A whole new tree

There's something about a new academic year which pushes children, students, parents and just general people around the world into a 'new leaf' phase. Every single year, without exception, I start September with a mad desire to better myself; to work harder (which lasts about a week before I am once again snowed under by reading and deadlines), to watch less TV (until I remember that Bake Off AND Downton are on in September, and this year there's An Extra Slice as well…what human being could stand up to these temptations?) and to do more exercise (I can't even come up with an explanation for that one, it just never happens). What I'm really expecting each year is that by some miracle I will have a personality transplant, and become a hard-working, incredibly productive girl who doesn't even know what the word 'procrastination' means. I don't just want to turn over a new leaf, I want to be a whole new tree.

You would think we would learn our lessons after a while; if we didn't stick to our resolutions last year, we almost certainly won't this year either, but no. Instead of doing the sensible thing this year and cutting down on my list of ways to better myself, I have added another one to the ever-growing group.

To actually write a regular blog.

Over the last 6 months (otherwise known as half a year) since I last posted, I have been reading a plethora of other blogs and trying to answer that age-old question, 'what makes these blogs good, and mine…let's just say, a bit less good?'. The answer, I have come to realise, is not some complicated formula or ingenious layout, but simply that they write regularly, and they write about what they know. In that light, I am not only going to try and post on my blog more than once between now and Christmas 2020, but also slim down what I actually write about. At the tender age of 20 (I keep telling people I'm almost 21 to make myself sound older, but my birthday is in reality still over 4 months away) I can't pretend to have much experience of anything really, but the two things I can at least make a go of trying to write about are:

1) being a student

2) being a Christian

So my blog is going to try and describe the ups, the downs, and the mundane in-betweens that occur in the life of a university student who is trying to get a good degree, have fun, and follow Jesus. Often it will be me trying to work out how these three things go together, and how I can get as much out of it #studentlife as I can, whilst still living the 'life to the full' that Jesus promises (John 10:10). But hopefully, I will occasionally be able to share little revelations about how life as a Christian and life as a student can work together, and how living as one of these doesn't limit me also living as the other, but actually enhances it.

So this year, my plan is not only for my blog to become a 'whole new tree', but for me to follow its example and also change for the better…or if all else fails, at least it will give me something else to distract me from my essays.