Assalamualaikum,
Happy (belated) New Year!
Hopefully your “New Year, New Me” phase is going on okay, and that you’re getting a start on your resolutions and goals for the year.
Apologies for taking two weeks to update this blog – I had my final assignments for my first semester of graduate school due last week (January 7th). After that was done, I wanted to take some time off and enjoy life with Aiman, now that he’s here to stay in the UK with me. (read: enjoy life means watching endless Big Bang Theory and/or Disney movies)
But anyhow – hey, I’m back!
Personally, I have a lot of personal projects and goals I want to achieve in this new year. It’s a year full of new opportunities, and I want to make the most out of what is available to me.
Some goals that I have for the year include:
Creating and maintaining my bi-weekly personal email newsletter – Say What?
I briefly mentioned about this in my last post (2018: Thank you, next). My first public issue was released last Saturday, and I’m hoping to keep this up every other Saturday.
This newsletter will be an extension to the blog and gives me a place to share the things I’ve learnt from my graduate school journey (+ job search journey later in the year), as well as some articles / videos that I’ve found useful.
You can read more and subscribe to it on my GetRevue page.
Write more and better content.
Firstly, I’d definitely want to continue on with my #FreshGrad101 and #GradSchool101 blog series. I have some ideas for a couple of posts that I have planned for the next few months that would hopefully materialize. Currently, there are 6 posts for my Fresh Grad series, and 2 posts for the Grad School series. Hopefully I can wrap it up with about 10-12 posts for the Fresh Grad series, and 6-7 posts for Grad School series?
As for the blog in general… Looking back, I wrote 36 blog posts in 2018, which is up from 10 posts in 2017 and 22 posts in 2016. While I want to write more, I also want to make sure I am writing better. There’s no point in writing a lot of blog posts that would eventually just be turned back into drafts (I have wayyy too many of these).
So, initially, I was thinking of posting at least once a week. But then again… With dissertation coming up over the summer and everything else in between, I think I should be more realistic with myself. So my goal is to write at least 25 blog posts, which comes down to an average of around 2 posts per month.
That should be alright, and it also gives me some leeway when I get too stressed out over dissertation later on.
Graduation and post-student life.
Hopefully, in about 8 months’ time, I’d be done with my dissertation and am en route to actually getting my Master’s degree. And while I haven’t actually have any solid plans in place, I do want to try and get a job in the UK.
This would be slightly easier than it was back in the US, considering how I am pursuing a career that is actually related to what I’m currently studying. I have been seeing a career adviser since I started here last September, so that has been helpful. I am currently exploring any and all opportunities available here in the UK, and am starting to plan ahead. Fingers crossed, and hope for the best!
Spending time on what matters most.
I’ve actually been off Twitter and Instagram for the past two weeks, and God the detox has been good. Sure, my fingers get itchy sometimes about opening those websites, but I’ve been doing okay. I’ve deleted the apps on my phone, deactivated my Instagram account for now, and blocked the two websites on my laptop. I can’t do the same with Facebook, however, because it is an important platform for me to share stories and updates with family and friends back home. But Instagram and Twitter? Yeah, I can live without those (I think).
I personally want to train myself to spend less time on social media. A friend told me recently that it was a rare thing for me to do, but, hey, we all need a change. This new year, I want to spend more quality time with my loved ones and make the most out of life. The detox can also hopefully help me reduce the negativity in my life as well.
Some other small personal goals for the new year.
While I’ve visited some countries when I was little, Aiman has only been to the UK and Istanbul (part-Europe, part-Asia). So I want to make the most out of our time here and take him to at least some parts of Europe. I would at least want to visit Switzerland and Netherlands with him, as I haven’t been to both and would love to go with him.
Other than that, I also want to have better control of my finances for this new year. I’ve been tracking my expenses since I came to the UK, and hopefully this will continue on until I graduate (or longer). I know I’ve spent quite a lot in the past few months (mostly on food though -.-), so I need to cut back on my spending, or start earning more.
Last but not least – I want to work on improving myself. I want to invest in my personal development and growth, and work to better myself. This would not just be for my future career, but as a person overall.
New year, still the same ol’ me.
Hopefully the new year will bring forth lots of new and exciting opportunities for us, wherever we are in our lives. And I hope that regardless of whatever challenges or obstacles that life throws at us, we counter them with determination and courage. May this year be the year that we succeed in whatever we have planned, and that we find the joy in whatever adversities that we face.
After all, people do always say, when life throws you lemon, make lemonade, no? Though I’d personally say, to hell with making lemonades. Turn back around at Life and yell at them: “Is that all ya got? Come on, I can take more than that!“
Anyhow – that’s all for now I guess. If you want, do share some of your goals and projects for the new year, I’d love to hear from you! We can work together to keep each other accountable to our goals *wink wink*
Until next time, happy new year once again. Stay awesome and take care! 🙂