Living in a Made Up World.: Goodbye 2017

As a new year rolls around I usually find part of myself holding onto the past year, my perspective tainted by nostalgia. However this year, although I will be looking back for the sake of this post, I'll also be joining the group of people who are looking forward to starting a new year and drawing a line beneath the old one.

Twenty seventeen was a year of ups and downs for me (I'll mention some of them here, but will have more details in my 2018 post). It marked my first full year as an employed graduate, working at SAGE Publishing (sadly, my student days are over). I bought a car. I spent time with friends. I went on some 'average' dates, I went on some pretty good dates and ended up getting my heart a lil' bit broken. Due to a close family member being very ill I visited the hospital more times over a 3 month period this year than I ever have before. On a more positive note though, I got promoted from Editorial Assistant to Assistant Editor.

I've decided not to dwell too much on the 'downs' because what's happened has happened, it has made its impact and now it's time to move on and look forward to the 'ups' that twenty eighteen will hopefully bring instead. I was re-watching the film The Holiday last night (for the 100th time) and there's a section where Arthur tells Iris that she's not acting as the leading lady of her own life, Iris later goes on to take ownership of her life using what she refers to as 'gumption': the ability to decide what is the best thing to do in a particular situation and to do it with energy and determination...

So here's to 2018: my year of gumption and hopefully more ups than downs.

To wrap everything up though, here's a few highlights in photograph form: