Resolutions

I know, I know, I hate resolutions. I am one of those people who goes “NO ONE should make resolutions because no one ever keeps them!” and then I go ahead and make them. However, if I word them to be more like general goals that I am setting that just happen to be at the start of a new year, then maybe I will actually stick to them. Maybe that’s why I waited for the month of January to be almost over before making this post.

It has come to my attention that I have lived in Scotland for 2 and 1/2 months and haven’t really done any exploring. Yes, I was looking for a job, and then an apartment, and then it was the holidays and I went down to Sheffield. Excuses, excuses. So, I have decided that I am definitely going to explore a little bit more. This involves planning and actually knowing where to go on the east coast of Scotland. There really are probably loads of places to go I just don’t really know any of them. Anyway, so next week I am dragging the boy with the car (aka my boyfriend) to Dundee and St. Andrews. For some reason for years before I even came to Scotland I had some strange obsession with St. Andrews and wanted to go to university there. And it didn’t even have anything to do with Prince William. So now that I am finally going it seems so odd that I live so close and haven’t been yet. You forget to be a tourist sometimes when you live in a place. When I went to Ireland last may (with Maureen, Jen and Nikita—shout out!) we packed in so much in two weeks my head was spinning—and it was amazing. But here I was so focused (and rightly so) on finding a job that I forgot I came here because it was Scotland. Some of the things I have been doing here on a routine basis are things that I could do in Toronto, only less convenient. I kind of forgot in my flurry of activity that I came to see the country, explore the traditions and appreciate life here. Now, my resolution is that I am determined to remember that I do live in Scotland and I need to value that. In the end it is not so much a resolution that I will struggle to keep as it is a way of life I should remember. Not too hard that.
Next year I’ll try giving up alcohol. Ha.