Here's to pretending that anything changes when the new year does.
Another day has come in the year, and with it a whole new year approaches. People set themselves goals they want to accomplish for the next year and turn back to the year left behind for all the highlights and great moments the year before it left. This blog will be no exception, so this post will contain my highlights of the year. Things I did that made me proud and helped me grow as a person, learn, and overall made my year a little better with each passing moment.
In January not much happened, I began a new semester in law school and focused on my studies. It was a steady beginning. In February, I was invited to the state's Honorable Congress, to help out on a project in which university students interviewed congressmen and congresswomen for a spot in an activism campaign. The campaign wants to make students more interested in laws and politics, and to legitimately be interested in what is going on locally at our congress.
I visited 6 cities in my country this year. Among them Mexico City, Chihuahua, and Playa del Carmen. Two to which I had never gone before and one that I visited twice this time around. I helped and participated on a week long event about human rights in my university in which i met wonderful people and incredibly smart women who shared their experiences with us in different social issues involving gender.
In Mexico City, the first time I visited this year, I went with my school to a national competition, we visited the Supreme Court of Justice, and various museums on March. On April, I visited Playa del Carmen for spring break with two of my best friends and we celebrated both of their birthdays there, my travel buddies who I really hope we get to travel again this year. I learned how to scuba dive, and visited Chichén-Itzá, one of the seven world wonders. That same month I ran a 5km race with my labrador, which proved to be a challenge after some time without exercising.
In may I sang at an auditorium and finally found what started to resemble a hair cut which I really loved after having 5 different hair cuts in just the beginning of a year, I had finally gotten my undercut.
During summer break, I learned the basis of what would be my fifth language, Korean, and I haven't dropped it since, trying to learn little by little on my own. We hosted two wonderful girls from Colorado, who came to an international summer camp in my city and took them to the best places in our city. In July, I bleached my hair again and got the first colour of the year in my hair! Atomic turquoise. With a group of close friends we visited Cuatro Ciénegas, a wonderful town in Coahuila, for the town's grape fair to close the summer break before returning to university for another semester.
On august, I returned to classes and at the same time took a short barista course to learn how to make different types of coffee and latte art. And that same month our university allowed us to climb up to the ceiling to see the eclipse. That same month I returned to Mexico City to attend Malala's conference (which I will write a whole blog post about).
During a couple of months I decided to start enjoying small things, so I took out bold lipsticks and played with my makeup, experimenting with greens and blacks. Then on September I celebrated my 20th birthday, and went to a club with friends.
On October I visited local bars and clubs in the oldest part of my city with friends, and allowed all the turquoise to fall from my hair, going through green and then to a pale yellow. And then went back to having red hair. I went to a wedding and had a blast with my family and a friend. And of course played with my makeup some more to create a galaxy costume and the typical skeleton makeup.
My school hosted an event on November in which a lot of recognised professionals from my country presented as guest speakers, and shared with use their knowledge on different areas such as economics, politics, law making, and judiciary system.
On November I also visited a Korean beauty pop-up store in which I restocked my favourite brands of makeup, and facial care products.
Later that same month, I visited a friend's university to attend a conference she organised about women in business, and saw her kickstart a campaign all around making people conscious on feminist issues and try to eradicate the indifference some people have over such issues.
To close November with a golden bow, I visited Chiuhuahua with a student organisation I am a part of. Meeting wonderful people and learning a lot about different political issues and history of that state and my country.
On December we had snow for the first time in years in my city. The car was covered, the streets where covered, and everyone was loosing their minds over it. It is common for the mountains to have a little bit of ice in the weird occasion we reach 0 degrees celsius, but not for it to snow so close to the city.
I dedicated most of my December to visiting coffee and tea shops, studying, going out with friends, and attending posadas and social gatherings preparing for christmas and new year. Which takes us to new year's party and my new year's resolutions.
I don't really believe in the -New Year - New Me- fad, however I do believe it is a great moment to set not only goals but hopes for what the next 365 days will bring.
In my case this year I'll start working, and I hope to learn a lot from this opportunity I was given, I want to travel, I want to read more for pleasure, not just for school, write more in this blog, and participate more in school activities. I want to try and be a bit more social, and take care of my self more doing a bit more exercise and singing to destress. I want to focus on being slightly happier, slightly nicer, and learn much more stuff from various different places and areas. So lets hope this year is kinder to all of us!