Starting the Year Off Strong with 2024 New Year’s Goals
Merry Christmas and happy holidays from my family to yours! I hope you all had a lovely day! We had a very quiet day at home. It was the first Christmas in fourteen years where we did not have our dog, Lolly, with us. For those that don’t know, we put our dog to sleep right after Thanksgiving. It’s been an adjustment to learn how to do life without her since she has been in our family since my sister and I were seven! Christmas was a rather bittersweet day, but we still enjoyed ourselves. We miss Lolly terribly but are so glad she is no longer in pain!
2023 was an unbelievably good year for me. And I’m honestly kind of sad to see it go! However, I am very excited to see what lies ahead in 2024! This past week I have been thinking a lot about where I want this year to go, so I figured I would share some of my 2024 new year’s goals with you, and give a bit of recap of our Christmas.
Christmas 2023 Recap
On Christmas Eve we went to a cousins who lives a few miles from our house for some yummy food. We were able to see some extended family that we don’t see very often, despite living so close! The same thing happened Christmas night where we went to a different cousins house, also in town. There was a pretty big group of us who went this night, about 26 people were there. It was chaotic at times but it was still really nice to see everyone. Both nights were just a lot of hanging out and chatting!
On Christmas night, we got to have some really nice puppy snuggles. Our cousins had four dogs at their house, all who were really sweet. One of the dogs was very shy but warmed up to me at the end of the night, so much so that she curled up with me on the couch (see the picture above!). Even after everyone had left, we stayed chatting with our cousins and snuggling with their dogs. This was definitely my favorite part of the Christmas festivities.
It was great to have some puppy snuggles. And while it did give me a bit of a puppy fix, it was very hard to come home to an empty house without Lolly to come home to. It was a bit hard to see their dogs knowing we no longer had a dog at home to snuggle with everyday.
Nonverbal Learning Disability (NLD) Meltdown
The other night I had a bit of an “NLD meltdown.” I don’t have them very often anymore, but this was the first time that this had happened without Lolly by my side to ground me. There were a lot of things that contributed to this “NLD meltdown,” but part of it I think was seeing our cousins dogs and not having our own dog to come home to. I have come a really long way and don’t have nearly as many of these meltdowns as I used to. I’m not sure if I’ll share much more about this one, but just know that they can come out of nowhere, and sometimes I know what the trigger is and sometimes I don’t. It’s one of my least favorite things about life with NLD; that and the my social struggles 🙂
We had a very quiet and slow Christmas morning. I was the last to wake up around 9:30. This NEVER happens! Usually my sister wakes up after me. We chilled in the kitchen for a bit while my mom worked to get to a stopping place on the Christmas Yule Log cake, one of our favorite traditions! We then went into the living room to open our stockings and presents.
Favorite Gifts from This Christmas
Here are some of my favorite gifts that I received this year:
- New kindle: My old one was 7 years old and really starting to slow down and become annoying!
- Pom Pom London Bag: my mom bought one for herself and I absolutely fell in love with it, so I put it on my Christmas list and she bought the same one for me! Mine is in the color slate blue and I love it! It also comes with two free straps!
- Ocoopa Handwarmers: I tend to run pretty cold, especially my hands. So my mom bought me some hand warmers. They come in a pack of two and are the perfect size to fit in your pocket. I can’t wait to really try them out when it gets colder! I also love that they heat up pretty much instantly. They are rechargeable and can also charge your phone!
- SymphonyBand headband: This is a headband with built in headphones. It is super comfortable and has pretty decent sound quality! It’s great to sleep in (it has a timer where it can turn off after two hours). I found this off of an Instagram ad so of course I had to put it on my Christmas list!
- Bearaby Tree Napper Weighted Blanket: A few years ago my mom had bought my sister and I weighted blankets. However, they weren’t great quality and the stuff inside would move around. My sister found a better quality one that keeps all the “weight” in the right place. I can already tell that it is going to be a much better weighted blanket than the last one was! This was our big Christmas gift this year.
Highlights from 2023
2023 was such a great year! A lot of my really good memories came from this year. Here are just a few of my highlights:
- In April, I went to Orlando for two events: one with PwC and the other was for DECA’s international competition
- I was inducted into Sigma Beta Delta, a business honor society
- I managed to keep my sanity despite taking 19 credits (7 classes) this semester 🙂
- I met my current suite mates who are the best of the best – I seriously don’t know how I survived without them!
- There were many beach walks!
- I dog sat for our friend’s dog, Momo, who is the sweetest thing ever!
- I turned 21 in April
- I went to several college parties with my suitemates, something I never thought I would be caught dead doing haha
- I secured my semester long internship for the spring semester of 2024
- I went back to work as a bank teller and continued making friendships and building relationships with people at the bank
- There were lots of snuggles and quality time with Lolly
- We had a very bittersweet last day with Lolly doing all of her favorite things: spoiling her with treats, lots of hugs and kisses, and a beach walk
- I forced myself to make small talk and reach out to acquaintances to work on building more friendships
Things I’m Looking Forward to in 2024
There are so many things I am looking forward to in this new year. Here are just a few:
- Entering my last year of college
- Completing my semester long-internship
- Going to Texas for DECA’s international competition
- A true family vacation: because of Lolly we have never been able to travel far because we hated leaving her, so I’m hoping that changes this year!
- Finding a job for after college
- Taking this blog to the next level: I have so many dreams of where I want this to go!
- Continuing to improve upon myself and strengthen some of my weaker areas (i.e. social skills)
- Continue to build the friendships I have now and work to find new friends
- Finding more time for myself to discover who I am and who I want to be as a person
2024 New Year’s Goals
I have many goals for myself for this year. Here are a few of my 2024 new year’s goals:
- Cut down sugar intake
- Walk 5,000 steps a day (I wanted to make a goal that I felt was a challenge but doable. 10,000 steps felt like too much, so I want to start small and build up!)
- Journal 3 times a week
- Meditate 5 times a week
- Take 10 minutes for myself each day (this can look like anything I may want!)
- Work on meal prepping for each week
- Learn to cook new meals
- Take a family vacation
- Connect with friends on a regular basis (something I really have to work hard at and that does not come naturally to me because of my nonverbal learning disability (NLD))
- Secure a job for after graduation
- Reflect periodically, throughout the year such as at the end of each quarter
Endnote
These goals are my starting place for trying to really discover who I am. They are helping to point me in the right direction for where I want to go. I also realize that I may not achieve each and every one of these goals. And that is okay. It doesn’t haven’t to be perfect. I’m striving for progress, not perfection. And so should you!
This was definitely a blog post on the longer side. If you stuck around for the whole thing, thank you! I appreciate you and am so grateful that you are here. I would love to know how your 2023 went and what some of your 2024 new year’s goals might be. Come hang with my over on Instagram and let me know!