Hello Everyone,
I hope you're all well. April has been a busy month for me, filled with deadlines, a dissertation and a day out here and there. Oh and my birthday. Instead of giving you a monthly recap post, I thought I'd talk about how I'm 21 now and will be finishing my BA soon. This post is about 21 things I want to do whilst I enter the real world and have a break from Higher Education. After all I do want to do an MA in the future and maybe a PHD. Still deciding on that one though. Here's my list of 21 things:
1. Work- I know it's difficult for people to get jobs nowadays and it's even harder for visually impaired people. But I want to find some job, give myself some experience. I'll start from the bottom and work my way up, right now I'm not sure what that role will be. But I'll keep trying and applying. Who knows maybe I'll find something that surprises me.
2. Read more books- I haven't read any books for fun in a while, and on the odd occasions that I have I've discovered I'm a REALLY slow reader. But I want to get back into reading, so I'm hoping to read a book or two once a month. I mean I need to keep my mind occupied. Maybe audible is a good idea too, I could join and download audiobooks onto my device and listen to them. Either way I want to read more books that are outside the world of academia. Reading for fun if you will.
3. Start learning to cook meals- I want to get back into cooking, learn to make lunches or dinners that I could take into work the following day. It's a very time consuming task, but I think I need practice and should try making a meal for myself once a week for work. Start slow, but work my way up.
4. Do some creative writing- I enjoy writings blog posts and the reviews I've done for CEN8, but I also want to get back into writing stories on Wattpad. Get my creativity flowing.
5. Excersise more- I'm been trying to exercise a few days a week, so far it's not going well because I keep getting busy. Once everything is done and dusted I'm hoping to get back into it in full swing and do 20 minutes of exercise 5 days a week.
6. Join a VI fitness activity- I've learnt that there's sports for visually impaired people like goalball, VI tennis etc. I think I should try goalball, give it a go. I would be getting exercise but also working out too.
7. Go on a VICTA weekend trip- VICTA is an organisation that has trips and outing for young visually impaired people, families with VI kids and young adults. One thing they do is weekend trips to places like activity centres from time to time for young adults aged 18-29. I want to go to one of those and meet other visually impaired people. Also when you go your expected to do things yourself and get help from other visually impaired people if you need to. I'm not sure if I'm independent enough for that yet, so I'm a bit hesitant right now. I want to change that and actually go to one of these and try it out. If I like it then keep going, if not then that's fine. Don't knock it until you try it.
8. Go on a VICTA activity trip- VICTA also do holiday trips like a surfing outing, or going abroad to Thailand. I really want to go on one of these trips, I think it would be fun and a great experience for me. However I don't feel like I'm ready yet, maybe I just need to stop overthinking it and just go for it. But I want to go to one during my break from higher education. Maybe I'll get better at balancing things and could go to some of these trips whilst doing an MA too?
9. Socialise more- Once I no longer have uni work to do, I'm hoping that means I can meet up friends more, go out and meet up with people more.
10. Learn to sew- this is just something I thought would be a useful skill to have, so I want to learn it. You never know it could come in handy.
11. Learn to knit- Again I feel like this would be a useful skill. Maybe this could be a summer hobby for me?
12. Attend swimming sessions- I had swimming lessons years ago when I was a kid, but I've forgotten to swim. It's gotten to a point where I have trouble floating in the water. So I feel like swimming is an important life skill I need to re-learn, and take some lessons.
13. Write more for other platforms- I enjoy writing on my blog and for CEN8, but there are other websites, where people are able to write articles or blog posts for. Maybe I could mix it up a little with my writing and write for one of them every now and then?
14. Be more independent- I want try and do things on my own, even if it's simple things like cooking or cleaning. I'm hoping to learn how to do it to the point where I can do it without needing help, or someone to check if I've done it right.
15. Be more confident to try new things- I want to break out of my shell, become more willing to do things I normally wouldn't do. Be brave, try different things, not overthink it just do it because I want to.
16. Learn a language for fun- I just feel like it would be fun to learn Japanese, give myself something to do whilst out of higher education. Maybe it'll get to a point where I can pick up what some words mean in the English sub animes I watch?
17. Travel to places outside London with friends- I'm a Londoner, lived here my whole life and I haven't really been to places outside of the capital. So I think it would be nice doing day trips, or a weekend away to other places in the U.K. to see what it's like.
18. Try making vegan dishes during veganuary/ vegan week- I don't think I could ever go fully vegan, but I thought it would be interesting to try vegan food, maybe make some of my own. Perhaps it'll teach me to eat less meat, and make myself heatheir meals from time to time? I know that's not the point of veganism, but I want tor try it out of curiosity and think it'll be an interesting experience. I know I most likely won't become vegan by the end of it, but I feel like I would learn a lot out of it. Maybe I'll even like some the recipes and make them as "healthier" alternatives.
19. Learn to do make up- Although I'm currently learning how to put on make up, I want to get to a point where I can do things like eyeliner, mascara, eyebrows, highlighter, eyeshadow and contouring with ease. To the point where I can follow make up tutorials and try more "glam" stuff for occasions. I know it takes practice, I just have high standards for myself of where I think I should be quite skilled at a certain point.
20. Expand my blog content- By this I mean I want to write about different things on my blog maybe book reviews, anime reviews/ recommendations, reviews of places I've been. I was also thinking of making videos for my blog and uploading them onto a YouTube channel, so they're accessible on mobile phones too. I'm not doing it to be a YouTuber, I just feel like it would be nice content to have for certain posts. What do you think? Yes, no, maybe so?
21. Focus on growing as a person- Lastly I hope that I change as a person. I want some things about my personality to stay the same, but also improve, grow, be wiser, more knowledgeable and get some life experience.
So that's my list of things I want to do. What do you think? Is there anything else I should add? In all honesty I'm not sure what I'll be doing once I get my degree, so I thought I'd just write down a list of things I want to do and see where the real world takes me.
Nanjiba
