My 2018.... remembering this year for all the right and wrong reasons.

Now this is a different blog post, it's not make-up or clothing related.

This year has been so mad for me and I just thought it would be nice to jot some key events and highlights down to reflect ahead of the new year.

First let's start off with the positives. I've made soo many incredible memories in 2018....... 

First off would just like to mention all of the hilarious nights out I've had over the past year. There's been so many good ones, celebrating friend's 21st birthdays and there were so many pictures, I just couldn't choose a few! 

Holidays

At the beginning of the year, my boyfriend celebrated his 21st birthday and my gift to him was flights and a hotel for us to go to Madrid in March. It was our first holiday together, Madrid is a gorgeous city and we loved it.

We went and saw the Royal Palace, went to the home of Real Madrid aka the Bernabeu stadium, which of course my boyfriend loved. I actually quite liked that too, I'd never been on a tour of a football stadium before so it was actually quite interesting and not as bad as I thought! The Spanish capital is lovely and I'd recommend it to anyone. 

We went on another little holiday to Prague at the end of June, which was also great. Prague is such a beautiful city and an amazing city break. The sights are beautiful and it's really cheap for beer! We even put a little lock on the love lock bridge which is kind of cringe but cute at the same time. We visited the John Lennon Wall and the Old Town Square etc and it was a lovely trip.

The time we went to Prague was also when the World Cup was on so everyone was a bit football crazy. To be fair, even though I'm not the biggest football fan, I really loved the World Cup this year. The thought of it 'coming home' actually seemed so real and the atmosphere, especially in England, when we were experiencing a very rare 30 degree summer, was unreal.

Graduation Day 

Probably the biggest thing to happen for me this year has been graduating university. Now, most people who knew me back in sixth form probably knows I wasn't having the best time ever, wasn't in the right head space and was definitely against going to university. I don't really know what it was that changed my mind but towards the back end of Year 13, I applied on UCAS and that was that. I'm so glad I went to university because all in all, I think it's made me more confident and brought me out of my shell. I graduated in July with a 2:1 in Journalism and it's my biggest achievement so far. 

My 21st birthday and the rest of the year....

My own birthday was 29th August and it was possibly one of my favourite birthdays I have had yet. Everything from waking up to my boyfriend making me breakfast in to bed, to going for food with my family and then having a night out with all my friends and all of the thoughtful presents in between, I loved it so much. A few nights before my actual birthday, I went on a 'Grease' themed night out with my cousins, aunties and Mam and they were all pink ladies and I was Sandy and that was so much fun too! 

Two days after my birthday, me and my boyfriend celebrated our one year anniversary which I just thought I'd mention because it was quite cute hehe. We went for food and drinks and it was just really lovely to celebrate that first milestone in our relationship.  

Now this takes us up until September and up until this point, I probably would have said 2018 was one of my favourite years of my life. As some people may know, unfortunately my Grandma passed away on September 28th after being diagnosed with cancer in July. 

Although we were told in July that her condition was terminal, nothing could or would have prepared me for that morning when I found out she had passed. It all happened so fast, we first got told we'd still have another year or so with her, but her condition detriorated so much in the month of September that unfortunately we lost her earlier than expected. 

It's the first time I've ever really lost a loved one as my Grandad died when I was just 2 years old. Nothing in the world prepares you for losing someone you love. You don't get taught in school how to deal with grief and I don't think it's the type of thing you can really give advice on because everyone deals with it differently. All I know is that the latter half of my 2018 has been a struggle, in particularly that first month after she passed. Of course, it gets easier day by day but I still think about her all the time. 

If losing her has taught me anything, it's that you shouldn't take anyone or anything for granted. My Grandma was a lovely, very healthy woman who didn't deserve the end of life she got from that awful disease. If you had of said to me last Christmas that she wouldn't be with us this year, I wouldn't have believed you. Anything can happen at any time, so please don't ever take your loved ones for granted.

This first Christmas without her this year was a weird one. It was sad not having her eating Christmas dinner with us but we still had a lovely day, filled with lots of laughter and food.

Christmas isn't all about the presents, it's about who you have with you. My 'main' present this year was a locket with one of my Grandma and Grandad's wedding photos inside. Something I'll treasure for the rest of my life.

I may have had my first experience with grief this year and had many downs, but I've also had some of my best ups. 2018 has definitely been a definitive year for me as 21 year old woman...I've learnt to become stronger and happier. I'm so looking forward to see what 2019 has in store for me, hopefully it will bring nothing but health and happiness to me and my loved ones. My family and I have just moved house and already got a trip booked - to Rome with my boyfriend in Feb, so hopefully that's a sign for good things to come.

See you all in 2019.