Twenty-sixteen and Some Resolutions

LADIES before you read this post, a little warning: it's going to be very very long and rambly, so get a smoothie/tea/coffee/beverage of choice and put on your pjs. Also, you might want to look at my posts for 2015 and 2014 first...

There's been a lot of negative stuff being said about 2016 which, yeah, I understand why people could be upset about things that have happened this year, but so many upsetting things happen every single year. So many people are just dwelling on the bad things and not the good things which is, you know... If you focus more on the good things, the future will be more positive and not so negative and you'll have more of a positive outlook on life and 2017. For a couple of days I was like, yeah, 2016 sucks, like whatever, but then I started to realise that this was such a huge growing year for me, personally, and I really needed this year. Even if it wasn't my best overall year, it was still SO GOOD and so many amazing things happened which I'm so thankful for. I just want to talk about these things!

HOLIDAYS

This year I went to so many incredible places: Morocco, South Africa, Margate, Snowdonia (not so amazing... this was with school), Portugal, Croatia, Mallorca and Devon (twice, to stay with one of my best friends in her house there, which was very lovely!). This year I know for sure I'm going to Salamanca for Spanish exchange and I'm going to Morocco with school to do charity work in Casa Blanca for four days, and then spending three days in Marrakech. I'm so so so excited, you should have seen my face when I found out I was going!

MY SKIN

Yep, I know this picture is blurred but I think it's so cute!! So, this year was the year my skin drastically cleared up. It's been really hard on my self esteem, confusing, uncomfortable - it might seem overdramatic to some people, it's not like I had the worst acne in the world. But, it was consistent, it wouldn't go away, and I was so confused because I'd always had really good skin. In the past, even when my self esteem was really poor, my skin had been the one thing I always appreciated. I'm really glad that it happened to me, though, because it kind of made me realise how important natural products are for your body. All these things filled with chemicals... they can only do so much. They get rid of one thing and they bring a bunch of other problems with them. So, in my opinion if you want nice skin, stop buying things filled with a bunch of chemicals. This is the only lil sack of skin you get, so take care of it! Obviously everybody is different but for me, personally, I found that none of those really helped me. They initially ease the problem for a bit, but never really help it go away. Keep in mind there's only so much you can do to yourself by applying things topically. You have to make your insides look good for your outsides to look good. And that brings me onto my next topic...

VEGANISM

After being vegetarian for two or three months, I finally convinced my parents to let me cut out dairy and eggs and everything that comes from, is, or harms an animal. I'm going to do a huge post on this soon. Cutting out dairy, especially, was such a dramatic change and I never though I'd be able to do that. I could eat mozzarella by the packet and bite into cheddar like it was an apple. But, yeah, I noticed a huge change once I started really taking care of myself more. I'm sorry for any of you on this stressful skin 'journey', but remember that your skin regenerates and there's a lot of good things coming to you. You just have to learn what works for you and what to do about it.

BECOMING AWARE

This year I've really made myself aware and educated myself on a lot of topics. Other than veganism, those topics include feminism, ethical and sustainable fashion, and wellness and spirituality. The last two aren't really issues, but I've learned a lot about them this year. I've called myself a feminist but didn't really know anything about it. I can't actually remember how I started to research more into feminism, but I read We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (a completely amazing woman), which is a talk she gave that's been turned into this cute little book. It was inspiring, now I'm very proud and happy to be a feminist. I wrote a post on it, actually! In terms of ethical and sustainable fashion, I watched the True Cost - it's on Netflix, please go and watch it! It's in my top three films of 2016, along with Cowspiracy, it was completely life-changing - and read To Die For, Stitched Up, and Slow Fashion. All amazing books written by amazing people, and I'm definitely going to be doing more posts about this!

I also just thought I'd quickly mention blogmas, because, although stressful and at times really annoying, it was such a great experience and I'm very happy I did it. Also, the wonderful, amazing, beautiful Ambra and Dalal did it too.

I'm really thankful for everything that happened, good and bad. Learning to accept that and just go on in the future is very important in life and I'm really excited for 2017. So, I thought I'd tell you guys some of my New Year's resolutions and goals, so let's do that!

SOME OF MY RESOLUTIONS AND GOALS FOR 2017

- Stand up for yourself more and speak up about what you believe.

- Drink more water.

- Sign up to a yoga class.

- Stretch every day and finally be able to do the splits, which I very nearly can!

- Go on a run once a week.

- Read every night, even if it's just a little bit,

- Give off more positive vibes - be accepting, forgiving, kind and gentle,

- Smile at strangers .

Ok, the thing is with smiling at strangers... basically, it is what it is. When I'm on the street and I see someone I don't know, instead of just, you know, ignoring them and being like whatever I don't know that person, I'm going to smile and be like, hello! Well, maybe not say hello, but I'll still smile at them and send some positivity out in the world because that can really make a difference and it could make someone's day. If they've had a really crappy day and a stranger smiles at you, that's really nice! Or maybe go up to someone and compliment them. If you like someone's dress or something like that, go up to them and say you like their dress. That's nice! And I know when I get random compliments from strangers, it's really effective and it makes me really happy!

- Start dancing.

- Sort out your sleeping schedule.

- Get freakin KILLER abs.

- Don't go on your phone in public because of boredom.

That one's gonna be a little hard for me because I know when I'm in awkward situations it's so easy just to escape to your phone. But, you know, I don't want to be on my phone as much this year, it's kind of... not cool.

- Eat more veggies.

I mean, I still eat a lot of veggies but I need to eat more, you know?

That's basically it! Pretty simple, but I don't want to do anything too crazy for my new year's resolutions and goals. In the past I'm always so specific: this year's everyday schedule, you're gonna do this at this time every, single, day. BUT I didn't want to do that this year because it always ends up failing after the first two days. It never works out. Maybe you can get inspired by some of these resolutions, I don't know!

To finish in the words of Jinx Monsoon (^), 'water off a duck's back'. That's basically it for this post. Make sure you spread positive vibes in 2017 and just do what you love. Be a good person this year, okay?

now playing: i fought the law the bobby fuller four/indian love call slim whitman/you talk way too much the strokes/that's all seasick steve