21 Things For My 21st Year

I am aware of how over dramatic I sound but I feel old... In the beginning of June I celebrated my 21st Birthday (how on earth I have made it to 21 I will never know) and over the past month or so leading up to it I have been kind of freaking out. I know I'm not exactly reaching my mid life crisis, however I do feel like the years are going far too fast for my liking without having achieved as many of my aspirations as I would have liked. That's why in todays blog post I want to make a list of 21 things for my 21st year. I hope you enjoy!

One
Starting September I will be going into my final year at university. What?? It's completely terrifying and exciting, a whole abundance of emotions, however one thing I know for certain is that this year I will try my very hardest. In my second semester of this year just gone, I stopped taking slack from other people and tried to focus as much as possible on my own studies including my role (and my role only) in group work which overall really paid off! This year I want to focus more on that.

Two
In my 21st year I will graduate. Again, this entails a whole abundance of emotions. Although at times I know that stress will get the better of me I also know that graduation is inevitable. I will graduate and I'm going to do my very best to do so with the highest degree I can get.

Three
Since I will be graduating in my 21st year, it also means I have the option to attend something called The Grad Ball. This is basically the opportunity to dress up and celebrate the end of university with all my friends. Considering I love dressing up and going to events such as these I have always been quite timid in previous experiences as to making an effort and being excited to go because of unfortunate past factors. At my Year 11 prom I couldn't think of anything worse! For my 18th Birthday I kept it mellow and even now for my 21st I plan on celebrating with only a select few family and friends. Since this year will be my last year I intend to make the most of it! I am going to take every opportunity to feel happy and apart of this experience.

Four
Whilst studying my degree in Leeds I am living away from home in your typical student town with its own typically student traditions, the most popular being a bar crawl names the Otley Run. It's tradition to go out as a group in the most ridiculous costumes and have at least half a pint in each bar as we make our way into Leeds. Granted I might not have half a pint in every bar (light weight problems 101) but this is something I definitely want to take advantage of whilst we still live here.

Five
I'm not the best at travelling and over the last few years have tend to stick to places I am familiar with and have been to before. This year I want to break that cycle and hopefully travel to new places. I've always wanted to go to Norway and even Rio, perhaps my 21st year is a chance to experience these new places, learn about their cultures and most importantly enjoy them.

Six
As part of my final year of living away from home with my university friends I really want to go on more day trips around the Yorkshire area. Last year we visited York during their Christmas Markets and had the absolute best time!

Seven
As of this year I will have gone on holiday with every possible person except my best friend, something that definitely needs to change! Hopefully after all the hard work and stress or our final exams and dissertations we can finally book a holiday together, and to be fair I think after 21 years of knowing one another it's about time!

Eight
Lol I swear I say this every single time I list a bunch of things I intend to improve or achieve but it never happens. Although I have got slightly better since the last time I checked in I still need to drink more water.

Nine
I want to stop skipping meals. This is something I have forever been extremely guilty of doing. I have never really been one to eat breakfast, in fact I don't think I have since Year 6 however I have recently got into the habit of skipping my dinner in the evening if it seems to late to cook which it often is. This year I want to put time into my meals to make sure I have the nutrients and energy I need.

Ten
Learning how to actually cook instead of just throwing a stir-fry into a pan might help my meal situation. In my first year of university I was really good, I always ate a variety of meals and most importantly enjoyed it. However, this past year I have really fallen out of love with cooking and food in general, something I want to overcome and thrive from.

Eleven
I want to hit a fitness goal! I don't mind exercising even though at time I can find it a little boring. My issue is not not finding the motivation to go but in fact the point of going entirely which is why I want to aim for some form of goal and hopefully achieve it.

Twelve
At one point in time, I would have never left my room without a full face of makeup on which I have always regretted as it completely knocked my confidence in my own skin growing up. Over the past year or so I think I am slowly but surely getting better at no makeup days. This year I really want to continue this, maybe even gradually turn these days into weekends, possibly even weeks entirely.

Thirteen
I have always been the type of person that likes to record my life in one form or another and this year I have specifically gotten into the habit of keeping a diary and intend to maintain this in my 21st year. Not the "Dear Diary" kind where I record my deepest darkest secrets. I want to record everything I have planned during the week (meetings with lecturers, catch ups with friends and any event I am lucky enough to attend). It really helps me to organise and prioritise my week and is also quite satisfying looking back at all my messy scribbles.

Fourteen
Getting a tattoo has always been a truly terrifying sense of commitment and longing that I have never felt fully confident with whether it be the design or the artist hindering this. However, I have very recently found an amazingly talented tattoo artist with the most beautiful designs in London that I am now on the waiting list for - ahh!

Fifteen
I know I probably say this every year but I really want to get back into blogging. Not necessarily posting weekly (or even monthly for that matter) but instead when having the motivation and inspiration to blog to run with it.

Sixteen
For my best friends 21st Birthday I made her a scrapbook of some of our favourite memories dating right back to our first day of infant school together. While it was a pain in the - yep - sticking so many individual sequins to this book it is something that I really enjoyed putting together and a craft that I thought I would quite like to do for myself.

Seventeen
This is something that we are probably all a little guilty of doing however this year it is something I want to overcome - talking to my relatives more. Some live a little further a field than others meaning I don't get to see them as often and our main form of communication is a phone call. I want to spend more of my time making time in my day to talk to them as it really does make theirs.

Eighteen
To surround myself with good eggs and more importantly stop letting toxic people control my life.

Nineteen
To stop worrying about other peoples opinions that do not matter.

Twenty
I want to stop being so caught up on social media granted I am not the most up to date person regarding this pointer anyway. I rarely post snapchat stories and my instagram is pretty much none existent on regular content however this past year especially I have seen the negative impact of social media and the damage it can cause. This is something I want to promise myself to take a step back from every now and again.

Twenty-One
In my 21st year I want to remember to invest sometime into me myself and I as it is extremely important and almost always forgotten to actually put yourself first.

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream - C.S. Lewis