new year means new opportunity

thank you for reading :)

Each new year brings the opportunity to change and be "all that you can be". Of course these changes aren't going to happen over night but I think writing them down makes goals a little more accomplishable (is that a word? lol I'm guessing it is being that there is no red squiggly under it lol). Most people will call these New Years Resolutions but I'd like to just call them my goals for the year just because I feel like there is something negative attached to "New Years Resolutions" since people usually fail at keeping their New Years Resolutions. Anyway, I've made a separate page for these goals (on the top menu bar) and I will also link it here.

In addition, I think it's also very important to reflect on goals you've accomplished not to brag but just to pat yourself on the back and reinforce the fact that you can do anything you set your mind to. So in 2011, I accomplished some things I'd like to reflect on.

One of my biggest accomplishments of 2011 was finishing school. After 4 years of undergrad, 1 year off to finish pre-requisites, 2 years of grueling grad school and 1 year of rotations, I was finally done! No more school!! I was talking to one of my preceptors and we were talking about how people always say "Oh you'll miss school when you're out in the real world" and we were both like, "No!" lol. I don't miss school because it's a 24/7 worry. When you leave the work place, you don't have to go home and do homework (unless you want to lol), you're just done. When I used to work at Forever 21 they used to tell us that everyone has baggage  but when you're at work, check your baggage at the door. Well, I've applied the same mentality except the opposite. When I'm home, I check my work baggage at the door and just enjoy my time not thinking about work. Sometimes, that's really difficult since there are days where a customer decides to use you as their personal punching bag but on most days, it works perfectly fine.

Then there was the job search that landed me my first job in the profession and my entrance into the "real world". It was such a weird feeling that working would now be my priority instead of studying. After that, the pressure was on because my job was dependent on me passing my board exams. Thankfully, I was able to pass on the first try and officially became a licensed professional on August 18th, 2011.

The first couple weeks of work were full of sleepless nights. Thoughts of, "Did I lock up properly?" and "Did I do this or that correctly?" kept me up at night but after the initial period, I was able to get the hang of things and build a little more confidence in what I do.

My final and one of the most fulfilling accomplishments of 2011 was paying off a debt in its entirety. I, unfortunately, still have debt from undergrad from UCLA and one of the loans had been in grace since I graduated. However, the grace period would expired in Jan 2012 and interest would start accruing. I decided to pay off the entire debt to avoid paying any interest. I think it was well worth not getting my Chanel bag to pay off that debt lol. I figure, if I save $500 per month for the next 9 months, I'll be able to afford my bag ;) (or I just might use it to pay off my other loans lol). I guess we'll see in a year what happened!

I hope that everyone gets a little push from this post to make 2012 the best year possible! I mean the world could be dunzo by the end of the year so enjoy! lol I hope that you guys found this post useful and will start your own goals lists!

Thanks for reading and Happy Hump Day!