My goals for 2018.

Hiya and welcome to 2018!!!!!!

Hope you had an amazing new year's eve! Did you go to a rad party? Spend it with friends playing games or had a bit of me-time? Whichever way you spend the seemingly so important night that takes you from one year into another, I hope you had a good one!

I myself had the last minute plan to join a friend instead of spending the evening alone. Partly as everyone around me wasn't fond of me spending NEW YEARS EVE by my self (as if I care) and she was just going to hang out with friends which appeals to me much more than a party which is basically a high school reunion. Not a big fan of those....

But yeah, let's not dwell on the past. It's 2018 now! Big year I guess. For me it's going to be stressful as heck but also a LOT of fun. Stressful? Yeah, I'm kinda trying to graduate my nursing bachelor this year and both the thought of graduating and having to get a job plus the fact that I'll have to write a big ass dissertation aren't very fond thoughts. But for 2018 I also decided to say yes to things more, social things mainly. So to start that of right I booked tickets to see Ed Sheeran in concert and Dan and Phil on their new show both of which I'm incredibly excited for. Secondly I booked yet another surprise city-trip which is an exciting happening in itself. 

However back to the new year, together with fireworks and lot's of physical damage, the new year also comes with resolutions. Or goals as I prefer to call them. Resolutions seem to be meant to fail as all forms of media put them. So my goals for 2018. They're pretty simple and are all about me and taking care of me and making myself more happy. So let's take a look!

For 2018 I want to:

• Eat more plant based food; basically I want to eat more vegetarian/vegan and cut out a big part of the sweets and chocolate I tend to devour (rather regularly). This to both cut down the sugar highs (diabetes and otherwise), feel more healthy and give the environment some extra support. 
• Become more fit; a goal that repeats itself every year and is still relevant. During my time in South-Africa and my lack of sports there I noticed my mood go down, sugar levels go up, and average fitness become zero. Doing sports has such a positive effect on my physical and mental health that to me it is very important I keep up doing sports on a regular basis. For me this means a bit of fitness, pilates, and swimming. 
• Get my Hba1c to 45; this equals an average sugar level of 6.6 and helps me to avoid complications as diabetes wounds, heart failure or even amputations in the long run. It also helps me if I ever have the desire to have children. But overall decent sugar levels have a big positive impact on my mental health and physical functioning.
• Be kinder to myself; whenever something I really want doesn't work out I tend to become pretty down and can be quite harsh on myself. I have to learn to accept that life doesn't always come the way I want it and allow myself to fail once in a while. 

So much for the 'all about me and my health' goals. If you have been reading my blog for a while you know that both physical and mental health issues are part of my daily life and getting control or at least accepting their being will always be something to strive toward. Hence all the goals mentioned above. However there are also goals I want to achieve that are not health related. Thanks to the hobbies. Let's get into those!

• Get my bachelors degree; the most obvious and practical one. In June I want to have finished my nursing bachelor with a pass on an interesting dissertation. Writing my dissertation both excites me and scares the crap out of me, but hey, I'll have to do it anyway so better get over it.
• Go on at least 4 trips abroad; this one might be a bit of a cheat as before 2018 even came to be I already had three of them planned. I've grown quite fond of travelling during my time in South-Africa and wish to continue doing so the next years. Plus one of them was a birthday present to my sister while another is my annual holiday to France. But hey that still leaves that fourth trip to be planned.

And last but not least:

• Start my internet career; this isn't really meant in earning money and blablabla. For years now I wanted to start a YouTube channel however every time I was about to start it I bailed out. Why? I don't know, maybe because being a YouTuber has become this popular thing, or because all the very successful YouTubers have been doing YouTube ever since I was still about to hit puberty. Something just always stopped me but now I am 21 and I feel ready. So keep your eyes open for that in the near future! But then besides YouTube I want to put more effort into this blog, everyone reading this messy internet place deserves good content and funny stories and it's up to me to stop postponing writing those stories. It's time I took some real responsibility for this blog and 2018 seems like the perfect time to do so!

These are my goals and I am incredibly excited to start working on each and every one of them! Did you set some goals for yourself for 2018? Is 2018 going to be your year? Please share your stories with me and like that we can keep each other motivated!

