2016: My year in pictures.

Happy (almost) New Year!!

Thank God the year is finally over. I’m usually a major New Year’s Eve fanatic but I feel like all that buzz is dying out as the years go by.  However at the end of the day I really am looking forward to a fresh start, a clean slate! Not that I don’t believe that each and every new day brings the hope of a new start, because I do, I’m the biggest advocate of this line of thinking, but new year just has that extra little something, y’know?

How was your 2016? Mine wasn’t anything extraordinary tbh, nevertheless, a recap below!

New Year: St Francis Bay

My mom’s friends invited us over to their home in St Francis Bay on the very first day of 2016. Met the most amazing, friendliest, most kind and welcoming people and had the most interesting of conversations. It was the perfect day.

Summer Fest

I didn’t think it was even possible to have so many people in one place at the same time, let alone find myself right in the middle of it all. Maybe it’s just a sign that I ought to go out more 😂😅🙈 Harvest hosts this event every year, this year was my first time attending. Summer Fest was crrraaaazzzyyyyy! I’m just glad my friend Nandie and my sister were there. I had almost decided to skip out on going altogether because anything involving large crowds kinda, sorta freaks me out. In the end it was fun meeting new people and seeing P.E.’s young-ins gathering together to have fun while being in God’s presence.

Meeting new people

On that note, I actually owe a lot to Harvest and POCC for meeting so many new people. People so kind and so loving and welcoming and accepting that they leave me floored every time I get to be in their presence. I feel like the luckiest person in the world to have met all these special people.

Especially everyone at Tribe (Youth). Somewhere between movie nights and shared popcorn, talent shows, tight hugs and prayer, these people became family.

Exploring the city

If there’s anything that I’ve learned this year, its that I don’t know this city as well as I thought I did 😂 despite having lived here most of my life. I’ve had the best of times going out and doing a bit of exploring thanks to my friend Gift. Always have the best of times when with her, be it at home or exploring the city. Also, did I mention she’s an amazing photographer?!? 📷 girl slay *snaps fingers all sassy-like*

Starting university

I feel like this speaks for itself 😂

Youth Got Talent

If you know me personally, you’ll know that my friend Leigh-Ann and I used to upload covers on YouTube. Singing and playing the guitar has always been a great love of mine and sadly I haven’t had much of a chance to share that over the past year. I got lost within the void of university. I did continue playing/singing and recording random impromptu videos on my phone as a way of tracking my progress (or lack of, lol). When the opportunity to do Youth Got Talent a few months ago, came around, I was a little apprehensive at first. I was out of practice, I doubted my abilities. I was scared. But when I got up on that stage, I felt like I was home. My sister and I won ‘Best Duet’ for our cover of Jessie J’s ‘Nobody’s Perfect’. That night meant the world to me.

Started blogging

Why oh why did I start this blog? I’ve always always loved to write. This was just an extension of that. I needed another medium of expression, a safe space offering me something that Twitter, Tumblr or Instagram just could not. There’s always so so much I’m dying to say, but don’t feel comfortable enough doing so on certain platforms.

My sister is actually the one who convinced me to give it a shot (thankyouthankyouthankyou!!!!!), helped me start it and proof reads a lot of my posts. I’ve always wanted to have a blog so badly but it just never seemed like the right time and I was scared of what people would think of it. I couldn’t ignore the urge anymore in the end! Countless afternoons found me writing pages and pages of blog ideas and there were nights I was up just jotting ideas down on my phone memos. Plus I just think it’s so so cool to have a kind of online diary to look back on 🙂 one that can’t get lost or thrown away or get destroyed in a fire or something, ya feel?

Makeup

This probably doesn’t seem like a big deal or much of a deal at all or even worth mentioning but I’m putting it on the list anyway 🙈

My sister and I got our makeup done for the first time ever and I had so much fun. HAVING YOUR MAKEUP DONE FEELS SO GOOD AND THERAPEUTIC, WHY DIDN’T ANYONE TELL ME??!! Hahaha it was so rad. We had it done by the Smashbox makeup artists at Woolworths. They were so lovely and friendly and put my jittery nerves at ease. My pictures don’t do their work any justice but lemme tell ya, they worked wonders.

I voted!!

We had our municipal elections here in South Africa earlier on this year, and I cast my vote for the first time ever! First off, I will admit that it was a result of my mom’s prompting that I registered to and voted at all. I don’t keep up with politics nearly as much as I should. A lot of the time it feels as if I know a lot more about what goes on in other countries than my own. This experience got me doing some research (this is NOT something I wanted to make a wrong or misinformed decision about) and I was actually concerned with the results (more like obsessively checking on an hourly basis) because I made a vote and I wanted to see just how many people felt the same way or differently. I’m so glad my first time went on without a hitch – no long lines, plus the voting station was literally across the road (I LOVE THIS NEIGHBOURHOOD).

But tbh, the biggest highlight of the entire year was this 😂😂😂 don’t judge me, I’m still not over it 😭❤❤❤ #fangirl

That’s it from my side! Got any New Year’s Eve plans? Can I get an invite?? Lol.

May 2017 bring us more wonders such as the likes of Damn Daniel, dabbing, the Mannequin Challenge, Juju on that beat, the You Name It Challenge (beans, greens, potatoes, tomatoes…)

JK!!!!! 😂😂😂😂

Hope that 2017 turns out to be all that you hoped it would be! As my favourite song to jam out to at this time of year since I was 14, says, “It’s a perfect world when you go all the way”! 🎉🎊 Don’t shy away from taking any risks this year.

Much love, friends

See you in the New Year!

x