Reflection and hope

2011 just "whoosh!"ed by.  Like a meteorite!  Like a plane!  It was definitely an important year in my life as I got to fulfill many of my dreams and experience a different life abroad.  Never have I traveled so much in a year.  DFW Airport and I are buddy buddy now :)  But before I welcome the new year, I'd like to remind myself of some hopeful changes for myself.  Let's see how well I measured up.

• Write (at least) 100 blog posts.  ...Yeah, totally failed.  But I did pick up writing in a journal again, so you win some and you lose some.
• Budget money more wisely. I'd give myself a 85 out of a 100 on this.  Made a few purchases that I regret (mainly those crappy Myeongdong purses that I had to throw out after less than a month of use) and was a little over budget for Japan and Korea, but I stretched my money pretty far.  Hopefully this won't be an outlier and will become a continuing trend for 2012.
• Read more.  Didn't exactly read a book a week, but definitely read more than I used to.  
• Redefine my style.  A work in progress, but glad to report that I only wear free t-shirts out once a month.  
• Experience life more.  A no brainer.  I felt both the ups and downs.  A hell of a rollercoaster ride that I cried, yelled, laughed, and endured through.  

To be honest, I did a lot better than I expected o_O  So since Round 1 was so successful, let's try again for Round 2! ^_^  Hopes for 2012:

• Take more pictures.  Sometimes, words just can't do it and you need that visual to trigger those memories.  Since I'm not much of a photographer, I'll aim for at least one picture a week.  And I did buy a Polaroid...so I should use it....
• Lead a healthy lifestyle.  Need to lose these thunder thighs if I wanna look good in jeggings.  >_< And now that I'm about to begin the OL (OL = Office Lady) life, that's going to be a big task.  So not only do I need to eat better, I need to somehow move enough so that I burn more calories than I consume.  (Can't bring myself to use the word "exercise" because it scares the crap out of me haha).
• Learn to live more with less.  I already have a gigantic list of planned purchases for 2012, but I would like to also remind myself that the material stuff isn't everything.  Keep it real.
• Keep up language abilities.  After leaving Korea, my Korean ability has tanked.  I need to keep not only Korean, but also my Japanese and Mandarin skills.  And maybe I can finally tack on Cantonese or Taiwanese.

I've already changed a lot in just one year, and with all these new changes upcoming, I foresee a busy 2012, too, filled with new travels, new friends, a new life.


To a wonderful 2012!