Me at Cape Elizabeth
Just a few more days and 2017 will be a thing of the past. For a myriad of reasons this year has moved at an accelerating speed for me, and judging by my conversations with other people, it has for them too. But before the year ends, I wanted to take some time to reflect on what I have accomplished and how I have changed from the person I was when I started this year.
In 2017, I had a couple resolutions. One was to take more pictures, which, if you have been following my blog, you may notice that I have achieved this goal. Over the course of a year, the number of pictures on my camera grew from 507 to 4,554. You may be thinking “well, Brittney, you went to a different country, it would be crazy if you didn’t take more pictures,” and I would agree with you. However, I took 1,187 of those pictures since coming home, and not all of them were for the blog or even to post on social media. I touched on this a little bit in my more recent posts, but once I got in the habit of taking pictures, I started to see more picture-perfect moments. From the grin on my dog’s face to the distant hills on my drive to school, I could immediately recognize a good picture. For various reasons from dogs trying to eat cameras to just not wanting to stop the car, I passed up more pictures than I could take. I don’t feel bad about this because I’ve come to realize that the point of noticing this is not to have the picture but to know that this was a moment or a scene worth remembering.
At the beginning of 2017, I told myself that I wanted to remain open to changes. My personality is more favorable to knowing everything that’s going on and how I can control it, but understanding that’s not always possible, I’ve challenged myself to rely more on faith. Faith that things will work out as they need to, faith that life will go on, faith that I am exactly where I need to be. It has been extremely difficult at times, but I’ve only found it to be rewarding. Before leaving for Ireland, I had all these plans to tour Italy and Amsterdam. Even with getting sick for a month, I could have made it work, but I realized I didn’t want to stress myself out going from place to place just to say I had been there. A new friend of mine offered to take me to her home country of Norway for a week, a place that I never even considered going. I said yes, and let go of my plans for Amsterdam, and then I let go of my plans for Italy, in favor of spending more than just two days in Greece. I thought these decisions might haunt me, but they don’t. I have faith that my days of travelling will not end at the age of 21 and that, when the opportunity strikes, I am meant to say yes.
In that same vein, I will be a week late on my upcoming post because I will be gone travelling for a week. I will be sure to share it all with you when I get back.
As for 2018, I have many goals. One of them is to begin bullet journaling. My current system of organization is an abundance of sticky notes on my laptop desktop, and let me tell you, it’s not a great system. I’ve never been a fan of planners because they never really fit my needs. With a bullet journal, I can cater it to fit my needs. I’m not sure what it will turn into, but my hope is that it will help me visualize my life and clear out my mind of running to-do lists.
While investigating ideas on how to start my bullet journal, I found one that particularly resonated with me. At the beginning of the year, some people recommend choosing a word to represent the kind of year you want to have. I had already been thinking about this and easily chose the word “Transition.” Now that I’m done with college, I’m going to be going through a lot of changes--both personal and career. I want to be patient and remain open to the changes that come. I will allow that word to motivate me to grow as a person and move forward in my life even if the rewards are not immediate. Even if you are not interested in bullet journaling, consider what word might represent the kind of year you want to have. You can write it on a note and tack it to your fridge or above your desk. Whatever your goals are, I wish you luck, and I’ll be back next year.
