Here's to January, the coldest, largest and most heartless child the universe ever created.

I didn't make any resolutions this year because I've concluded I'm terrible at keeping them. This year, I have two large goals and no resolutions (if that makes sense to you). I realized it's easier to work towards a few goals than having multiple resolutions. Journaling is a promise I've made and it's going great so far with daily little entries which I'll be summarizing every month for the whole year.

I started the year with planning and outlining both personal and career goals.The most important part was the need to manage my spending and budget which hasn't been going great if I'm being honest but it's just january and I take a while to adjust based on past experiences. I have a financially heavy goal so I'm sure my sense of achievement should be able to trump my terrible spending habits. The leisure plan for the year is to read more books and take up a new hobby (knitting 😎) to add to my vast collection of popular and unpopular hobbies. I managed to read 17 books last year and I want to read more this year. I will not give myself a number because that makes it a chore and that equals procrastination in my brain.

The 14th of january (World's DeeDee's day 😌) was hot and cold but It was quiet and I haven't had a quiet birthday in a while. I opted to spend it in bed and at home because why not? Birthdays have always been weird to me as I have never bothered about announcing it or making a whole thing out of it but in a way, it's the social convention, so you do it and since you're human, you enjoy a bit of it regardless of how tiring it may be. Thankfully I have friends that don't like parties, birds of a feather.

Talking about friends, January was the month for fanning the flames of friendship. Friendship is a beautiful, though fragile thing and it takes emotional maturity to keep it going. I've been lucky with my choice of friends to a certain degree. This month we took a whole day for a mixture of adult and childish experiences to pump up the happiness that the world seems to be lacking these days.

Maybe because January is a cold reality as opposed to the cold holiday December is. It breeds longing, It's odd how longing takes a hold of you at odd times and reality hits like a brick. I've always believed nostalgia isn't stored in memories but in certain smells and tastes, in familiar layouts and shapes, in those bushes and shrubs with nameless flowers that marked the streets of your memories and in the random incorrect names given to fruits we enjoyed just because our grandparents told us they were edible. Sometimes longing comes without a single trigger, like remembering a flower that stopped being a constant in your life 4 years ago.

So in conclusion, Planning, Birthday, Nostalgia and catching up with friends equals DeeDee's January and I'm starting to realize why I journal annually because how can the recap of my month be this short 😂. I lead a very mundane but comfortable life, so there's barely anything interesting to update monthly but it's a promise and I'll try to keep it moving no matter how short the paragraphs may be.

Stay tuned for February (She said trying to sound cool).