December 2019 Resolution Update and The Year in Review

Wow! It\’s the last day of the year, the last day of the decade – it\’s crazy! But also, not really… Tomorrow, I\’ll wake up and write out my resolutions and goals for the year, but at the end of the day I\’ll be the same me just striving to be a better me. (Or at least that\’s what the new year means to me!)

Instead of following my typical pattern for the previous resolution updates, I\’m going to just do a basic overview of December so I can focus on the whole year. So let\’s get into it:

December This month went by so fast. Between finals, and coming back from school, and the holidays, my brain is moving a million miles an hour, and I\’ve been so overwhelmed. As far as money and shopping is concerned, I really only did Christmas presents for my immediate family, and I was so practical with those and made sure to purchase products that would last, so I feel pretty okay with my spending. I also sold a good bit on Poshmark this month and had the chance to babysit, so I feel good about the number in my checking account. I read Sing Me a Death Song this month, and as far as the Earth is concerned, I\’m still very anxious but I feel like I haven\’t been doing as well. And as for this blog, I feel like I\’ve been kind of inactive, but also, I haven\’t been. I guess I\’m just in a weird place.

Now for my Year in Review: Goals Meals I did this more as an opportunity for me to try new things and really test my cooking skills, and while it worked and I tried a lot of things, some of which that weren\’t even on the board, there were still quite I few that I never got around to trying. But I guess that\’s another meal for another day!

Money & Shopping The whole point of this topic was a) for me to try and avoid buying new products, especially those that I don\’t need, but also b) for me to really start trying to save money to study abroad. While my mom has assured me that I don\’t need to be so strict on myself when it comes to this, I\’m still strict on myself because I feel like knowing how to manage your money is a good tool to have in adulthood. I had set a goal of how much money I wanted to save/not spend/have in my bank account by the end of the year, and while I didn\’t quite hit that goal, I\’m pretty darn close! As far as the shopping is concerned, I definitely bought used more than I bought new, but I still bought more new items that I had previously wanted too.

Regarding the Earth I feel like my desire to be so strict on myself when it comes to trash and being super sustainable comes and goes. Of course I have the daily little things that I do and things that I\’ve started doing at school. I still compost at home, I\’ve started making my own tortillas and pasta sauce, I recycle when necessary and I create things using what other people would consider trash. I mostly shop secondhand and I sell many of my used clothing items instead of sending them to a secondhand shop where they may not be resold. I have occasionally written to larger companies asking them to change how they do things. While we\’re slowly getting to the point that major action needs to be taken, it\’s still important to acknowledge the small actions taken in our daily lives.

Reading I, unfortunately, didn\’t hit my reading goal this year. I noticed that throughout the year I kind of go in spurts of reading; I\’ll read three books in three weeks, and then I won\’t touch a book for a month. I didn\’t get as close as I did last year (11/15) but I still have hope for next year!

The Blog After a year of trying, I have finally settled on an edit style that I really enjoy. I\’ve decided to post, kind of whatever I feel like posting, and I decided to throw that ratio out the window! My follower count increase by 400, and I am so happy to have everyone there! I did some of my first \”sponsored\” and gifted posts, and I stopped comparing my blog and it\’s success to everyone else\’s. At the end of the day and the year, I\’m happy with where I\’m at and what it\’s become. Thank you so much to everyone here that is following on this journey with me 🙂

End of the Year Stats: Most popular blog post: February Resolution Update with 38 views. Favorite Song (Or most listened to according to Spotify): Nothing Else by Angus & Julia Stone Favorite Album: Lover by Taylor Swift

Much Love and Happy New Year,

Jac