New Year, New Term, and New Resolutions!
Happy New year everyone, I hope you’ve had a lovely Christmas and New Year and that you’ve had time to rest and enjoy the festive season. It’s 2017, and I can now say I officially graduate this year! AARGH! Just got to get my head around my dissertation and finish all my work on time. Over Christmas I took a couple of weeks off from uni work to spend with my family and friends, to make sure I had a proper rest, something I didn’t do last year and regretted it later on in the academic year. Within this time, I started to think about 2017 and what lies ahead for me.
At the start of the academic year I decided to be more organised than I am already, for those that know me you’re probably thinking is this even possible! However, I believe it is. I decided that I’m going to make the most of my last year and enjoy it as much as I can (not that I haven’t enjoyed it so far); I can’t quite believe how quickly the years have flown by. My daughter Faith was only 6 months old when I started an in a few months she’ll be 4! I’m going to put me first, especially while I finish off my degree. I know that might sound selfish, but what I’ve learnt is that I need to look after myself and allow myself times to rest, relax and play, as well as spend time with my family and study. I’m focusing on getting a 2:1 overall, I believe that’s possible; as I’ve applied for an MA in Social Work, which hopefully I will start this year too, if I’m accepted on the course. If not, I have a lot of soul searching to do. I also started slimming world in September and have lost 1½ stones, I’m hoping that by the time I graduate I’ve lost at least another stone. While you might be considering new years resolutions now, or even broken some already, don’t be hard on yourself, you can start them anytime of the year you like.
Specifically for this new term I have set out a plan of when I want to accomplish with my assignments, however, we all know that as mature students things crop up and take us by surprise. I’ve learnt that being organised has helped me to manoeuvre better when things get challenging personally. I’ve also put a plan into place to read for uni, setting aside specific times that suit me best.
I hope this new year for you is your best so far, however, if it turns out not to be quite what you expected I hope you can plough through and achieve another year at university and for some of us to be able to graduate. Positivity has been my key, and kept be going even when things have been difficult. I have decided to keep the word ‘positivity’ as my word for 2017, and always see the positive in any circumstances that come my way. Believe in yourself this year!