Lots of love,

ThatDutchGirl96

Out of my comfort zone.

Hey guys,

As you may or may not know, I'm a pretty introverted person. Yes, sometimes I'm loud and appear to be very extroverted but deep down I'm a true introvert. That includes me not being a big fan of going out, going to parties, being in crowded places, and doing any one of those things with people I don't or barely know.

Now I'll leave you to guess what my New Years eve was all about....

You guessed it, I went out, to a party, a presumably crowded place, with one of my friends and 8 of her friends whom I had never even met before. What could go wrong. Well a lot could have gone wrong but that is not why I am here. That's a story for another time maybe because I have plenty of stories where these occasions went wrong. Back to the point please.

So as everybody my friends and I started planning New Years eve, as I'm not too into going out I suggested having dinner together first and then the ones who want to go out can go out. Everybody agreed to it and it seemed like a plan. However, we didn't really spoke of it again but silly old me just assumed we had a plan. How wrong I was. Turned out, when I asked my friends what our final plan for New Years would be, they had all, all four of them, made different plans with different friends. Now you don't have to tell me, it sounds pretty sad, and I felt sad back then, but hey we're a complicated group of friends okay. Thankfully almost all of them invited me to come along with them on New Years eve so it wasn't as if they completely abandoned me. Eventually I joined the friend who was going out with a group of friends which felt kind of safe. 

Then it was time, the 31st of December had come to either destroy or save my life. I spend the entire day in bed, not too worried about that evening. Not too excited I know. But then it was time to get ready, I had bought an amazing new dress which is nothing special but it's one of my favourite dresses already! Anyway I got ready, dressed up and everything and made my way over to where we were going to have dinner before actually going out. I was scared to the bone, felt very very awkward and kind of unwanted at sometimes but those feelings faded throughout the evening. Hey, I even played pool for the first time and I nearly won! Achievement AF. Although I did secretly spend half the evening with a peg on my finger to deal with stress. Eventually it became the 1st of January, there was firework everywhere and we all wished each other happy new year. It was very cosy.

At this time I had survived half of the night already, and I was pretty content with how I did. But now we all started to put on our coats and we went to the place where the party was. Thank god it was not as busy as I thought it would be, you have no idea how much of a relief that was for me. Also I ran into a lot of familiar faces which made my night so much better. Oh and there was this one part of the event where they played pop music and never have I been more thankful for pop music. We spend the night singing a long and dancing weirdly to some amazing songs, we shared some weird looks as some even weirder guys approached us which thankfully left us soon enough. So yes, the night wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, it even kind of encouraged me to go out more often and to just take the risk.

Out of my comfort zone I stepped. I could have stayed home, in bed with a movie, but I didn't. I did the thing I've been avoiding for a long time, I went out, to a big party and I actually had a good time, even with the strangers I was there with. That night I learned that sometimes you just have to step out of your comfort zone, no matter how much it scares you, how often your stomach seems to turn around at the thought of it. That night I learned that overcoming those fears led to a pretty amazing night with some pretty amazing people. I am reminded now that going out isn't always bad, that I don't have to hang on to the bad memories I have and that it's time for some new ones. Now I won't be going out every weekend, it will probably stay a rare occasion but hey, at least I have made some good memories of going out again. 

Stepping out of my comfort zone and getting a positive experience out of it was the first thing I did in 2017 and that makes me feel pretty awesome. It gave me some confidence I had lost somewhere in 2016 or even before then. It made me even more excited for 2017 than I already was because it opened doors to new chances, new opportunities. I say, let's see what 2017 has in store for me, but 2017 know that I am ready for you.

Lots of love,
ThatDutchGirl96

PS. How was your New Years eve? Did you go out, or stay in? Alone or with friends? Did you enjoy yourself? Did you have a good night? Please let me know!!!

What a start.

Hi there!

WELCOME TO 2016!!! The year that all your dreams may come true. The year you will find out that guy you've been having a crush on for ages has a crush on you too. But most of all the year that February has 29 days again!! I'm not too sure about the first two though so I would like to apologise in advance if neither of them happens. 

