The new year came around and like my family do every year, we stayed up late to watch the fireworks and had toast/bread with cheese and pate. We’ve been doing that since the millennium…when I think the fireworks/tv coverage went on longer than the usual 12.10am and my dad got hungry, so he ate some toast and it’s become a tradition now.
The day itself was spent studying/revising and watching The Adjustment Bureau. It was a pretty good film, my dad even gave it 4.5/5 which is really good. He said the concept had been used before, and bits of it felt like Men in Black (the mind erasing, the guys in suits, no sunglasses though) but it was still good. I liked how he (Matt Damon) learnt how to use the doors, that was really cool. It would probably take awhile to learn where each door goes but once you got the hang of it you could get to places in mere minutes. If you had the hat, of course.
Looking back on 2013, it was probably one of my worst years. It’s possible that it was the worst year so far, but I’m not that old so I don’t know how long that would last.
Yes, some great stuff happened last year, I got to go to Beijing on the Study China Program which was incredible, it was such an amazing experience and I don’t regret going. I regret not doing more revision beforehand…and for taking a 70-50 credit split, that was a bad idea. I also got to spend a week at a bank (no names) and learnt more about banking and met some great people who are going to go far and I hope they stay contacts for the future. I didn’t get the internship after though, and I’ve just about managed to convince myself that I don’t want to do banking anymore, some of the people on the program weren’t people I’d want to work with for the rest of my life.
I’ve also had 5 job rejections (so far), three of which were based on my group work skills and one of them was the final stage so I was really, really annoyed. I had a good rant about that with one of my friends (and an earlier blog post).
So the good things this year? I met some new people, one of whom is becoming a really good friend, really quickly. I also got a car! So that was pretty sweet. I spent a week helping international students move in and made a new friend, who does maths and just gets me. Hopefully I can find a way to do it again next year because I really enjoyed it this year, but maybe I’d want a different role. There’s only so many bags I can handle in one day 😛 I got some great Christmas presents from my sister, who totally gets me and my crazy obsession with Disney at the moment.
Anytime with my friends from school is good, and we spent a lot of time together over summer because friendships do change, and I am starting to notice it more now than ever. If I weigh up the things, yeah, the bad definitely outweigh the good but I’ve had a ton of learning experiences and I need to use those bad ones to make good ones later on in life.
I have decided this year to do some new things. I’m thinking of doing an abseil in March from the top of the velodrome with RAG (Raise and Give), the sponsorship is only £100 and it looks like fun. I really love abseiling…just jumping from stuff in general. Two of my friends and I are going to start learning how to rock climb in February too, after exams are over so then we can go by ourselves in the future and actually know what we’re doing. I’m also looking for a new orchestra to join, I haven’t been to an orchestra practice in ages and it’d be an interesting way to meet new people and not forget how to play the violin. I can just about still read music and remember where all of the notes are so that should be enough. I also want to swim more this year, do something incredible over summer, potentially make it to 4th kyu (orange belt) in Aikido, learn how to scuba dive, learn how to ice skate, learn parkour…so many things, so little time 😦 My friend from uni has 52 things he wants to do in 52 weeks, but some will be done in less than week or he’ll do a few in one week but as long as he gets them all done he’ll be happy. I can’t even think of 20 things to do, nevermind 52!
So that aside, happy (late) new year and here’s to 2014!
sliceofpi9 