☆ 2014; in review

I had a lot of fun writing this post. At the beginning of the year, I knew 2014 would be an important year for me, with lots of changes and new paths being followed, but I couldn't have imagined how fun and exciting and sad 365 days could be.
I hope you enjoy reading through this very brief summary of what has happened to me in the past 12 months. I had a really fun time writing this and going through all of my photos - I place my hope in God that He will guide me through 2015 as faithfully as He has done for me in 2014.

january;

• final year at University - handed in my 103-page project, in which I spelt my project tutor's name wrong in the acknowledgements.....
• birthday celebrations, involving polaroids, good food, sometimes long island cocktails, family and the girls
• sushi dates with my favourite greedy bear

february;

• celebrating my favourite Kenyan's birthday in Bristol, even though the weather was super pants and wet
• stressing about how the weather was causing issues with travel to London because otherwise I wouldn't be able to see my queen taylor swift live
• but God being gracious and letting me get to London safe and sound so that I could cross "seeing Taylor Swift" off my bucket list 
• getting the 6am train back to Bath the day after taytay and making my 10am lecture AND staying for the 2 hour APS lecture afterward
• going to my first and final pharmacy ball and taking endless amounts of photos and selfies with friends, tutees and even the odd lecturer

march

• birthday celebrations, where although I didn't celebrate as outrageously as I thought I would, I spent my time with my most nearest and dearest and was able to realise just how loved and appreciated I am (plus, I had all of my pharmacokinetics class sing happy birthday to me, which was both mortifyingly embarrassing, but also made me want to cry with happiness)

april;

• my final lecture in my most favourite lecture hall (yes, I had a favourite lecture hall). I remember the hour beforehand, me and the rest of the girls all met for coffee and cake and the things we talked about and the memories we discussed and how graduation still seemed so far away at the time...time stands still for nobody~
• sending plentiful amount of revision-themed snapchats. yes, that really was a thing.

may;

• the most stressful period of my life thus far: 3 exams in week 1 and 2 exams in week 2. Written down like that, it didn't seem like much, but never have I regretted reducing an apixaban dosage so much, and this was the closest I came to pulling an all-nighter during my time at University
• but with great stress came great partying and I will never ever forget leaving my last exam at 7:30pm on Friday to be greeted by my best friends, with cider and beer in hand, with lots of clapping and whooping and smiles, and the next few days, which consisted of Bridge, lots and lots of shots and partying all of my exam stress away
• other ways I spent my time post-exam included lots of netflix and House and films in bed with my housemates, but also, roller blading in the middle of bath at midnight, singing to the radio that was playing on the car park pay machines and then quickly being told that "girls, it's time to go home now"
• a day trip to Oxford to go and see "the thing" and expand our cultural knowledge. but really, the most fun I had that day was the train ride home and trying to name all the countries in the world/all of the drugs that began with a specific letter

june;

• summer ball! technically this was on the last day of May, but it ran on into June. my favourite bee made it all the way to Bath to come with me as my date and whilst it was nowhere near as warm as I thought it would be, I had great fun with my date and my best friends (although I was definitely home by about 1am, which I didn't mind since I was home with my babe)
• the holiday of the year that I had been SO looking forward to since exams started - hong kong with my girls! an extremely fun and busy-packed 2 weeks, although there were some ups and downs (e.g. the fact I couldn't keep anything that I ate down, having a hypoglycaemic attack whilst cycling....), I look back on it with absolutely great fondness and will never forget the fun times I had 
• and as a kind of extra to the holiday, I can remember so clearly the knot I had in my stomach as I flew home, because I knew that once we landed, we would be finding out whether we would be graduating this summer. I remember checking my phone incessantly and religiously as soon as we landed, remember picking up our luggage, walking to the coach station and getting the email through. I whispered to Miri, opened it up with her, saw her name under the first class degrees list......and then I saw my name and I shrieked with surprise and happiness because no way did I believe that I had achieved a first class degree. That is just one of many moments that I will never ever forget from 2014. 

july;

• graduation: blessed to have wonderfully hot weather and not to fall on my face when my name got called.
• my second amazing holiday of the year with my little sister, filled with less bad things and more foodie moments
• my first time in South Korea, courtesy of my amazing uncle and his fiancee. Although we only went for 3 days, it was enough to give me a taste and leave me with a desire to return one day (plus, I didn't get to go to a hello kitty cafe or see the 3D art museum, so really, I HAVE to go back soon). 
• and finally, the last Monday of July was the first day of my first proper real-life job as a pre-registration pharmacist at Kent and Canterbury hospital...

august;

• my little sister turns 18 and I can't believe I've been blessed with 18 years of friendship and love from this little adult. 
• I have my first meet-up with my Uni friends as "adults of the working world". We celebrate with tea, food and drinks (in the sophisticated manner)

september;

• settling into work and I go out for dinner with work people one Friday, where we bond over chinese food, ridiculously funny stories and "happy birthday" in Chinese. 
• shopping and dining in London with my Uni friends, because we have to do something with our new monthly income

october;

• it's my favourite cypriot's birthday! so we celebrate as we always do - with good food, fine wine and gossip sessions over tea
• work is taking over my life and so, my social life is suffering horrendously and I am increasingly becoming more and more of a cat lady

november;

• the collage describes my life so much: I'm not so sure I want to be an adult anymore, my cat obsession is really getting out of hand, and we took a failed pre-reg selfie with the shard...

december;

• the joy of christmas reignites my social life, starting with my best friend's birthday (in which I had a hideous amount of drama associated with a dress I ordered from ASOS), my first night out in London with the girls, ice skating at the natural history museum 
• christmas work party = bowling = reaffirming that I really do have the best colleagues ever
• spending time with my family and church family meant I ate probably ate more food than I did in June when I was in HK (I'm trying to be funny about my health now, I don't think it's really working)
• ending my year at home, with my parents and sister, playing chinese checkers with a cup of tea after eating a roast dinner. hello 2015, you have a hell of a year to live up too.