New Year’s Resolutions 2018

Featured Image: ‘2018 Resolutions’ in red lettering on a white background.

It’s that time again! You can see how I did with my 2017 resolutions here: https://rebeccafarren.com/2017-resolutions-review/ I decided to give myself a bit of an easier time this year with 3 very achievable resolutions.

1. Read 30 books- I managed to read 28 books in 2017 after setting myself a goal of 20 and I loved it so I’m going for 30 this year.

2. Do more intersectional activism- I’m a proud champion of intersectionality. When I was a rep at my SU, I made a concerted effort to make my activism intersectional and I learned so much from the diverse group of students I had the privilege of working with. However, since I graduated from uni, I feel like I’ve dropped the ball when it comes to intersectional activism. When I was in Belgium I was aware of everything going on inside the Brussels European disability bubble but felt disconnected from work going on outside of it, especially in the UK. I struggled to know how to make my work there intersectional and didn’t devote enough time to doing so.

Now that I’m back, I want to devote my energies to it again, and live up to the label I’ve given myself. I plan to do this by being even more vocally supportive of oppressed groups I do not identify into, particularly online, by actively making the work of the ENIL Youth Network intersectional and by attending some community organising events that aren’t primarily focused on disability.

3. Just keep swimming- Not actual swimming, I mean just keep going, generally in life! This might seem like a cop-out as that’s what everyone does all the time, right? What I mean is that I have a habit of always taking on loads of new challenges for myself so come the New Year I always have high anxiety over how I’m actually going to do everything! This year I’m moving to Edinburgh to do an internship, I’m the Vice Chair of the ENIL Youth Network and Chair of its Education Working Group, I’ll be representing ENIL on the Council of Europe Advisory Council on Youth and I want to move again to start my Master’s in September! The sheer amount of stuff is pretty daunting! However, I have set myself similarly big challenges in previous years and usually I manage to achieve them, and even when something doesn’t go quite to plan, things get adjusted and I still move forward. So, this is a reminder to trust myself and just keep going as best I can and know that it’s OK if something needs to be dropped or postponed. The world definitely won’t end and I can still get to where I want to be!

So, those are my goals for 2018. I’m excited to get going! I love hearing about others’ resolutions so feel free to let me know yours and good luck!

I’m moving to Edinburgh this month and I’m looking for Personal Assistants. Check out the ad and share it here: https://rebeccafarren.com/2017/12/27/im-recruiting-personal-assistants-in-edinburgh-deadline-extended/