This Year So Far || Instagram

I love nosing at people's instagram pictures, and instagram round up posts have to be some of my all time favourite to read. And I realise this may be an odd time of year to do a round up but I haven't used instagram as frequently this year due to having an awful iPhone 3GS that won't let me connect to any internet that isn't wifi. And so I thought that I could do a series of 'This Year So Far', including instagram round ups at various times and all sorts of other goodness. 

1: This was taken way back at the beginning of the year when I took the train to Cardiff to spend a lovely weekend with my dad and grandparents who had just moved to Wales. It was full of fun family time and lots of shopping, Cardiff is incredible for shopping I have discovered!

2: This is me, my mum, and my nanny all sat together when we went bowling for my brother's birthday. I love this photo, the three generations together. I am very grateful for these two women, they've shaped me into the person I am today.

3: I found this burgundy coat from New Look in the sales for £25 and actually fell in love, and knew it had to be mine. Luckily, I'd been given vouchers for Christmas and so I bought it! Still in love with it, I'd been looking for a coat in this design for ages, and I love the colour and the gold detail.

3: I found a copy of 2003 Peter Pan in the CEX shop for £2 which made me extremely happy, it's one of my all time favourite films and I didn't have it on DVD, so I bought it, watched it and fell in love all over again.

1: I left my old job at the end of January, which was very bittersweet. I loved working there for a very long time, until it became a little too stressful and unbearable. I don't miss it, but I do miss the people, such as my friend here. No prizes for guessing where it was I worked.

2: I rediscovered my years old hair curlers this year, and successfully managed to curl my hair and get it looking okay for the first time! Now curling my hair has become my favourite hairstyle, and I desperately need to invest in some heat protection.

3: This was the only throwback thursday I posted, a throwback to my time in Berlin with fab friends and much history. These are my favourite people I met over there and I miss them all very much.

3: Basically, I bought some rose lights from Primark, draped them over my bookshelves, and fell in love.

1: I decided that this year was going to be the year I sorted out my room, so I decluttered, got rid of pretty much half the clothes I own, hated the idea half way through, and then finished with a lovely tidy bedroom! Which is now in a mess again. One day I will learn how to keep it tidy.

2: Right next to my college is a Wetherspoons called The Imperial, and it is one of my all time favourite places in Exeter, and me and my friend have been on far too many 'dates' there this year already.

3: I spent my Valentine's Day on the train up to London, sat in first class (South West Trains first class is not as great as Cross Country), and watched the entire third season of Miranda, which did make me very, very happy indeed.

3: I visited Brighton on Monday for the very first time in all my life, and fell in love with everything, basically, but especially the pier and the shopping. I bought some really cute things, including this jewellery dish and this gorgey ring, a full blog post on these will come when I get back home to a good camera.

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A goodbye and a change for the better

Credit: pinterest

More on the subject of change today! It seems to be the topic of choice for me at the moment, which I guess is fitting with the time of year and my aims for myself, which do including becoming a better version of the person I am now. As you may have guessed from the quote above, the change I have made today is to leave my job. I worked my last ever shift at my first ever job today, and it was a bittersweet goodbye. I've worked there for over a year now, and it's a small shop so the people I worked with are basically like family to me. There's something about a busy, stressful environment which just bonds people for life. Unfortunately, it's the busy, stressful environment which has contributed towards me needing to leave.

I, like many other college and university students, went to work part time and my education is full time. Unfortunately for me, I happened to be pretty good at my job in an understaffed shop, and this led to working practically full time hours before the summer during exams, and even more so during the summer. Understandably, this led to me becoming very stressed towards the end of the year. And although things were settling down again now, we lost our management and the whole place feels a bit like the titanic on the verge of sinking, and I have never gotten my old love for my job back.

I stuck at it because I needed money, and my parents told me I needed something to keep me occupied, but I was getting desperately unhappy, and concocting the bizarre-st of plans in my head in the hope of not having to go to work, and this got me thinking. Why was I still there?

I didn't want to be, nor do I really need to be. I'm lucky enough that I have parents who will give me a small allowance now I am jobless, although I appreciate many people do not have this back up option. I loved working in this place before, but now it was impacting on my college work and my mental health, and those are two things I decided had to come before money and my love of buying unnecessary items. And so, after weeks of decision making, I handed my notice in, and immediately I felt better, like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

And now my last shift is done and free weekends stretch out ahead of me like some blissful holiday, and I already feel tonnes better. It's incredible how such a difficult decision can have such a big impact on the way I feel. I'm sad I've left everyone, but I'm so excited to start this next chapter in my life.

So I guess this post is just to say that if you really aren't happy with something in your life, it is possible to change it. There is always a way to change what you don't like, even if it's not leaving your job, it's something different like cutting ties with a friend, or not driving because it terrifies you even if you feel like you have to.

My question to you is then: is there anything in your life you would like to change? If there is, consider changing it. I promise, 99%* of the time you will not regret it.

*not a real statistic

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