Climbing mountains...one stone at a time

All this talk of the new year, a fresh start and a time to change doesn't usually have an effect on me, but this year - for some reason - it seems to have sunk in somehow. I don't just want to plod along this year, doing bits and bobs here and there, waiting for the interesting stuff to happen - I want to really LIVE this year. I want to look back on 2011 and know that I have thoroughly made the most of every single minute.

I mean, I already work several days a week, and whenever I am home I'm either doing uni work or blogging. I always make time to see my friends and family, and the boyfriend of course - but could I do more?

I think I could. So I'm starting this new burst of enthusiasm by joining the gym. It's not really a case that I need to lose weight; I'm 4ft 11" and I only weigh 7 1/2 stone - I'm hardly having to roll myself around! But I have noticed that after the last several years of takeaways and boozy nights out, that I'm not looking (or feeling) as healthy as I used to be.

Every summer I have a health drive, and I love it. I go running 2 miles 3 times a week, and do sit ups and weights at home - the whole lot. When the winter rolls round though, I use the "It's too cold" excuse, and the exercise becomes literally a forgotten memory. So, joining the gym will hopefully stop me slacking off, as it certainly won't be cold in there!
I have this real urge to better my life this year - probably due to the hardship of last year - and I told myself that my new years resolution would be to do more nice things for those I care about. Sounds like a right pile of soppy stuff I know, but I realised that most of the drama and strife in my life last year was more to do with me having to watch those I love suffer in some way, than it was about me suffering myself.

So, I'm going to put more effort in with the fella - make his recovery the best it can be and hopefully leave him feeling like the luckiest bloke alive by the end of the year. Don't get me wrong, I do always make time for him and try my best to make him happy, but there's always room for improvements. I'd like to see my best friend Ray be happier than ever this year. To know that she's happy and content within herself would leave me chuffed to bits. And I want to do more for my Mam. She always does so much for my whole family, and we've all been guilty of taking her for granted sometimes, so that has to stop. She's a superwoman, but that doesn't mean she can't have a sidekick to help her out when she needs it.

Finally, I'd really like to push myself to try new things in all different areas of my life. If there's something I want to do, but have never got round to doing it, then this is the year to make it happen. I'm still working out quite what I want from life this year, but when I figure it out I'll be sure to let you know.

Last year I was proud of myself for overcoming all that life had thrown at me - which was nice enough - but this year I want to be proud of myself because of what I have done to change my own life for the better, rather than just having to face up to how it has changed on it's own. Not quite sure if that makes any sense to anyone but me, but the good intentions are there, so I hope you can all read that much from what I'm saying.

I've probably said this at some point every year, but I really have got the drive to be the best I can possibly be from here on out. I just need to make positive decisions, put actions to my words, and see things through. And if I can manage an hour in the gym tomorrow that would be a good enough place to start me thinks!

New year, new you?

It's a new year, new start and all that, so I've whipped up this new year-related vox pop with the hope of getting it published in The National Student this week. A great deal of my friends have helped me out with this so thank you, and my apologies if I have chopped and changed, or added bits here and there - but that's what us wannabee editors do! Hope you enjoy the read:

New year, new you?

The time for change is upon us once again, and as we enter into the New Year, many of us will bow to the age-old tradition of allocating ourselves a New Year’s resolution to kick start our lives in 2011.

There are always the traditional pledges to get fit, lose weight, stop smoking etc etc, but this year we students are going all out to bring some new dynamics into our lives.

Russell Fletcher, 25 and a post-graduate Music Industries student, has set himself the unusual task of being more decisive this year. He says:

“I’ve been notoriously indecisive in the past. I’m tired of always regretting not acting on impulses and letting things get away from me. This year there will be no more saying ‘Um, I’m not sure’ when I’m asked a question... I’m aiming to start taking hold of things and making them a reality.”

The idea of changing your attitude to life seems to be a popular choice with many students this year, as Heather Bradbury, aged 20 and a Jewellery Design student at Birmingham City University, has decided that she needs to be more positive in 2011:

“Last year I gave up chocolate until Easter, but this year the thought of giving up something so materialistic isn't much of a challenge, and I don’t think I’d get much out of giving up something like that again. I wanted to do something that would be more beneficial to my life, so my resolution is to be more positive this year, as I'm quite a cynical person really and I want to break the habit. If I think more positive, then I'll be positive. Or that’s the theory anyway!”

