2014 has been a turbulent year. I've lived a full year with no breaks in between in London. I had my one year work anniversary with Anna Scholz. My blog has grown from strength to strength. My love life took a massive hit in both a sad and happy way (I'm now extremely happy). and I started the year on a ridiculous high thinking life was perfect and I knew what I was doing, to ending it rethinking absolutely everything and realising in reality I'm 23 and I actually know F**k all.
Anyway on to the life lessons learnt:
- If you've been dating someone for over 5 months and every time you bring up the question 'where is this going?', and you're hit with every excuse going. Including his last ex of 4 years whom he was engaged to, supposedly cheating on him and he's really affected by it. Then end it there. Don't carry on putting up with his lies and games. If he's not that interested in you, he's not. GET RID! Don't waste another 4 months trying to convince yourself it's okay that he treats you this way! You'll end up the one hurt.
- Sometimes you just have to let someone go without any closure. Because if they were considerate enough to talk through things and allow closure, they probably would have been mature enough to attempt keeping the relationship/friendship healthy and honest.
- Trust your instincts. They are there for a reason! Trust what it tells you. If it doesn't feel right or 100% don't carry on.
- Don't be afraid to say yes! Stop saying no and making excuses not to do things. Experience everything you feel comfortable with.
- Don't miss out on what you want to do, because others don't want to do it with you. Go on your own. Years down the line you'll be happy you saw that band or managed to catch that show, instead of being annoyed you missed out.
- Try to never put anything else before your family. They'll be the people there years down the line when everyone else leaves.
- Know your worth. Never think any less of yourself and never question are you good enough! Don't let people walk all over you and let you be their 2nd option!
- It's okay to be wrong. Don't torture yourself dwelling on it, just try do it right next time.
- It's okay to outgrow people and surroundings. At 23 you're still learning and young. Don't waste your time on people and situations that don't add value or happiness to your life.
- You can't please everyone. Just be you and the people that matter will stick.
- It's okay to be alone, just not okay to surround yourself with people who make you feel lonely.
- It’s ok to be pretentious every now and again.
- Remember you're 23. There is plenty of time to achieve your biggest goals. You have no responsibilities so drop everything, travel, see the world, go out on a whim and make mistakes. Do it before time runs out.
- It's okay if you don't have as many friends as before. As you progress through your 20s, you just won’t have as many friends as you used to. Your friends’ interests may change. Both your interests may change even!
- Never be afraid to truly express who you are.
- Life doesn't get any easier. Just roll with the punches and don't get bitter. The world owes you nothing!
- Passions grow out of your values. Make early, wise choices to value what (and who) is good, trustworthy, and praiseworthy.
- Stop complaining. Either change your situation, learn to cope, or change your perspective. This is a major life lesson for me!
You may or not relate to this. Tbh you may not even care. I think concluding and reflecting in my case very helpful to deal with things. It's also good to look back and critique yourself on how to be better ( none of us are perfect.)
For 2015 I'm keeping with the same resolution from 2014. Experience 3 new things each month. These can be simple things to trying new food, new places, new anything. I enjoyed doing it throughout 2014, until it slowly ground to a hault. I love exploring, especially living in London. There's constantly something to do or see.
I'm also keeping a memory jar. Each day I will write down something I've done and the date. Even if I only went to work that day (which is hardly the case.) I want to reflect and realise how exciting my life is. Who knows, if there's a few good things, I may reflect on the memory jar New Years Eve 2015 ;).
Love
Michaela
xo
