January has come and gone, and the New Year and the time for new year resolutions has also come and gone. Most people will be doing their best to keep to their New Year's Resolutions, but personally I think it's best to have goals that you can start achieving at any time of the year because, let's be real, how many of us actually stick to all of our resolutions if they're made on a whim?

I was asked in late November/December at my internship what my New Years resolution was and all I could come up with was 'Be more active'. But it wasn't something that wasn't important to me before hand, nor is it something that I've managed to fully stick to (this heat is pretty demotivating). But since then I've worked out more or less what I want to do this year - and the person I want to become.

Originally I took this for my internship with RAW, but hey who says I can't use it here and give credits?

It's an interesting feeling going through your Facebook timeline from 2009 (Year 7, actual 12vie days) and realising how immature you were. That might sound obvious, but all I seemed to complain about was getting homework, being unable to do something called 'euler' for school and struggling to finish my assignments.

I've gone through and removed a lot from my timeline and it's just made me realised how much I've grown up and changed over the last seven years. It's funny to me to go through all those posts and status, but not so great when other people find them, especially since my Yellow Shirts Double Squad is so good at bumping posts and roasting people. It's also interesting since the way I used to use status updates is like Twitter today. Today it feels odd to be writing statuses about your life - Facebook is kept for sharing photos and sharing the big moments in your life. It makes sense that platforms like Snapchat and Twitter have popped up to fill that void.

But back to the point.

As one of my squad members for Yellow Shirts said:


And that's when I realised I'm driven by the same thing.

No not literally. | Photo by James Benning.

It's why I give so much time and energy to programs like Revue and Ruse Musical and hopefully Yellow Shirts and why I love being able to help younger students, even if it's just giving advice. Or friends too. And last year was the year that I needed to find my feet again, and although I'm disappointed that I don't get to be a Peer Mentor this year, I now know I wasn't ready when I did my interview. Same with Law Revue Producer. But at least I'll get help some first years out at BSOC Camp as a leader, and I can crash plenty of peer mentoring sessions. And most of the time you're actually quite unaware of how much you're helping someone.

But for now, I hope to become a little less serious all the time (it's working I think), a little more self-aware and better at listening. Hopefully I'll get better at bantering too, and I'll do things that I'm proud to look back on and realise how much they shaped me as a person. And although this sounds narcissistic, I hope I become a good role model too.

This was taken at the Meriton Apartments on Kent St when I stayed there a few weeks ago. It was a good night, and a really good experience with great people.

I'm so lucky to have had so many opportunities to grow as a person, to experience new things and to meet all these wonderful and diverse people, and I want to thank them all so much. But I know it's not possible. All I can do is pay it forward, and I hope you do too.

Feel free to drop me a question/comment if you need help with anything friends!

With love, Sarah x

PS: Andrew here's your shout out. ^_^