Saturday, 31 December 2016

Reflections - things I learned from 2016

Here is the second instalment of my 'Reflecting on 2016' series. If you didn't catch the first one, listing some of my favourite things click here, and if you want to read my life lessons from 2015, and see if I repeat any (I did have to check myself) then click here...


  • Being a student isn't all laughter and hanging out with your mates
  • Being a student isn't all studying and hanging out in the library
  • You can't make yourself feel more for someone than you do, however much you may want to
  • Grief can hit you out of the blue
  • I don't like my family living in different countries
  • Change is good
  • I'm learning to love LinkedIn
  • My intuition/gut instinct is spookily correct
  • Law degrees are hard work
  • Goodbyes are never easy
  • I somehow know enough about make-up that I got offered a job at Space NK on a window-shopping trip
  • Just because someone has done a "bad" thing, it doesn't make them a "bad" person
  • Sometimes you have to go further into something to get closure/know where you stand/know how you feel
  • I look younger than I am
  • 'Feeling the fear and doing it anyway' is harder than it sounds
  • I'm more comfortable with being wrong, or looking silly, than I ever have been
  • I don't always practise what I preach
  • When you know, you know, and don't let anyone (including yourself) convince you that you don't
  • I have a fantastic NHS doctor (not a new lesson)
  • It takes me a while to open up, and that's okay (another not new lesson)
  • I love an afternoon of batch-cooking
  • Flu over Christmas and New Year is the worst
  • I'm one of life's feeders/looker-afterers
  • It's enough for things to be 'good enough'
  • It's okay to feel like you've made a mistake 
  • I'd rather try than not
  • I'm still finding my balance
  • I'm still finding my health
  • I can be made speechless
  • I can achieve things I thought were impossible for me
  • There is always a positive to every negative
  • This year has far outweighed my expectations
  • I am now sufficiently enough of a grown-up that if I get a bad haircut, I don't cry
  • I am not sufficiently enough of a grown-up when it comes to needing help with my CV
  • Inside me is a lioness that I am able to tap into more and more
  • Life is still an incredible, surprising and wonderful thing (and far too much has happened this year for me to neatly sum it up in these lessons)
What life lessons did 2016 bring for you?

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Friday, 23 December 2016

Reflections - some of my favourites of 2016

Just like last year, I wanted to take some time to reflect on the past year. Two posts will follow - this one of some of my favourite things of 2016, and another one on things I've learned in the last year (coming soon). I will try not repeat too many of the same things from 2015's posts, but be warned there may be a few similar!

If you want to see what my favourite things of last year were then click here, and if you want to see what lessons I've learned (and compare them to this year) then click here.

As I said last year...without further ado, and in the immortal words of Julie Andrews, these are a few of my favourite things (from 2016)...


  • Cheese - in all its wonderful and varied forms
  • Yorkshire Tea - DECAF - aka nectar from the Gods
  • My friends (work, uni, old, new) and my family
  • Instagram - yes, I succumbed finally...
  • GIFs - for an illustration of my love of these, please refer to Twitter ;)
  • Tagging and being tagged in memes
  • Procrastination - see above for one of the ways I do this
  • Whatever the antonym for procrastination is
  • Self-care
  • Ice-cold cider
  • Summers spent watching cricket
  • 1 Second Everyday - I have almost completed a year of film clips, and am yet to miss a day
  • Facetime/Skype - vital for keeping in touch with family and friends in far-flung places
  • Helix piercings - bucket list item fulfilled
  • Seeing Muse live - another bucket list item and there are no words for how good they were
  • Exploring new cities - Bristol and Geneva, especially
  • Swimming with swans in Lake Geneva
  • Puns - one of the many ways to my heart
  • Being made cups of tea without asking - another way to my heart
  • Long walks with stops at pubs (shout-out to Devon for this)
  • Freckles (again, and always)
  • London having a heatwave, and all those Snapchat pictures that were just blue skies with the temperature
  • Baking (in an oven, but also see above...)
  • Starting university - one of those 'pinch me' moments
  • Robing rooms and court rooms - (still, and again)
  • Wahaca piña coladas
  • Rooftop bars in London
  • London
  • Dancing all night
  • Sleeping all night
  • Giggling all night
  • Nights in
  • Nights out
  • Housemates (old and new)
  • Being honest and congruent
  • Washing being magically hung up for you
  • Writing the Wellbeing Basics Series (sporadically) for The Olive Fox
  • Homemade gifts/cards/food
  • Still having more favourites than not, despite a roller-coaster of a year
...and so much more...


What are your favourite things of 2016?

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