As I said in a previous post, I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions anymore, I tend to make goals for myself for the year and try to focus on achieving them throughout the year rather than giving up on my resolutions 2 weeks in.

Photography

One of my goals this year was to take a photography class – which I did do, but I find it difficult, or else I stop myself, from going out and actually using my camera. I bought my DSLR camera 3 years ago and I’m still not sure how to use it properly. Next year I would love to somewhat master it and actually start using some of the functions on it rather than just auto!!

Travel

I guess it’s safe to say I’ve some what been bitten by the travel bug and there are so many places on my wishlist to go to but the big one for 2018 is my trip to Philadelphia and Chicago (and hopefully a day in New York, just cause) with my brother. It’ll be the first time myself and my brother go on holidays together outside of family holidays and I’m really looking forward to seeing other parts of the US.

A sun holiday this year will also be a must come the summer, I’m not 100% sure where I’d like to go yet but somewhere where I can sit, relax and enjoy many a strawberry daiquiri!

I definitely want to do some city breaks next year. There’s been a few places pretty high on the list for the last while including London, Berlin, Rome, Amsterdam and I’d love to go back to Edinburgh again. Obviously all of these are not possible next year especially since I’ll be saving most of my pennies for my long awaited trip to Melbourne in 2019 but I definitely want to get one or two in before the year is out!

Events

It’s always a goal of mine to include some charity events and the main one I always make make the time to do is the Darkness Into Light Walk for Pieta House. For the last 4 years, usually on the morning of one of my college exams myself and my mam have walked the 5km walk for Pieta House to raise money and awareness for the suicide and self harm crisis center. There’s something about this walk I find really inspiring, I’m not sure if it’s the dedication of the participants and volunteers who get up in the middle of the night to do the walk, the fact that it’s a global event to raise awareness for these issues or the feeling you get after completing it, whatever it is, it is incredible and it’s something I want to be a part of for as long as I can.

For the last 2 years mam and I have done the Cook Medical Women’s Mini Marathon, although it’s a bit tougher it’s definitely something I would like to do again this year.

Moving Out

Although I do love my home comforts and the fact that I live 10 minutes from where I work, this year I want to move out of my parents house and into somewhere in the city. This has been on the cards for a while now and I think next year it’ll be time to bite the bullet and become an actual grown up!

Finances

Speaking of being a grown up, one thing I’ve been massively struggling with lately is managing my spending and my savings, or lack there of savings. I’ve a lot of stuff coming up, including that trip to Australia, so saving and minding my money will unfortunately have to be a big priority for 2018.

Fitness

One thing I’ve seriously let slide since starting college is my fitness. I was never super fit but I was always active since I was a child between playing camogie, Gaelic football, basketball and Irish dancing but after my first semester in college I gave up the last sport I played which was basketball and since then I haven’t really gotten back into exercise at all. Next year I definitely need to try and do some form of activity. I kind of want to give boxercise a try but I haven’t managed to find a gym near me that does it.

Blogging

I definitely want to become more consistent with my posts next year and keeping my blog, Facebook, and Instagram pages more up to date with new content frequently. I’m already trying to plan out my January posts!