To the New Year and Beyond...

So it's been a long while since I've last posted! Here are a list of excuses...

- been lazy

- been bummed out

- didn't feel like posting

- lost my laptop

- slipped my mind...~

anyway..

So I am back at home now, and have been home since I completed my last exam. The holidays were very packed with activities and festivities, just like my stomach has been fully packed with food and yummiliscious things. 

The new year always seems like such a big deal, a new beginning, a fresh start, some would say. I don't really think so. You might want to call me pessimistic, but I feel the more accurate term would be realistic - let me explain. It's true, a new school term for university and college students start in January, and it is a "new year'. But does it really mean that all the things of the past are now washed away and your "slate is wiped clean"? All the mistakes of 2011 and all the regrets that came with them... do they no longer affect you after the clock strikes midnight? Is it like some sort of magic spell that suddenly makes everyone automatically forgive others of all the hurt they have caused? Do you suddenly see a new light and have hope for change? Perhaps!

For me, new years is just another day in my life. A cornerstone at most, to mark that I have made it alive another year. Oh wait - that's what my birthday is for. Maybe a milestone then, (which is pretty much the same thing) to mark that I have made it to 2012... another January. I don't know. Honestly, maybe I'm just a downer. I don't like cheering (unless I personally know the people I'm cheering for & care about whatever they're doing) and counting down to a new year just doesn't seem exciting enough for me to bother getting all hyped up about. 

New years is a very popular time for people to make goals that they want to achieve throughout the year - so before the new year of 2013. See - "new" doesn't last! How long can you say that something is new for? Until it becomes old? Ha. Getting back on track... These goals, typically called "new years resolutions" are made, in hopes that by the time the next "new year" comes along, that goal will have been achieved. The problem with me and new years resolutions is that they are almost never achieved. Perhaps this is because my goals are too unrealistic, or I am too demanding, or perhaps I just don't really care to achieve those goals, but I made them just because it seemed like a cool resolution to have. Maybe I gave up early. Maybe it just wasn't important enough for me to actually try. I looked back at my resolutions I made in 2011.. and I have successfully completed two out of the fourteen I made. Fourteen. I'm telling you - I was crazy back then. I still am. So what are my new goals for the year? No. Scratch that. I can't handle more than one goal. It's just not realistic.

I will be bold in the Lord, trusting in Him and not be afraid to do what is right for me, and for those around me.

Sounds like a big thing. This isn't the kind of goal that can ever be "completed", but this is definitely something that can be measured, in such a way that when the new year of 2013 comes along, I can look back on 2012 and say that I have grown. 

A renewal of these verses... a fresh perspective of what they mean to me

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. - Romans 12:2 


Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go. - Joshua 1:9

be bold in the Lord - not caring about how others will see me, being someone who can be trusted to do what she says she will do, not being afraid to follow God