2018, here I come!!

Hey folks, it’s been a while ! I guess the end of the year is a good time to pop up here haha ! I feel like I didn’t do much in 2017, yet when I look back for the sake of writing this post, still a lot has happened.

The blog hasn’t been very active this year either but I came to accept it in the end. For a long time I was feeling really guilty of not updating it more often but I don’t think I could close this blog anytime soon. I would like to say thank you to people who still bother reading it and commenting it, you’re the best! I’m going to try harder in 2018 to keep up with everyone’s blog and read new blogs too 🙂

Important events of 2017

Well, 2017 was more eventful but I decided to focus on those three aspects:

Internship + Apprenticeship – 2017 has been a busy year school-wise! In summer, I did a 3-month internship in a service of an university that catered to its foreign students. It was a nice experience and I really liked my colleagues there but sometimes I felt slightly overqualified for the job. I stopped the internship one week before its end because I have been recruited as an apprentice in a energy firm for 2017-2018 where I take care of various translation work and provide support in internal communication tasks. To be honest, alternating between school and work has been tough but I’m trying to do my best to manage 💦

Travelling – My only trip abroad was in Hamburg 🇩🇪 this year, about which I blogged more extensively here and there. I also had a small weekend trip in France 🇫🇷 with my boyfriend and other friends at the end of September. We visited a few of the many famous castles of the Loire Valley. I didn’t find the motivation to blog about it but it was really great!

I wish I could have travelled more and longer but it was impossible due to me being on internship the whole summer and also because of my apprenticeship right now. While normal students are on break, I still need to work at my company but I can take time off like any other employee. Hopefully, a big trip is in planning for 2018 ❗❗

Self-confidence and feeling confortable – In 2017, I became more confident in my appearance by caring less about it. It works so far.

First, I came to fully accept my face without makeup. I started putting makeup on when I was in high school because I liked it! But for many years it was really impossible to go out without wearing any, even to do grocery shopping 5 minutes away from home, but now I do almost every day. It doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy makeup anymore, I still do but I’m lazy to take 30 minutes of my time every morning for it and I don’t feel pressured to do it. I think I watched too many drastic before/after makeup videos at that time and became a bit afraid that people would judge me like people in comments if they saw me without makeup.

With this, I also came to accept my skin problems. I have mild-moderate acne and post-inflammatory hyper pigmentation marks, but that’s okay I don’t feel as bad about it.

When it comes to clothes, I prefer being confortable over looking stylish if I can’t be both, while it would have been the other way round before. I used to loathe sneakers (aside of Chuck Taylors) when I was younger but I can’t wear anything else now.

For a long time, I refused to tie my hair because I felt like it would make my face look very big. It was something I would never do except at home (not even during PE class, or rarely). Now, I’m okay with it and it’s super convenient! Especially during bad hair days.

I don’t think that being in a relationship was the main factor that explains this acceptance but it definitely contributed in my case. Before, I was at a point where I didn’t hate myself but I didn’t “love” myself either because of my insecurities, I’d say I just liked myself enough. Being loved by someone who embraced everything about me (I’m lucky to have the best boyfriend I could wish for) made me less self-conscious in a way, I suppose, and that’s a good thing because it made me stronger somehow.

People who can’t accept you as you are + relationships that don’t you bring anything good need to go away.

Assessment of goals set in 2017

Read 📚 – I finished reading a total of 3 books this year (aside of manga volumes and other comics), while it might sound ridiculous, it’s a lot for someone like me… I’m quite far from being a bookworm. I hope I can continue in the same direction next year! (… I need to charge my Kindle too💦)

Exercise 🔩 I can’t say I exercised as much as I initially wanted to but I did exercise so that’s still some progress. I mainly did some fitness videos at home and I also tried Swedish Fit, even though it’s been a while I haven’t gone to a session.

Spend less 💸 I feel like this is more or less accomplished in general. I spent a lot less on things like clothes or makeup compared to the previous years and I started saving money seriously. On the other hand, I also had more income than in 2016.

Eat healthy 🍴 This has been going well for the first half of the year but kinda downhill from there, especially at the end of the year :’) Who can say no to raclette parties in winter??? 🧀 Not me.

Manage free time wisely ⏳ I guess it’s a fail lol

Keep up with my Hobonichi 📝 I think I did a nice job overall for the year even though I barely did anything in November and December.

My 2017 Top 5 fav spreads (no order in particular) ⬇️

Goals for 2018

Save money 💰 I already started since the beginning of my apprenticeship and it’s been going well so far. I intend to use this money for future plans but also pay back my student loan.

Graduate from school 👩‍🎓 Because it’s finally about damn time! I still have no definite idea of what I’ll be doing after though, I tell myself that I’ll figure out when time comes.

Go to Japan ✈🇯🇵 I’m feeling really silly for saying this but going on a trip to Japan is close to being a dream to me (the weeaboo in me is back) and we’ve been talking about this a lot with my boyfriend in 2017. We’re set to go during August and we already thought about the general outline of your trip but we’ll plan more seriously as soon as we buy the plane tickets.

Draw more ✏️ Aside of the occasional drawing for my journal, I didn’t get to draw a lot of anything else. My goal for 2018 would be to finish a sketchbook for real and not buying any before finishing the one I started. Maybe 2 or 3 finished illustrations too.

I guess the two pieces of work below are the only decent worth of showing for 2017… (thumbmails) 💦💦💦

Feeling more self-confident 💪– I still don’t know how I’m going to achieve this but I’ll find out haha

Finish reading at least 5 books (aside of comics/manga) 📚– I decided to set an number of books for 2018, I thought it might be more efficient. I’m open to any book recs 😀

Keep up with my Hobonichi 📝– This one hasn’t changed since I got a new one that I can’t wait to use! I also got a Hobonichi Weeks planner (with the hedgehogs) and a whole bunch of stuff from the 2018 online store, I’m ready to face this new year hehe

Last but not least, I’m really thankful to be alive and surrounded by so many awesome people in my life both online and offline. My best wishes for 2018 to you all, thanks for reading this text wall 💓 (Featured image: Saz B on Unsplash)