My biggest achievements of 2015

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One day into 2016 and already I’m looking longingly over my shoulder at 2015!

At this time of year I should be setting out my New Year’s resolutions and although I’ve started thinking up a few – take more photos, read more books than I buy and finally drop those extra eight pounds I’ve been carrying since uni – I’d first like to take a moment to look back at 2015.

The obvious thing to look back at is my New Year’s Resolution from last year which was in a year’s time to be anywhere but England. Clearly that didn’t quite pan out.

But you know what, I’m ok with that. So my year hasn’t been filled with amazing life changing experiences, it’s been successful in a quieter more grown-up way. Whereas 2013 had graduating from uni and 2014 had a two month trip around North America, 2015 has been more about the serious matters of getting a job and moving out.

So my first major achievement, and to get the boring one out the way, is that for nine months of this year I have been employed. In an actual job. That I get paid to do and am good at (most days). Until this year I’d been finding it almost impossible to have any kind of consistent employment. But what started as a four week temporary assignment has turned into something I could really make into a career (although with my contract running out at the end of January I’m going to need to cross all my fingers and toes for yet another miracle).

Second, which kind of goes hand in hand with the first, is getting my own little studio flat. And one day, I swear, I will photograph it and do a post about it. Because it’s just so cute you have to see it – books and bookish decorations everywhere (of course). If you’d have told me at the beginning of January that by summer I would have moved out of my parents house and be living on my own I would have first scoffed in complete disbelief, and second panicked at the thought of such a huge step. But when it came to it it wasn’t really scary at all.

And talking of things that are scary, this year I have conquered one of my biggest fears – talking on the telephone. I have hated talking on the telephone since I was a little kid. I just get so flustered that I forget everything I’m meant to be saying. So when two days into my job I was given a list of 40 people and told to phone them all, well, I almost had to disappear off to the toilets to have a panic attack. Seven months later and I talk on the phone every single day. And although I wouldn’t exactly say I enjoy it, I can at least do it without feeling like the walls are closing in around me.

From something stressful to something sweet. 2015 was the year I ticked a major life’s goal off my bucket list – holding a baby. It was something that I’d just never had the opportunity to do but as I was getting a bit older this was starting to be a serious predicament – how could I know if I wanted a baby of my own if I’d never even been near one? Well just like buses, it turns out babies come along in twos as I have now held two babies. It wasn’t exactly a comfortable experience but I’m happy to report I didn’t drop either of them. Yay. And that – big shock – they’re really cute.

And my final achievement this year – which I probably shouldn’t have left until last because it’s a little underwhelming I’ll admit – is getting my ears pierced again, and then again. I’ve been wanting three lobe piercings for around two years now mostly because I just think it looks cool. And a little bit to get back at my ex boyfriend who always said he’d break up with me if I got my ears pierced again. Well screw you, Matt! (I just want to point out I’m not really that bitter, it’s been two years, I mostly did it because I think it looks cool). I’d been really psyching myself out about how painful it would be, hence the long wait, but my friend finally convinced me to go through with it and what a fuss I’d been making over nothing! Barely felt a thing. In fact it hurt so little that exactly five weeks later, on a whim and on my own, I went and got the third hole done. Just a few days ago I was finally able to change those earrings and I was right, my ears do look cool.

I can only hope 2016 will bring me as many achievements, big or small, monumental or just another piercing (don’t worry dad, I’m mostly kidding).