Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Most people celebrate this Irish holiday with excessive drinking, instead my family celebrates the birthday of our three dachshunds; Oskar, Max and Leo.  This has been a tradition for at least the past five years.  We know that Oskar's, the oldest dog, birthday is actually today.  The other two were adopted from an animal rescue shelter so their birthday is unknown.  Therefore, we celebrate all three of them on the 17th of March.  Every year we order this gorgeous, sugar-free, liver cake from the local pet store and let the three of them devour it!

Have a great St. Patricks Day everyone!

18 Goals for 18 Years

My adorable 18 year old selfie

Last year, on A Beautiful Mess,  I stumbled across the idea of yearly assigning goals in accordance with age. I quickly formulated 17 goals and now, a year later, I'm back with my new 18 resolutions. I'm really excited and scared for the new challenges I'm going to face and happy to set such reachable yet engaging goals!

1. Develop Better Relations With My Parents

I am moving away Fall 2014 for college and I'm worried that I without seeing my parents everyday, I will not stay in contact with them.  To remedy this, I want to create a better relationship with my parents so they will become people I want to talk to rather than people I have to talk to.

2. Be More Enthusiastic and Supportive Towards My Friends

I have a bad habit of not caring about what my friends are doing. Oh, you're in a play? Good luck with that.... NOT ANYMORE! I will be supportive and encouraging toward my friends.

3. Learn to Cook? Develop a Specialty

With college just around the corner, I don't want to be stuck only being able to make packaged pasta and premade pizza.

4. Utilize a dictionary

Recently my English teacher mentioned that he had a personal dictionary in which he would mark every time he looked up a word. I was intrigued by this mini time-capsule and I want to start my own.  Plus a better vocabulary is never bad.

5. Read more non-fiction and classic literature

I find more fulfillment from these types of books than my usual YA novels or best-sellers so why not read more of them?

6. Throw Shit Away

I want to be able to take everything I want to college and as I'll be flying to school, that will be difficult. I'm hoping that by thinning out my items even more, I can take all I want to college next fall.

7. Do more volunteer work

Right now I volunteer at the public library once a week but I'd love to do more to help my community.

8. Cut down on internet and television

I don't feel good after scrolling though tumblr or watching TV for hours.  I always feel that I lost the opportunity to learn or do something that will lower my stress levels. Ultimately, I want to cut down to maybe 3 TV shows and almost no wasted time on social network.

9. Utilize the Opportunities Presented To Me In College

I will not allow myself to sit in my dorm studying. Grades are important and will always come first but I also want to be involved in volunteer organizations, clubs, and other things presented at my college.  Get off your butt and go to everything!

10. Actively Blog

Looking back through my blog this winter, I discovered that I am really proud of what I've done here.  I'd like to continue and get better at updating so there are no longer weeks of major activity and then weeks of nothing.

11. See More Live Music

Though I have been to many cons with musical performances, I have been to very few concerts.  I'm hoping to rectify this and already have some events lined up!

12. Moisturize

Though the word just reminds me of Cassandra from Doctor Who, I think my skin would benefit from being moisturized.

13. Learn How to Shoot in Manual

I really want to learn how a camera actually works.  Plus I'm excited to get pictures that look the way I want them to look rather than how my camera wants them to look!

14. Stay in Touch

When I moved and left middle school, I lost many of my good friends.  With graduation in 6 months, I don't want the same thing to happen to my high school friends. I want to make a conscious effort to stay in touch.

15. Eat Well and Exercise

I feel so much better when I take the time to eat something besides pasta and head over to the gym.  I need to work it into my normal routine.

16. Buy Less Shit

I hate feeling that I'm a cost to my parents.  I want to find away to cut back on the little things I buy almost weekly.  For example, sandwiches from the local grocery store for lunch.

17.Thrive to be Tidy and Organized

Wow, so many of these are about college.  Anyway, I want to be more on top of my chores and mess.  A nice desk, vacuumed carpet, and clean bedding please!

18. Have A Good Year

With the IB tests and freshman year of college this next year, I'm stressed out just thinking about it.  Therefore, I want my last goal to simply be to have a good time.

The cake my parents got me to celebrate.  Apparently I'm still 8 to them!

Final Review: 17 Goals for 17 Years

Back in January of this year, almost a month after my birthday, I set myself 17 goals I wanted to accomplish during my 17th year (link).  I checked in on my goals back in July (link) but with my 18th birthday only 10 days away, I want to look back on the goals I set myself and reflect on how I did.

1. Decorate my room so I love it

SUCCESS I am actually very proud of this one.  In the past year I have finally finished painting (link), decorating (link), and rearranging my room into one I love to spend time in.

