Hello all! I am so glad that 2017 is over with. Political hailstorms, hypocrisy, stress at work and well, an endless supply of existential crises made for a crap year!

I've had time to reflect and now am ready to share a few things from the past year. To keep this short, here are seven significant things that impacted my life, during 2017:

1.  Goal setting. Small, and big: I set goals for myself-- and completed them.  I started keeping a bullet journal to track daily tasks and found myself incorporating a habit tracker, making sure that I ate, took vitamins and did other basic tasks (that would otherwise be overlooked in the course of my day/days off), while teaching myself better time management skills, prioritization and not to be overwhelmed.



2. Saved money.  While I spent a lot of money over the course of the year, I proved that I could save money, when I disciplined myself. I showed (some) restraint and saved 4k in less than three months.This runs into the next few points:

3. My first car! For the first time ever, I got a car.  Not just any car, but a new car. I felt and feel more independent, like a valid person and realised actually that yes, I am a good driver.

4.  Kind of believed in something. Call it fate, destiny, a higher power, but there's something up there...or there's just a lot of wild coincidences throughout life. Story time: I was getting desperate for the car thing to work out for me, so I mustered all my strength and thoughts towards achieving that outcome. I was stressing out (a lot of things were happening) and I was just not in the best frame of mind. I'm not religious much these days in my adult life, but I said a prayer, in hopes that it would work out. Somehow, it worked. In the last few days of May, my dad cosigned with me and I put down $3,000 for a down payment (the money I had saved). The financing went smoothly (with good terms, too) and everything has been amazing.

5.  A boyfriend. I am so grateful, humbled and surprised at this turn of events--I am the last person to have anyone my life romantically (not kidding, not being negative). I've had a lot of guy friends; they just didn't see me in that kind of way and I suppose I never really was looking for that either.  I'm also more or less bi, so maybe I wasn't always looking in the right place! Storytime: At around the same time of getting a car, I was already talking to this cute coworker of mine, flirting causally. We both went through work-related stress and really leaned on each other. We'd spend as much as possible together: before work, breaks, lunches and after work, despite mismatched schedules. We started going out of the building for our lunches on the weekends together (to escape for an hour) instead of hanging in the break room, and it felt like going on a lunch date. We'd buy each other lunch, and still do. Soon after I got my car, we started dating. He kissed me first and calls me beautiful. I think he's so handsome and sweet.

The best part: he later told me that his initials spell the word "car". I chalk this up to a wild coincidence but surely, that prayer may have been just what I needed...

6. Felt like an adult. This past year, feeling like an "adult" meant a lot of things. Along with having a boyfriend came some negativity and minor hostility with my parents, while still living at home. I also cried a lot and had some mental and emotional breakdowns, due to stress. But, it is better now (mostly because I have a car). I was/am also stressed from work and will continue until I change jobs. But this is the weight of adulthood!

7. Vulnerability. I let my guard down with my boyfriend--a good thing. We hit our six months back in November. I had moments where I thought to leave or break up from being so scared (this is my first relationship), but I've stayed and we've worked out a few kinks. Also, I'm pretty sure he's an ACoN and all of that is still very fresh (emotional) wounds. I'm glad he's in my life right now and I'm looking forward to a good 2018.

Thanks for reading, and here's to more updates on this blog~