I'm joining the trend: Doing a 2013 year review.

I've always found year reviews hard to do because how do I sum up the entire year? There have been way to many different things, both good and bad for me to say whether this was a nice year or I'd rather it didn't exist.
But I figured I'd give it a go.

At the beginning of 2013 I was really excited. I thought this was going to finally be the year I turned things around and I felt like I was finally growing into exactly the kind of person I want to be, but in fact I'm a lot different now than what I was in January, and not in the way I expected. And now I realise that no year is the year "I'm going to grow into my personality" because people are always changing and I'm no exception.
Also, I had some new year's resolutions I set myself and I failed most of them and some I didn't fail. Most are too private for me to share but I'll share a couple:
     I did not manage to stop clicking my fingers
     I did however get my head down and finish high school without *too many* major incidents. Saying that there was some major drama but that's just life I suppose.
There were, however, many many different things I wanted to accomplish by the end of 2013 that I haven't even thought about since January, and other things that I have thought about but haven't really gone the way I'd hoped.
So I've decided that in 2014 I will not set myself any resolutions. I will not set unrealistic goals, some of which are the same every year, for myself, and I will not reach December feeling as if I have failed myself in the year. I will let my life take its course and I won't get caught up in the things that don't matter and I'll allow myself some more time to just do stuff rather than sit down specifically thinking about the list of unrealistic things I have to do.
But I suppose I can't help but feel, or hope, that maybe this year might just be my year. It's futile to hope though.

So to conclude this year I'm going to try hard to think about the positive things, the things that mattered, rather than the negatives. I don't believe in forgetting all the bad things though, because we need them to grow as people.
So here's my summary of the year:

Good things:

• Went to India after 4 years
• Met Tasha (on the internet but whatever)
• Nikola
• Saw All Time Low live
• Saw Mallory Knox live
• Met Sam and Dave from Mallory Knox
• Left high school once and for all
• Went to America/Canada
• Completed a very specific new year's resolution that was the hardest thing I've ever done and is still going on and this is very vague but it's a really really important part of this year
• And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
• GCSE's
• Fall Out Boy came back
• Iron Man 3
• Thor: The Dark World
• The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug
• Catching Fire

And of course there were some negatives:

• My chemical romance break up
• I start college
• College
• College
• People at college
• Social situations at college
• College subjects are hard
• (Nikola) 
• A certain failed (again I know it's vague but still) new year's resolution that changed my life

So, 2013 wasn't great but it wasn't too bad. There are certain things that I would do a thousand times over and certain things I wish never ever happen again to me or to anyone. 

I know the holidays can be a difficult time but I hope everyone has a good one anyway. And if 2013 wasn't the best year, then stick around because one of the coming years have to be better.

I don't care how cheesy that sounds, it's true. One of these years is going to be brilliant. Who knows, it may even be 2014?

Happy holidays everyone.

6pm

I like walking home alone in the dark.
There's something very beautiful about the way the leaves blow in the wind.
It's quite awesome how listening to music alone feels.

It feels a bit like you're in your own world, you can see people around you, you can see their lips moving, you can see what they're doing, but no one can hear your music. It's kind of like that music, at that moment in time, is yours. And that's pretty cool.

Music kind of means a lot to me. People say this a lot, and often when phrases become widely used, certain people start claiming that the phrase "is a lie" and "you're only following the crowd", when in fact, have they considered, that maybe music does kind of mean a lot to a lot of people?

But I find that listening to music helps me distance myself from people sometimes, and I think that's really important: to find comfort in solitude.
Music helps me take a deep breath and I'm pretty sure we've all learnt about how taking a deep breath is necessary.
In a busy lifestyle, sometimes there aren't many breaks, but if you look really hard, you can find one in something as simple as walking to and from college, or in brushing your teeth before bed, or having breakfast on the kitchen table, or listening to music as you do work (or listening to music as you procrastinate as I am currently doing)

I know I post about bands a lot, but I'm seeing Mallory Knox live in 5 days and that's pretty exciting. I really love the feel of a concert. No where else would you find complete strangers so close together in the same room as each other. Complete strangers with their on life story, their own problems, their own home, their own work, but for a few hours just that one night, you can forget about everything, and literally just live in the moment.
It doesn't matter that you have to go home in a few hours, and you have work in the morning; you forget everything, and bond with complete strangers over that one shared happiness of just being there. That's pretty amazing.

I think everyone should go to concerts, whatever kind of concerts they may be, and just forget about everything for a little while. Because forgetting everything can be just as important as remembering it all.


On another note, I feel obliged to say RIP Nelson Mandela.
The world has lost a truly inspirational and very important man. He changed this world, and I think he stood for something brilliant.
 Also, well done to the human race for letting at least one freedom fighter die of old age rather than be assassinated.
My only hope is that the world keeps remembering all that he taught us, and doesn't forget about his importance as a part of human history.

It feels fitting to end this post by the following quote from the man himself:
"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear" - Nelson Mandela