Hello 2016. Hello New Year’s resolutions. What do I take on this time?, I asked myself when I toasted the old year goodbye. Well, I don’t know if I’m honest. Of course, there’s these things I always put on my mental list for the last odd years:

Work out more.
Keep friendships nice and healthy.
Phone this old friend of mine.
Start a short course at uni.
Get more magazine coverage.
Learn another language.
Safe up some money and visit Japan with the girl.
Learn to make the perfect flat white.
Shoot more film.
Go surfing in the Hebrides.

Nothing too hard to achieve and all entirely within my reach. But let’s face it. Come February and half of the good intentions, plans and ideas go out the window somehow. And that shouldn’t be that of a big deal, really. As much as I love setting new goals and future achievements, life all too often has something else planned for us. There’s enough of the moments you pretty much can’t predict. It’s the things that come to you or not at all. The things that grow on you over time or the surprise that comes around the corner when you least expect it. It starts with the small things you stumble upon by chance and ends with the big choices you have to make – both good and bad.

I never thought I’d work as a translator in the gaming industry for a while. I never thought I’d be doing something exciting every day for the next 3 months until I became part of #the100dayproject. I never imagined to study something that I’ll probably never ever use in my future endeavours. Who knew I’d be working for the biggest arts festival in the world when I started my first semester at university? Me? Certainly not. And even though I fancied the idea, I never even actively planned to move away to a foreign country, study abroad and put down my roots elsewhere. It’s now my fifth year in the UK and counting. As they say, it sometimes turns out differently than you expect. So whatever comes around in my jamboree bag this year, I’ll be ready. Somehow. Until then, I stick to my mental list. Have a great year, everyone!