2016 In Words || A Year In Retrospect.

I’ve been stalling writing this post because it usually requires a lot of introspection which I’ve honestly been too tired lately to afford. But this year in review has slowly become a ritual that just has to be kept regardless, so I’m here to share a bit of my year in retrospect and how 2016 looked like for me.

This year started out on a low note for me, I remember blogging about that here, but it definitely leveled out with time. 2016 was a year of major growth for me – I like to call it my first real year of this adulting thing and because it’s easy to be all over the place with recaps. I’ve decided to break it down into subheadings to make it easier to follow.

I’m starting with this one because this was one area that reflected growth for me. I think 2016 was the year my parents finally realized that I just might be a grown up after all and let me see more of life for myself. You know how with African parents, you can never really be old enough but this year was different! I traveled to a few new places on my own (without family) and that was really so exciting for me.
I blogged all about the three trips I made this year and you can read them below :

• Post cards from Atlanta
• Exploring Cotonou with new friends. 
• Spending three days in the Buj

Although, I didn’t quite achieve all that I set out to for this year. Like that tote bag collection I talked about here or the workshops I mentioned here, I’m not going to beat myself up about it.
On the plus side, I finally took the bold step and launched my blog consultation services and came through with the 2017 blog planner as well!

I remember mentioning in my 2015 recap how sad I was that I didn’t get a job that year. I finally did in 2016! Even though, it’s been really tough living this med life, it is something that just has to happen for me to be able to move on with life and I’m super glad that it worked out for me finally this year.

This year, I made more of an effort to grow my relationship with God and although I’m not fully there yet, I’m happy that I took some steps, because Major key! I made some surprising friendships and I also realized that even though I might have good intentions, a good heart and all that, maybe I really ain’t shit when it comes to friendships and I think I’ve made peace with that.
I finally took the first step to learning how to sew this year, I blogged about the sewing workshop i attended here and I also learnt how to drive this year as well.
I didn’t do anything drastic with my hair this year despite all my talk about wanting to colour it or go natural but hey! I got close to being a naturalista which was so cool for me as I’ve been wanting to see what I’ll look like with a Fro. Check that out HERE

Some of my favourite moments this year would definitely be :

• Bonding with new friends in a new country.
• Getting a birthday surprise for the first time ever!.
• Getting an award for my blog!

One thing I tried to do this year was an end of the month recap and I’m happy I made that decision because reading back and seeing how I did each month has got me feeling some type of way – good way though.

I’ll definitely look back at 2016 as one of the good years. This new year I plan to work even more on my relationship with God, start tithing regularly, finally learn this makeup game thing, finish up learning to sew, make more money and save more! Travel a bit more too and generally slay.

It’s almost new year already so here’s to wishing you all a wonderful new year filled with love and light.

P.S – I still have two more posts from 2016 to put up so please bear with me!