Happy New Year!
The start of 2016 officially starts the countdown to my New Zealand Adventures - 45 days! It seems so far away, yet I could not be more excited.
A common New Years tradition, at least here in the States, is the creation of New Year Resolutions. People spend the last couple days, weeks, or even months of the year coming up with ways in which to improve upon themselves in the coming year. 9 times out of 10 those people never stick to the standards they have set for themselves and give up on their goals. Because of this, I find it a useless practice.
While New Year Resolutions seem fruitless to me, I do believe that setting some self-improvement goals for my time in New Zealand is an idea to consider. I am going to be halfway around the world, practically by myself, for almost half a year, after all. Most study abroad students oftentimes come back speaking of great change within them due to their experiences abroad, so I feel as though change is inevitable (as it probably should be considering one must be highly adaptable to even respond properly to such a situation). Nonetheless, it is always nice to have goals.
My goals for myself during my time abroad in terms of self-enhancement are as follows:
- Travel as much as possible. Every travel opportunity that arises, take it. Don't worry about the costs, just explore as much as humanly possible.
- Live in the present. Don't worry about the future and don't let the past hold you back. Be totally and completely in the moment in order to obtain the full affect of the situations that present themselves to you.
- Leave time to stop and smell the roses. Don't pull a Baba and plan every second of every day. You were told before you left that some of the best sights and adventures happen unplanned after something cool is spotted. Instead of being so insanely rushed to make one trip after the next, let the literal roses and scenery take control once in a while.
(Tying this with the last one: Don't be so focused on getting to a future event you miss the current beauty unfolding before you.) - & finally (In my best Jamaican accent even though I am going nowhere near Jamaica) Don't worry, mon. Be happy.
You are in New Zealand; realize it is an opportunity most can only dream of and enjoy it.
I should also probably attempt to learn to cook, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. Hopefully that happens before I starve myself to death...
I also plan on getting better at surfing and trying to understand yoga. If I return to the States at the end of June and still don't understand why people do yoga besides the fact that it "looks cool" or if I still cannot really ride my board, I will have considered my trip a failure, even if I ace all my classes and take trips every weekend.
Wish me luck with my plans. A worrywart control freak like me is gonna need all the help she can get with these bullet points. & if you've set your own New Year Resolutions, best of luck to you as well!
Thanks for stopping by my blog!
xoxo
Tasha
