What Sophie Said

Last year, I made a simple and broad New Year’s resolution, inspired by a blogger I follow who had used it the year before. The resolution was to ‘do more of what makes me happy, and less of what doesn’t’. What I loved about this was that it gave me the power to decide what to do, and how to conduct myself. It made me think before accepting things I was unsure about. It made me value the times I loved, and arrange more of them. And it’s not a resolution you can ‘fail’. If you say you’ll go to the gym a certain number of times a week, for example, and then one week you don’t, you’ve ‘failed’. With my resolution, it was ok to have a bad day, or week, or even period of weeks. You could still get back on track. Because life isn’t always plain sailing, and a year is a long time. But I think this resolution was the perfect continuation of what I had started the year before: starting to make decisions with my happiness and wellbeing in mind. It’s n...

For me, September has always felt like more of a ‘New Year’ than January, probably because of the way the academic years were arranged at school and university. So with that in mind, tomorrow is day number one of a new year. I’m in a very, very different place to where I was this time last year. I’m not going to ramble on, but I want to highlight a couple of things so I can look back at it this time next year. I’m returning to this lovely little blog space, having fallen out of love with it for a while when my head was feeling muddled by a lot of things. I’m making a lot of plans work-wise, looking ahead and pushing myself. I’m finally learning to drive, and with my theory done I just need to get the practical test out of the way. I’m no longer in the relationship I was in this time last year. It had lasted for five and a half years, but you’re a very different person when you’re 16 compared to when you’re 22, and for this place I’m in now, certain things wer...

The first few days of a new year allow time to reflect on the year that has just gone by, and 2013 was certainly a busy one for me. It can be useful to look back at what you’ve achieved in that chunk of time, to put everything in perspective and be proud of yourself for what you’ve accomplished. A huge moment of 2013, for me, was graduating from the University of York. After three years of ups and downs, and a lot of hard work, I got the 2:1 I had been aiming for, and could celebrate with my friends the fact that we had done it: we had our degrees. A few months later, in September, I began my role as marketing executive at my dad’s market research company, where I am preparing to study for my Professional Certificate in Marketing. I feel so fortunate to be in a position where I am in the industry I want to be in, making valuable connections, and earning a real salary so soon after finishing university. With the end of university came the sad day that Andy and...