2. Grow out my hair

SUCCESS Granted this one required little work but I am happy to report that my hair has officially bounced back from the short bob I hated.

3. Bake from scratch

SUCCESS Okay, I only truly baked from scratch once but for me it counts.  This year for Halloween instead of carving my pumpkin, I cut it in half and threw it in the oven.  A couple of hours later I had a pumpkin pie, a pumpkin cheesecake, and a great feeling.

4. Take Ceramics all year

SUCCESS I can't actually remember how many ceramics classes I've taken but I definitely took one this fall, plus I never missed a session so I'm calling this one good.

5. Declutter and buy less

SUCCESS I definitely own less things that I don't use.  But even better than that, everything I own has a specific place in my room and that is a miracle.

6. Spend spare time on test prep books

FAILURE I have not picked up any of my many test prep books except specifically to study for an upcoming SAT or ACT.  I just need to give the others away cause I'm never going to use them.

7. Read a fatty cold war book

FAILURE Same as the test prep books above, I have not picked up any of my cold war books except to work on my EE and I haven't even done that enough.

8. Take a picture everyday

FAILURE hahahahahahahaha I started this project with good intentions but have failed epicly.  I can't even remember the last time I took photos daily. Hopefully with a new phone on the way I will get better at this goal. Here was my attempt: link

9. Go camping

SUCCESS I went camping twice this year.  Once with 3 of my close friends and once with my father (link).

10. Eat more salad

SUCCESS I know this is true because I've begun to order salads at restaurants and crave salads at lunch time.

11. Spend less time on the internet

SUCCESS I wish there was a way to track my time spent on the internet but as I have yet to find a program which does that I'm going to go with my gut instinct which tells me I have in fact spent less time on the internet this year.

12. Make Christmas Cards

FAILURE Yeah, this takes way more effort than I  have when all my college apps are due.

13. Swim 

FAILURE I have swam quite a bit this year but not enough for me to call this a success.  I have yet to find a gym routine that works for me.

14. Stay Hydrated

SUCCESS I have definitely noticed an increase in hydration.  I used to experience blurry vision upon standing at least once a week but now I go entire weeks without it!

15. Write in a Journal

FAILURE While I have finished my journal which I've used for the past 2 years, I can recall many events which did not make it onto the pages of a journal.

16. Make Sushi

FAILURE I think I made sushi about twice this year and both times it did not turn out well.  I just don't have the patience to roll them tight enough!

17. Use reusable bags

SUCCESS I have stopped bagging my food when I go to grocery stores.  When I spent time with my friends in Boston this summer (link) they thought I was really weird for carrying my groceries out in my arms instead of sticking them in a bag.  

With 7 failures and 10 success, I think I did pretty well. Oddly enough, when I wrote this list I knew that making sushi, daily pictures, and my other failures were unlikely to be accomplished.  I want to be pushed into doing these more difficult goals but I can't view them as unlikely.  In that mindset, I have little drive to work toward those goals.  I'm going to keep that in mind while writing my list this year.  I need to create goals which I will need to work on but I still think I can accomplish. 

I also feel the need to say that I have really loved my life this year.  I just looked through all my blog posts from the last year and am really happy with all the things I got to experience and all the fun I've had.  It's easy to forget everything in the day to day shuffle of homework but I am incredible blessed.  Here's to another year of new experiences!

My Birthday List: 17 Goals for 17 Years

I have never completed a New Year’s Resolution in my life, and, personally, I blame it on the cliché. Perhaps, if I retitle it and base it on a different holiday, I will finally find strength to complete my goals. I found the idea for my little list from the blog A Beautiful Mess.  They mentioned their own birthday lists and I thought it was a great take on the typical New Year’s tradition.  In Emma’s own words it is “a list of goals for the upcoming year that corresponds with our age”.  Therefore, because I'm 17, I'll have 17 goals. Though a little late, almost a month exactly, here's my birthday list!

1. Decorate my room so I love it

2. Grow out my hair

3. Bake from scratch

4. Take Ceramics all year

5. Declutter and buy less

6. Spend spare time on test prep books

7. Read a fatty cold war book

8. Take a picture everyday

9. Go camping

10. Eat more salad

11. Spend less time on the internet

12. Make Christmas Cards

13. Swim 

14. Stay Hydrated

15. Write in a Journal

16. Make Sushi

17. Use reusable bags

There are so many things that could be added to this list but I feel that these are the goals I need to be reminded of. I also wanted to make these goals specific and as completeable as possible. I always find it easier to do something if you know the exact requirements.  No wishy washy stuff like ‘Get Fit’.  I can’t wait to look back next year and see how many of these goals can claim fulfillment!  Do you have any resolutions this new year?  If you're still searching check out this generator.  It definitely inspired me.