Tuesday, January 3, 2012

2012 Looking Ahead, Back and Things I'd Like To Do



So I'm a bit late with the 2012 resolutions, as everyone seemed to have theirs ready weeks ago. The problem is: I'm not really one for new year's resolutions. I am one of those persons who needs to actually accomplish those goals once set and I didn't really want to add the stress of not meeting them to the stress of juggling work, a social life, reading and blogging. And with the high expectations I have of myself, I just usually don't feel like adding to them at the start of the year. That said, I think I might just make some this year ;)

Looking Ahead
2012 will be the year I graduate from Med School. Which is exciting and scary and making me want to run around in circles from the sheer hugeness of it. This also means it will be the year I go jobhunting and assuming I land one, get to work for about 60 hours a week at the very minimum. Which means I will have even more stress juggling ALL THE THINGS.
I am excited and terrified at the same time, I keep reminding myself that I will FINALLY be a legit doctor and that makes up for most of it.

2012 will also be the year I expect that the boyfriend and I will buy a car. I don't think I've actually owned anything that expensive or moneydraining before.
If all goes well, it will also be the year we move to another apartment or small house, but that may have to wait till 2013. If we move to another place, it will also be the year I will convince my boyfriend to get a dog. Or a bunny if the dog-plan fails. My boyfriend isn't convinced we need pets at all, but I want something fluffy to pet and feed and love and I've always had pets at my parents'!

Looking Back
2011 was a year of many things:
I found out what I want to do with my career after Med School.
I found out what I definitely NOT want to do after I finish Med School (research *shudders*).
It was also the year I read 178 books. I don't think I will ever be able to reach this number again, but it makes me immensely proud and slightly dizzy from the sheer amount of it!
It was the year I convinced myself that it's ok to DNF a book that is not working for me instead of pushing myself to finish it even though it's got me actually disliking reading.
It was the year I decided to step into the 21st century and join Twitter.
It was also the year I met wonderful new blogging friends and further got to know others: Alexa (who loves the same books I do and shares my passion for cute dresses, good food and tea), Alex (the only one I can talk to about ANTM and who freaks out with me over it! As well as Gossip Girl), Kelly A. (my A Song of Ice and Fire reading buddy, who sadly doesn't have a personal blog anymore), Sarah (who shares my love for Jemisin's Inheritance trilogy and who I love to disagree with on the topic of ereaders ;) ), Jess (who has already made me buy a couple of books through her recommendations) and last but certainly not least Jana (who is a fellow Austenland fan and is half Dutch, which is just plain awesome). I'm thankful to have gotten to know you all and all the other wonderful people in this blogosphere!

So those were all good things that happened in 2011.
Of course not everything was rainbows and unicorns, most importantly there was a huge change in my group of friends I've known since high school and I had a hard time with that. One decided to step out of our group for the time being, one I decided to give up on because she doesn't really seem to care and I'd rather spend my time on people who do and one tried to return to our group after an absence of 4 years and pretended like everything was ok when she really hurt me back then (yeah, it doesn't really work like that, at least not for me).

What I'd like to do in 2012
I want to make this non-stress inducing, so I'm not setting goals, just things I'd like to do/try:

-Continue with the series I started in 2011: I am so bad with just reading review books and I need to let myself spend time on those books I've been craving for a year.
-Read books that I bought for myself: while I love all the opportunity of reading so many books for review, I have a whopping 149 books that I physically own that are waiting for me to find the time to read them on my shelf. I need to feel less guilty for slipping those in, cause I BOUGHT (or made other people buy) them and I want to read them.
-Not wait more than a week after finishing a book before I review it.
-Spend less time stalking NetGalley and request less books: because seriously, the sheer amount of them is overwhelming.
-Do other posts than just reviews: I sometimes participate in memes and I've recently starting doing Daisy Updates, but I'd love to do discussion posts, because you know, I haz opinions and all that.
-Leave more comments on other people's blogs: I love receiving comments myself, so I should be commenting more as well.

I think that's enough for now :) I would like to say I could try to buy less books, but seriously, that's not a goal I can hope to accomplish. Especially not when 2012 will be the year I start making money and won't need to budgetize as much anymore.

So, what are your goals/things you'd like to try? Any other suggestions? Or tips on how to achieve this?

4 comments:

  1. It sounds like you have a great, exciting year ahead of you! I'm so glad we're blogger friends :-) despite your love of e-readers ;-) LOL!

    Happy New Year, and best wishes for 2012!

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  2. I'm so excited for you that you'll be graduating med school! What are you planning on specializing in? It seems like I'm fast becoming friends with a lot of doctors or soon-to-doctors and while I have no aspirations of joining the medical field, I do find it quite fascinating.

    And I am so happy to have met you through blogging too! We're practically meant to be friends what with, as you've said, our common love for books, dresses, food, sparkles and shopping ;) My 2011 book blogging experience wouldn't have been the same without you and I hope we continue to be friends for a long, long time.

    As for your high school friends, I'm sorry to hear about that :( It really sucks losing friends, but then I try to remind myself that if they allow themselves to fall away or hurt me, it just means newer and possibly better friends are out there for me.

    Now, your goals/resolutions... We share a lot of the same ones. While my book pile situation isn't too dire (about 40-50 books), I'm also planning to try to read them all. I'd really like to control my requesting on NetGalley, in order to make room for that. Oh, and the review thing is TOTALLY something I need to work on too. As of the moment, unfortunately, I have 6 more reviews pending.

    Good luck with everything Daisy! And I'm hoping for an AWESOME 2012 for us both :)

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  3. Wow, that post is awesome...it reminds me that I have goals as well and that I need to persue them more actively.
    I am super excited for you that you will finish med school and will be a doctor. I am so looking forward to being a teacher one day. I cna really imagine what it feels like finishing training.
    Hope you will get a pet this year. I have a dog and I would never want to be without him anymore. Getting a dog (again - after our first one died after 12 years) was the best thing I did in 2010. So I can highly recommend it.
    I wish you all the best for 2012 and keep us posted because I love reading your blog so much.
    Greetings from Vienna,
    Karin

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  4. *hugs*
    I've loved getting to know you in 2011! And I hope we can continue to freak out over the Chu-nkey Show and ANTM and books in general.

    I'm with you on the research, that's why I currently work at a library rather than a lab. LOL

    And you so need a pet! I don't think I could ever live without a dog ever again, they are a must!

    *hugs*
    Best of luck with your goals for the 2012!

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