Goodbye 2013 - It's Been Real.

Hello internet friends, 
I know, I know - it’s almost halfway through the first month of 2014 so this post is long overdue...Sorry! :D

Seeing as it’s now 2014, I thought I’d share some of the exciting things I’ve experienced in 2013 and finish off with some New Year’s resolutions for 2014. 

The past year has been one of many firsts. After finishing school in 2012, I started university in 2013, studying a Bachelor of Occupational Therapy. So the first ‘high’ of 2013 I can think of would be getting accepted into my first preference course at university. 

In January I went to Thailand with a christian aid agency, Compassion, to visit our church partner and travel around the country, learning and seeing Compassion’s and God’s work. It was such an amazing experience. I met so many amazing people and heard countless incredible stories and saw some things and heard some stories that broke my heart. If you want to read more about my trip, I’ve previously written a blog post on a place that I visited, so you can go and read that by clicking on this link - #firstworldproblems.
Otherwise, you can visit the Compassion website (http://www.compassion.com) and read about their amazing work overseas.

When I started university, I met so many awesome and like-minded people and was blessed by having so many christians in my course. It’s been an exciting, difficult and busy ride through my first year at university and this year will be even more crazy! I’m excited to finally start doing more exciting subjects that are more advanced and related to OT. Although full-time uni is a lot of work, I’m looking forward to once again learning about what I want to do in life.

On the 10th of March I was baptised at my church (Church of Christ) and that was probably one of the best decisions that I’ve ever made. Getting baptised in my religion involves you deciding to live your life for Christ and is represented by you going under water and coming back up, washed from your old life and giving your life to God. It’s explained in the bible - even Jesus was baptised and he calls us to do the same. At my church people gather around the person being baptised and listen to them tell their testimony, they get baptised and then a few people pray for them. It’s a really special experience.

The next thing I can think of is when I got a new kitten! My cat Casper, had to be put down the day before my 17th birthday (2012) but he lived a very long and happy life of 16 years. My family lived without any pets at all until April 2013 when we (meaning my parents) finally decided that they were ready to move on and buy another cat. My new cat is a birman like Casper was (but different colouring), and her name is Libby. I pushed for her to be called Nellie because I thought that suited her personality, but apparently my dad had a girlfriend called Nellie once so he blatantly refused that name... 

Speaking of cats - I had an audition for the ensemble of CATS the musical with Harvest Rain in December. It was a really hard audition and I’m not a strong dancer which worried me. I had no expectations of getting accepted and then a week or so later, I got an email that said that I had been accepted! My parents were having a meeting in our loungeroom when I got the email and I burst out of my room with a beaming smile and waited for them to stop talking. Then I blurted out that I got accepted into CATS! I was jumping around all night :D I think that no matter how many shows you audition and get into, the excitement when you get that acceptance email or phone call never ceases to overwhelm you for the rest of the day. I’ve been known to jump off the walls ;)

The next thing that I can think of from 2013 is the beginnings of a new relationship. Although it’s already been a bumpy and confusing ride, it is exciting to see if it does go anywhere. It’s fun just getting to know someone anyway, so if it doesn’t end up going anywhere that’s okay too.

Although this past year has come with a lot of highs, there has also been some lows. In my next blog post I’m going to share with you one of the major lows of my life in 2013 in the hope that if you’re going through what I went through - you can know that I got through it and I am now loving life and university.

Anyway, now that 2013 is well and truly over, I think it’s time that I finally share my New Year’s Resolutions with you.

1. Try to do really well and work really hard at university
2. Work really hard with CATS and training - be the best performer I can be during rehearsals and most importantly, in the performances
3. Try to get fit for CATS and somehow manage to look good in a unitard...
4. Do more random acts of kindness
5. Read the bible more
6. Read more books in general
7. Be more confident
8. Keep up blogging :)

Well I hope you’ve enjoyed this long overdue (and long itself) blog post! Let me know in the comments what your New Year’s Resolutions are and we can have a cute chat in the comment section :)

Toodle-pip!
Hxx