So far 2016 is going so fast it's unreal. In the two weeks that are 2016 I barely got a chance to sit down, take a moment and just relax. My "good times in 2015" jar remains full and untouched in my windowsill and I haven't been able to write down my goals for 2016 yet either. So yeah this year is kind of driving me crazy already. But hey that's college/adult life I guess...

As I kind of mentioned in my last blogpost I spent New Years Eve in Disneyland which was absolutely incredible! Even at the age of 19 I loved every minute of it! I was completely mesmerized by the magical atmosphere, the beautiful parade, the amazing show on New Years Eve. I might have even shed a tear here and there. One of my favourite Disney moments however was meeting Spiderman. He was so nice and kind and I nearly cried (again). Disneyland just turned me into an emotional wreck. 

On January 2nd I came home from the Disneyland trip and there was like just enough time to empty my suitcase before January 4th came knocking at my door. That day it was time for me to return to my internship. Now I really enjoy being at my internship and I'm really having a great time there but right now it's all a bit much. I work at my internship for four days a week, then there is one day I have to go to school, on Saturday I have to work at my part-time job which means that all the socializing has to happen on Sundays. To top all the madness half of my family has their birthday in January, I have to finish two assignments for school and of course I've become sort of sick. Not in the 'you have to stay in bed because you feel terrible' way, NO that would just be way too easy. I'm experiencing the 'headache combined with a terrible cold but in a way that you can still go to work and do everything you're supposed to do whilst holding tissue because of all the sneezing' kind of sick. So yeah that really isn't very helpful. 

I can't wait until the second week of February when I finally have a week off. A week to (hopefully) just relax, sit down and take a few deep breaths. A week to catch up on all the series I've not been able to watch, a week to finally look back on all the good times of 2015 that are still stuffed inside that beautiful jar of mine but also a week to finally write down my 2016 goals.

2016, what a start! I can't help but wonder how many things you can possibly have in store for me and what a crazy year you will be!

I hope your 2016 has been less of a mess and you're not ill or kind of ill and that you are just enjoying this new year!

Love you lots!
ThatDutchGirl96

Happy New Year!!!

Hello,

Maybe it’s a little late for this but I don’t care: HAPPY NEW YEAR all you lovely people!!!! I hope you had a great night and lots of fun whilst the new year started. If not the universe saved that fun up for you only to give it back later this year. Trust me.

We’re a little over a week in the new year now and slowly but surely real life has started again. Since Monday most people went back to school or work or whatever they do. The Christmas tree has been put away. The presents might have lost some of their magic already and the Christmas dinners have left your body (hopefully, if not you might want to get it checked out). All memories of Christmas have started to fade and even new years eve is slowly blurring out to a faint memory (the same goes for most new years resolutions). Goodbye holiday! I had a great time with you and I miss you already. Can’t wait to see you again next year.

Despite the sad fact the holiday really is over now is also the time the new year has really begun. It's all fun you know holidays and celebrating the new year although you can't actually start changing yourself whilst not participating in the society. You know what I mean? Maybe you will be able to change yourself during the holidays yet there won't be anyone to notice the change. I know, I know, you don't change yourself for other people you want to change for yourself but it is always nice to get compliments or have other people tell you that you have changed. Just as a confirmation of some kind.

Maybe it's just me who prefers that I don't really know....

So one of the big "one week into the new year's" questions, how are your new years resolutions coming along. Have you given up on them already? Are you procrastinating (again)? Or is it actually working for you this year? Maybe you're one of those very few people that for some reason actually succeed with their new year's resolutions.

I myself don't do new years resolutions I rather set some goals for the whole year and maybe add some throughout the year. Not because I don't like new years resolutions or due to me being so pessimistic about them never working anyway. No! Not at all. They're wonderful, especially if they work or if people really try it just doesn't work out. For me they just don't work. I like to set goals whenever I want not just because it's the 1st of January and the whole "new year new me" thing.

So if you'd like. Please tell me about your new years resolution and whether it's going to work out or why it won't work out.

I hope you all have had a wonderful first week!

ThatDutchGirl96