Again, sorry I’ve been scarce on here lately. Life has been crazy with my brothers visiting, work, university work, trying to find a new house for August and more. Also, I’m quite enjoying my free time with reading recently (read two books this week!) and after staring at a computer screen all day for my dissertation, it’s the last thing I want to do for fun.

Anyway, I can’t believe another term has come and gone. The calendar year is half over and my degree is 2/3 done!

Here is a massive goal update with:

• Second term goals revisited
• 2018 goals update
• Third term goals

Here is how my second term goals translated into reality:

• Work between 20-25 hours a week: Yep. I work about 20 hours a week, but spend about 10-15 hours a week on the bus, so that being said with work at the center of my universe, I don’t have time or energy for much else. Hopefully that will change soon as I’m looking into getting a car.
• Choose five possible career paths: Ha. Ha ha. I have a few very generic ideas of what I want to do but I have no idea where to start. Yay for being anxious about the future!
• Visit an academic adviser once every other week: More or less. I meet with my dissertation supervisor once a week or so to check in on my progress, but I hope to meet with some other staff for career advice or just to network.
• Go to a football game: Nope.
• Go to a musical: Yes! I saw Chess for my birthday and Les Miserables with my brothers.
• Meet up with Buddies once a month: Nope. I’m the worst Buddy. I’ve been meaning to message them for ages now but never get around to it, but I like to think they don’t need me anymore and have spread their wings.
• Message my friends (especially back home) and family more: I try, but I’ve been so busy and when I finally get around to messaging back, it’s been an embarrassing amount of time.
• Travel to one new U.K. city: Kind of, visited Seven Sisters, a local country park, for the first time.
• Run thrice a week: Nope.
• Stretch for five minutes everyday: Nope, but this is so simple and I really should.
• Limit myself to one cheese and one egg meal, one chocolate bar and three sodas a week: Not so great on the cheese, getting better with the chocolate and soda and don’t eat egg that much.
• Limit myself to dining out (or, more likely, ordering pizza) once every other week: Not happening.
• Read two books a month: More or less.
• Listen to new music (two albums a week): More or less.
• Complete a new T.V. series: Yes and then some. Really enjoyed The Good Place but enjoy rewatching Brooklyn Nine-Nine and keeping up with new episodes of Drag Race.

As you can see, I didn’t do stellar. I set these goals before I got my new time-demanding job, but will make sure to set more attainable goals for this final term.

And now my New Year’s resolutions:

• Travel to three new countries: I went to South Africa and have plans to go to Norway, which will probably be the end of my visits to new countries… however, I am also going to Luxembourg in June and going home for Christmas.
• Travel to three new U.K. destinations: I have been to Seven Sisters and the Scottish highlands with my brothers and hope to go to either Kew Botanical Gardens or the Jurassic Coast this summer.
• Attend one football game, one hockey game and one musical: I just missed football season and there are no hockey games close to Brighton, but I have seen two musicals.
• Visit home: I have plans to go home December 19th!
• Get a pet: My living situation will be more long-term starting in January, wherever that may be, so I will look into sorting that later in the year.

Finally, my third term goals:

• Continue to work between 20-25 hours a week
• Continue to meet with an academic adviser once every other week
• Travel to one new U.K. city
• Stretch for five minutes everyday
• Cut back on cheese, dairy chocolate and soda
• Read two books a month
• Listen to new music (two albums a week)
• Complete a new T.V. series
• Apply for two jobs a week
• Blog for about five hours a week
• Watch more films

Hopefully the above goals are more realistic now that I’ve gotten used to my new job hours. I will post an update of the third term goals once I hand my dissertation in at the end of August, eek!