would spend the rest of my weekdays. Although this limited a lot of social time due to early mornings it was a great opportunity that I am so fortunate to have.

 June

June came around pretty quickly and left just as fast. Honestly I don’t remember anything very significant happening just because I was so busy with work. I would work Monday through Friday at my internship and then every other Saturday at my other job. It was a busy month with the essentially basic humdrums of life. I think this is when I started to talk to Hiba, my first internet friend and just a great person all around. I’m so glad she answered my call to be interviewed for my blog.

July

July was adventure month. I went to NYC with my family and Rhode Island with Lindsay, Jade, and Lauren. I was only off work for a week but it was a very busy week. This was another anxiety filled month. Back in June I had tried to give up caffeine to fix it but it didn’t do anything and it got a lot worse this month. This was the only time I missed a blog post simply due to anxiety and not to being busy or forgetting. I continued to work through it, I tried yoga and hated it.

August

In August I finished up my internship and I was going back to school and not really looking forward to it still. I had new friends and old friends waiting for me there but I didn’t want to leave home. I have never been much of a homebody but I didn’t want to do all of the goodbyes again. I did and I’m glad. No offence to all of my friends and family at home but I got back and I was so happy about it. Zoe came over the first night and we just hung out. I saw all of my new friends and Meag and Rachel and it was great right off the bat. I was happy to be back. Classes started and I was actually excited to be in class for once.

September

September was one the best months for me this year. Sure my birthday is in September but it was still great anyway. I went to my first party EVER. It was on my goals for the year (which will be reviewed later tonight) and it wasn’t terrible. I didn’t dread it at all actually, I had fun. I didn’t drink at all because that scares me, however, I still had fun. My birthday came around I went to IHOP with my friends and enjoyed time with my family. Becca and Chloe started hanging out with me at this time too, which is nice because they are two of the nicest people I have ever met.  This was the first time I went home since summer and I didn’t want to stay, I actually looked forward to going back. It was a complete turnaround from the previous semester.

October

October was good, I hung out with my new friends more and more. I had people to hang out with on the weekends and I stopped constantly eating in my room. There was more to life than the confinement of my room for me now, I had people to talk to. I keep saying this like I didn’t before, and I did, it was just different to feel like I was a part of a group. I went home for fall break and spent my time with Lindsay and at work. It was nice to be home but it was also nice to go back.

November

The time flew by, I can’t believe this was just last month. Classes were winding down with papers and projects and preparation for finals. I came home for Thanksgiving and spent time with my family. I also received the opportunity to go back to my internship for the last two weeks of winter break.

December

December had to be the fastest month of the year. I went back to school and studied and wrote and studied. I crafted on the weekends with my friends and just enjoyed my last few weeks of the semester. I came home and worked and celebrated the holidays. This month I blinked and it was over. It was insane.

I am so thankful for everyone who touched my life this year, I mean I’m sure if you’re reading this you were a part of it. From my friends at school to my friends at home, I am so grateful. I will be reviewing my last year goals as well as sharing my new ones with you later this evening. I hope you have a wonderful new year!

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A lot of these pictures were reused from other posts, so sorry about the captions on some of them.

The Plan

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So guys I just wanted to share with you the “plan” for my blog for the next year and I really hope I can manage it. If you read my New Years goals you may know that I plan on blogging daily which I try to do already, however my posts really have no structure and I want to change that, or at least a little bit and I would like to share the weekly schedule I hope to keep with you guys so I am more likely to do so. However, if it doesn’t work out I’m going to let you guys know and I’m going to go back to the regular no structured schedule again, and to go along with this note if I don’t feel like following a schedule just for a day I’m not going to do it. So here is my attempted schedule:

Sundays: Previous week reflection and what the new week has in store and any days I might not be posting.

Mondays: School life, classes, and any topic that involves school.

Tuesdays: Tag Tuesdays and Sometimes Serious Tuesdays! Now this probably will alternate with serious posts because there aren’t that many tags that I want to do and I know they aren’t the most popular posts either but I like to do them.

Wednesdays: Weird Wednesdays, and this is going to be weird stories about my life or things that happen to me while I’m out, other than that I’m not sure what else these will contain.

Thursdays: Rant day, and boy are those plentiful, I’m sure you guys can guess what these are going to be like.

Fridays: Random! These are going to be the days where I just kind of go off and write about whatever I want like I do now.

Saturdays: Adventure days, if I go somewhere during the week or that day or somewhere I’ve been in the past.

Well I hope you guys had fun New Years celebrations and I can’t wait to see what 2014 has in store for me. If you have any input on my categories or something you want to see in them please please please let me know! That would mean the world to me, I love comments! Can’t wait to start writing tomorrow!

XOXO

Mary