Good-bye 2011

There is currently 8 hours left in the year 2011... I've been reading lots of bloggers' end-of-the-year/ year-in-review posts, so here is mine. 

When I started thinking back on this year, I realized that I was able to do some pretty new and exciting things, the biggest of which was my trip to Italy. It was the first time I'd left the continent or even been on a plane. I was re-reading my posts from the trip, and looking back I can say that it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life! 

I also had other fun little trips and adventures, like visiting Georgia for a weekend and going to Michigan for the first time. Plus, college in general has been pretty great - I've done well academically this year, taken some pretty awesome classes, and had so much fun with my friends. But to say this year has been really good wouldn't really be true - it's been a very up-and-down year for me. I don't want to be ungrateful because the good times were really good, but the low points were very low too. It's not really stuff that I talk about on here... I'll just say I get rather discouraged about things sometimes. 

I read this quotation yesterday by Hal Borland: ‎"Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us."


I guess that's true... nothing is going to magically change just because we decided a new year would begin on January 1. I think I have learned things though this year, and I am trying to make changes to have a better year this year. 
So here are some things I hope to achieve in 2012:


- Travel: I've been itching to travel somewhere lately. If I could, I'd love to go back to Europe, but that won't be happening for a while :( At least I am going to be visiting at least two states I've never been to in the next couple of months! Hopefully I will get to do even more traveling. 
- Write: My poetry class forced me to write poems, which was great. Now I need to keep up the work and keep writing. I'd love to get something published, but even if I don't yet, I want to keep reading and  writing. 
-Maintain/lose weight: In the past year and a half, I have at least 15 pounds. At very least, I want to maintain my current weight, but I'd love to lose another 5 or 10. I have been doing well exercising over this break from school, but the tricky part is keeping it up when I get busy. I want to continue eating healthy and find new healthy recipes to try :) 
-Blog: I haven't done as much with this blog as I could. I really want to blog more regularly, and add more focus/creativity.