Goodbye 2024 – Hello 2025

Last year was the first time I set goals for the new year, and this year, I want to do the same. So let’s start with the fun part and review last year’s goals:

• More self care in terms of moving my body, working out, focusing on my mental health and regular massages to show my body appreciation.
  ✅️ I definitely reached that goal. I’ve never taken as good care of my body before as I did in 2024.
  
• Taking more time for my hobbies like writing, reading, music, and social media.
  ✅️ Big yes! I finally read more books, wrote a lot, practised a bit with my flute, and did a lot of social media.
  
• Swimming in the sea as often as I can and walk more often to the beach than I did when I lived in Melbourne.
  ❌️✅️ No, and yes to this one. I definitely feel that I could swim more in the sea, but I walked to the beach a lot.
  
• Continue my therapy to keep working on a way to manage my eating disorder
  ✅️ My proudest one: I finally tackled my eating disorder.
  
• Eating less sugar and fat. Originally, I planned an experiment to go at least a month without sugar, but I try not to be too harsh with myself. It’s an old habit I’m trying to get rid of and could also trigger my eating disorder
  ✅️ Also, yes to this one. I ate way healthier than before, although I can still go healthier.
  
• Buy more groceries from a local market instead of supermarkets
  ✅️ Did that.
  
• Taking advantage of all the opportunities life in a city has to offer
  ✅️ Oh yes, I did. Made so many new friends and joined countless activities.
• Learn Spanish
  ✅️ So happy to say yes I did.
  
• Spend less time on my phone and looking into digital screens
  ❌️ This is the only one I wasn’t able to fulfil.
  
• Continue to write my books and finish one of them
  ✅️❌️ I continued to write and I almost finished one.

Actually, I’m really surprised I was able to reach almost all of my goals. This year was full of challenges and surprises, and it’s safe to say that I’ve never learned more about myself than I did in 2024.

2024 Year Review

It started with my arrival in Valencia and building my dream life. I travelled like I never did before, and whilst I have no regrets, I noticed that travelling the way I did also takes a lot of energy. I realised how exhausting it can be to always pack and unpack, never being home. I’m sick of taking a train to the airport and a bus to town. It’s tiring to get up at 4 am and sleep in planes, trains, and buses. It’s stressful to deal with delays and having to worry about catching connections or checkin and checkout times of accommodations.

In 2024, I boarded a plane 18 times, took a long bus ride 18 times, rented a car myself twice, and shared a car ride with others twice. Altogether, I did 22 trips, almost 2 per month. I remember hardly being home and therefore moving in with a friend, which led to even less rest. But I’m glad I did it all because without these experiences, I would have never found out that I truly need a lot of time to myself, and quality goes over quantity when taking trips. Here’s a short summary of my trips and events this year:

• January: Start of my life in Valencia, start of fitboxing, start of learning Spanish, start of yoga, start of my relationship, start of working on myself.
• February: Bus trip to Vilafames and Coves de Sant Josep, start of Fallas season.
• March: My first girls roadtrip to Murcia, Cartagena and Totana, trip to Austria, Fallas season in Valencia, BlaBlaCar to Córdoba and bus trip to Medina Azahara, reading my first book in Spanish.
• April: Bus trip to Sevilla, watching football game in Mestalla stadium, roadtrip with friends to Fanzara, bus trip to watch a football game in Barcelona stadium, getting tickets to see Billie Eilish.
• May: Trip to Mallorca, trip to Malta, and a trip to Gran Canaria with my sister.
• June: Marc Anthony concert in Valencia, start of the European Cup, first visit to a classical concert, celebration of San Juan, Championsburger competition in Mestalla stadium.
• July: Short trip to Austria, bus trip to Granada, watching (and winning) the final of the European Cup, day trips to Almunecar and Altea.
• August: Short trip to visit my best friend and her family in Madrid, bus trip to Granada and experiencing up to 49 degrees, family comes to celebrate my birthday, bus trip to Sevilla.
• September: Bus trip to Granada, trip to visit my sister in Alet-les-bains in France and seeing the famous Carcassonne castle, trip to Denia to visit my childhood summer home.
• October: Bus trip to Granada, trip to visit my bestie in Lisbon, DANA hit Valencia.
• November: Aftermath of DANA, trip to Mallorca.
• December: Moving in together with my boyfriend, trip to Austria, celebrating New Year’s Eve yet again in Valencia.

You see, I’ve experienced a lot this year. The proudest thing I’ve achieved, though, is managing my eating disorder. After years of therapy, I’ve finally had a breakthrough this year, and I haven’t thrown up in over three months. It wasn’t a specific event. Looking back, I think with all the work I did on myself this year, I just stopped thinking about food, eating, and looks in general as much as I did before. It slowly blurred into the background, and although I still thought about doing it a few times, I never did. Especially after a while, my motivational thought was: You’ve already managed three weeks without, do you really want to start again?
So a few weeks became a month and one month became three. I still remember there was a time in spring when I thought to myself: This will accompany me for the rest of my life. And it’s true. It’s like an addiction. Like an alcoholic can’t drink alcohol for the rest of their life or a drug addict can’t take drugs for the rest of their life. But these books helped me accept this fact, and I think that was the first big step to tackling my eating disorder, although I didn’t realise it at the time:

• “Das Kind in dir muss Heimat finden” by Stefanie Stahl (The Child In You: The Breakthrough Method for Bringing Out Your Authentic Self) 
• “El verdadero amor” by Thich Nhat Hanh (A Practice for Awakening the Heart)
• “Jetzt! – Die Kraft der Gegenwart” by Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now)

There are a lot more books like these, and I have a lot more on my list to read. They also helped me in my relationships – whether it’s with family, partner, or friends. In 2024 was the first time, I ended two friendships by actually telling them instead of not replying anymore because I think that every person deserves an explanation whether it hurts them or not. I think “ghosting” someone is always the worse choice. In general, I really got a lot better with listening to my needs and communicating them to the people in my life. I’m so proud that I helped a lot, whether it were strangers who lost a lot in DANA or family members who had to fight a disease, and still made sure I didn’t loose myself as I did in the past. I’m super happy that I surround myself with wonderful people who respect my boundaries. I truly believe that whatever you feel on the inside reflects on the outside. If you don’t treat yourself well, the people around you won’t either. Focusing on yourself is the key to happiness, in my opinion. I would have never been able to be in a healthy relationship or have healthy friendships as well as a healthy communication with my family if I didn’t gain the knowledge I gained from the books and applied them in my life. It’s your choice to complain about others or to take a look at yourself. Work on yourself, and you can work with others.

Besides reading, I’m also very happy that I wrote more and practised with my flute again. Another big thing that I’m really proud of is how fast I learned Spanish, considering I still use two more languages in my daily life. My goal for next year is to take my language skills to the next level and improve to B2 as well as these:

• Travel less but with more quality
• Continue the work on myself
• Eat healthier
• Read more books
• Finish and publish my first book
• Finish at least one course in Udemy
• Swim more in the sea
• Consciously take breaks from digital devices
• Spend less money on going out to save for a big trip

We’ll see if I can achieve all of them!