Hello 2017

I know, I’m more than a week late but Happy New Year! I hope you all had an amazing Christmas & New Year also 2017 started off great for you all. I don’t really know where I’ll be taking this post, I’ll probably just ramble on but I hope you enjoy! 

So, I had a lovely Christmas with my family and enjoyed every minute but to be honest New Year wasn’t too good, we didn’t exactly celebrate it. I don’t want to get into the details about it at the moment as it’s too soon and it’s a very personal and close thing that I don’t feel like sharing right now, I hope you all understand. I didn’t want 2017 to start on a negative note but I believe things will get better, all about those positive vibes, right?! 

2016 went SO fast and I saw a lot of people who were glad it was over, to be honest 2016 was a pretty good year for me. A couple of highlights for me were our holidays to Italy (Lake Garda) which you can read about here and Cyprus which I really enjoyed and I raised just over £2,800 for charity. There were obviously some low points too as I struggled a lot with anxiety and I missed out on a few opportunities but this year I’m determined it’s not going to stop me. I still can’t believe we are now in 2017, I’m excited for this year as in June I’m going to NEW YORK! I look at my countdown app every day that’s how excited I am haha, I went to New York about 3 years ago but this year I’m going back to meet some of my amazing friends I’ve connected with via social media because of our battles with cancer. These people have become my best friends and I can’t wait to meet them! 

As of this month I’m officially 19 months in remission! WOOO! I still can’t believe it’s been that long.. This year my first cancer check up is in March at Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham which is where I had my transplant. Not gonna lie I’m pretty nervous already for this one. Last time I went to see my consultant he hinted that I may get discharged from him and I don’t want to get my hopes up that he’s going to say it as if he doesn’t I’m going to be so disappointed. I’m still under the care of my local hospital which is like my second home haha and I’m guessing I will be there until I reach the 5 year remission mark.

Last year I never set any goals personal or blogging as it was kind of a crazy year with organising my charity night so I knew I would never have hit them but this year I have decided to make myself monthly goals as I find this easier than yearly goals, for me it’s more achievable. I’ll only be sharing my blog/social media goals as my personal goals have now changed so here are my January blog goals: 

▪️ I want to reach 960 followers on Twitter, when I reach a 1000 I think I’m going to do a giveaway! YAY! Twitter has always been my favourite social media platform and I don’t think that’ll ever change.

▪️ I would LOVE to reach 1,700 on Insta but that’s probably not going to happen with the algorithm and everything, so basically my goal is not to lose any followers haha, I do need to start posting more as well!

▪️ Reach 200 likes on my Facebook page! So, if you didn’t know already I have a Facebook page and it’s called Team Samba, I wanted to make more people blood cancer aware so that’s why I set it up and to fundraise for Bloodwise.  

These next few are just general blog goals..

▪️ I want to post and just put more effort into my blog as I know I don’t post a lot and I want to change this. I don’t want to start a schedule as I would worry I wouldn’t be able to stick wih it so I will just be posting when I want too basically, I hope that’s okay with you guys!

▪️ I want to go self hosted.. AHHH! This probably won’t be until the end of the year though. I am going to have a brand new theme and layoutwhich I’m excited about! If anyone has any blog posts about going self hosted please send them my way as I will need them haha

▪️ I want to get more involved in the blogging community in general, for example make some blogging friends and join twitter chats as I have never joined one before as I always miss them, ugh.   

These goals might seem small to some people but I’m happy with them. This year I want to be happier and more confident in myself as I’m still quite self conscious post cancer, and I’m not going let anxiety win. Letting the negativity go and thinking all things positive! If you have a similar post, let me know in the comments as I would love to read them!