Reflections and Resolutions

2011 is coming to end much faster than I ever expected it to, and so I'm sitting here trying to figure out some new year's resolutions for 2012, knowing full well I'll give them up a few weeks into January. I don't even remember what my resolutions were for this year, so I can't really say I've stuck to them. I thought, to know what I want to change this year, I need to reflect on the months that have passed and how I would have done things differently. I may not have a chance to change anything now, but I can always improve things in the future.

This year has been one of the hardest in my life so far, but I think I handled it all much better than I ever thought I would. In January I moved out of home and to the big city to start uni. Getting an offer to study Biomedical Science at the University of Adelaide is my biggest achievement of 2011. I don't remember a time I was happier then when I accepted my offer. But of course, this was a massive change. Goodbye Port Pirie, hello Adelaide with all it's scary people and scary bus routes and scary expensive things. Thinking back now I don't even know why I was so terrified. I've definitely turned into a city person. My life has adapted remarkably well to the city and everything feels so natural. In fact, being home in what feels like a tiny, stagnant town (sorry Pirie, I do love you) is strange and suffocating now. But I digress. While I settled into the city, I struggled to make friends, and I struggled with homesickness. I found ways to deal with both these things, I could make it easier for myself and fix things up a bit more in 2012, and so we come to my first two resolutions: Stop being a wallflower, put myself out there and make more friends (I'm actually an interesting person! Who knew!) and; Keep myself busy and stick to a routine to avoid homesickness, it works.

One of 2011's biggest lessons: Break ups are not the end of the world! Shock! Horror! Yes, they suck a lot but seriously, if I could go back I would have been so much easier on myself. The point is, I learnt a lot about myself through it, and for that, I thank him. It's made me a stronger person, blah blah blah, insert sappy stuff here. More importantly, it's taught me that boys aren't everything. Who needs 'em? Over the last few weeks I've been labelled as jealous by a few people simply because I am single, and I don't really enjoy hearing about everyone's relationships, including those I shouldn't be hearing about at all, being people I don't even know. I'm not jealous, I just want more stimulating conversation to be honest... And I like being single thank you very much! However, resolution number three: Put my focus on more important things for a while, my non-existent love life can often take over when I don't want it to. 


It's okay, I've nearly finished my ranting and raving. This is my penultimate reflection and resolution, then you can all go home to your families. If you bothered reading in this first place, kudos to you! Anyway. I wasn't very healthy this year, to sound as non-dramatic as I possibly can. But yeah, my immune system sucked. Ear infections, chest infections, bronchitis, multiple colds and flus, WHOOPING COUGH. Which I have been vaccinated against, so I'm still amazed. I actually find it ironic that I get sick so often and want to work in microbiology and immunology... My immune response is pretty pathetic for a reason though. I've got iron deficiency anaemia, so, you know, my body fails a bit in the blood department. But this is probably my most important new year's resolution, and that is: Get better, exercise more often, eat healthy and become a red-meat-a-vore.

And finally, we come to one of those typical new year's promises that we as students often make to ourselves, with only 20% of us actually following through with it, or sticking to it. Work harder, be more organised, stay on a Credit/Distinction average. No more Passes. The only passes I got this year were for Chemistry 1A/1B, but with that out the way, I really don't have any more excuses. I'm a good student, and I have a half-decent brain. When I study hard, I get really good grades. I lifted by grades from Credits to Distinctions over the duration of this year, and I was super proud of myself for it. Now that I know I definitely can do well at uni, I have more confidence for next year and have set my expectations a bit higher. I'm going to be doing topics that I love and enjoy, so it's going to be a hell of a lot easier to stay on top of things and pass with flying colours. I've even added a Diploma of Language to my enrollment, so we'll just throw this resolution in here for good measure: Be able to speak basic French by December 2012.

It's way too hard to stop writing once I start, but if you've read all of this, good on you. I mainly write this blog for my own benefit; to practise my writing and put my ideas into words. But thanks to the few people who've followed me this year, I hope it's been at least semi-entertaining for you.

Well done to you 2011, for being a pretty decent year. I've made new friends, improved myself, discovered what I want in the future, become more independent and been forced to grow up. The only thing left to say is bring on 2012!