Manish Patel, 21 and a Media and Communication student at Birmingham City University, is aiming to change his life this year by doing one new thing each month. He says:

“My New Years Resolution is to make 2011 a year to remember for the rest of my life. I’d like to start small and work it up to something big by the end of the year. If I can start by graduating Uni with at least a 2:1 grade, then that would be perfect. “

26-year-old Andrew Spurrell, a Sound Technology student at Wolverhampton University, is a tad forgetful and wants to do more for his family in 2011:

“I have lots of brothers, sisters, their partners and nieces and nephews to please. I've always been rubbish at remembering birthdays and sending cards so my new years resolution is to be a more considerate sibling and uncle and remember (or write down!) important dates.”

Rachael Giaramita, 24 and a Journalism student at Birmingham City University, has gone for all the traditional getting healthy, eating more fruit, doing well at university pledges – apart from one:

“I need to get better at returning phone calls. People phone me, I miss it and then I never get round to phoning them back. It must seem like I’m ignoring them or something, but I’m just bad at returning my calls!”

Not every student is so drawn in to the yearly tradition of setting yourself new goals for the year to come, as 21-year-old Luke Jerromes – a Film Studies student at the University of Gloucestershire – claims that these resolutions never last for people because they wouldn’t have normally set these goals if there wasn’t such a thing as New Years resolutions in the first place. He says:

“I would like to think my life is dynamic enough to not have stagnated to the point that once a 'year' it's time to assess my life and then make some token gesture at trying to change things. By all means set goals in life. I have those, and then have a timeframe by which to achieve them - but other than that, I can’t understand setting yourself a goal you otherwise wouldn't have set yourself, it’s just odd!”

Luke says that although he doesn’t have any New Years Resolutions, he does have goals which he would like to achieve this year:

“I have the aim of getting a sketch I've written onto the TV, making at least one film I'm proud of and I want to appear in at least one TV or Film which I didn't personally create. That and I want see Metallica again, but that’s less of a goal, and more a burning desire...”

So, maybe it’s time to ask yourself the big question: What would you like to achieve in 2011?

He won the war

I have some good news which I would like to share with you all. You may have read my post about my trip away with the other half recently, entitled "Four days in a frosty haven", in which I told you all about his current health problems and my thoughts around the matter.

Well, you will all be very pleased to know that my Man has been given the all clear this week. He has been deemed as having a full response to treatment, which basically means what it says, in that the chemotherapy has essentially worked the best that it can and he is now on the road to recovery.

He has to take a bit more time off work, and then ease himself back into it all slowly, so as not to hinder his recovery at all - but things are finally looking up for us, the haphazard couple that we are!

As you can imagine, I'm thrilled. This has been one of the longest, hardest years of my existence so far, and as I was saying to my Fella just yesterday, I really needed some good news to come along and perk me up a bit.

I'm not depressed or anything, in fact I think I've coped quite well with everything that life has thrown at me this year, but having fought to regain control of my life after losing somebody very close to me earlier this year - and then having to put so much energy into staying strong and supportive for my other half after finding out he was ill just a few months later- I'm really not sure how much fight I've got left in me.

The new year should be a new start for me, but unfortunately all it is likely to bring is more heartache as the anniversary of the death of the great man I lost will be heading our way soon enough, and all of the pain and grief I suffered not so long ago will no doubt come flooding back again - and I'm just going to have to deal with it, some how.

I'm not writing this for sympathy, as those who know me well will tell you I don't want a big fuss over it all. I've always like to deal with things on my own, and I kind of see it as a sign of weakness in myself if I'm not rock-solid and strong throughout my misfortunes. But what it does make realise, is that it doesn't get any easier for those who have lost someone they love.

All of us will know someone who has suffered some form of heartache or loss unfortunately. It's not a great fact to acknowledge, but that is just they way life is and we have no choice but to accept it. My mother lost her mother just a few months back, and my nan lost her husband a few years before that, and yet even I have been guilty of forgetting that every year they will once again mourn the loss of their someone special.

So now that this situation will soon be upon me once again, it has made me think about all those others I know who will also find a point each year in which the memories of the life they once had will be all too close to home again - and this year I intend to be much more supportive of this fact, and help them see all the things they have got to be grateful for instead.

Time is a healer, of that I have no doubt, but time will never allow you to forget what you may have lost. I, however, would just like to think of it in a different way. Yes, I have lost so much this year, and that fact will never leave me - but for all that I have lost, I seemed to have gained so much as well. I am stronger than I have ever been because of this year. I am older and wiser, and more capable of dealing with the pitfalls in life. And most importantly, I have surrounded myself will the most wonderful people you could ever wish to have in your life - and for that I know I am so blessed.

My Man getting better and beating what could have defeated him is just the start of the beginning for me. New year, new hope, and hopefully new me. Although I will never forget who I have lost this year, I have so much more to gain in my life...and that surely has to be worth living for. If I'm twenty-one and invincible now, imagine how far I will have come when I'm thirty-one and indestructible?