2017; the year that brought such delights as the unfathomable Brexit, Trump and all the fun that his supporters brought to the world, global warming, police brutality, lots of sexual harassment from the entertainment industry, La La Land not winning the Oscar for Best Picture. In the broader picture, it can be easy to look back on this year as a reason to lose your faith in humanity and pretend it all never happened.

But for me, this year has been amazing. I’ve experienced so many new things and been on some great adventures with the best people. New Years Day inevitably brings about reflection and it’s immense how much the 1st of January 2018 contrasts with 1/1/17. Honestly, I started 2017 heartbroken and ended it completely happy. I’ve learned to be properly independent and just comfortable being by myself which was an interesting but very necessary learning curve. It may sound cheesy and cliché but I think I’ve grown a lot this year.

2017 has also been the year of the Boomerang and the Instagram story. I found that I had all these lovely wee clips from each of the major points of the year and stuck them together and honestly it makes me pretty excited to be able to watch it all back in 2 minutes.

As always there was lots of work and lots of Dance and a bit of uni but for the first time in my life I was in the financial situation where I could actually pay for my own holidays and so off I went to Paris and Belgium and two cheeky London trips to Theatreland. These trips are definitely huge highlights and I’m so glad that I’m in the position to put my hard-earned pennies into fun things like that.
Hannah and I spent an outrageously busy week in sunny Paris in May to mark the end of uni and the start of summer – I discovered the most gorgeous theatre in the Palais Garnier and we were stunned by the Féerie show at the Moulin Rouge.
In July I visited my lovely Marion in Belgium and we had the most chilled few days wandering around adorable Belgian towns and floating down their canals. The Magritte museum is a personal highlight and I obviously had to eat the native delicacies; Belgian waffles, chocolate and fries and we spent the rest of the time with a glass of wine in hand. P.s. Marion, crazily singing How Far I’ll Go from Moana in your pool will always be a fond memory of mine.
In my annual pilgrimage to the West End with mum, we were witness to some of the most incredible theatre. Particular highlights are the powerhouse that is Dreamgirls and the sheer perfection of An American in Paris – both of which I would place high up in my top shows ever list. Just before Christmas we also got to witness the mind-blowing technical artistry of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child which has me convinced that magic is absolutely real.

So what else? I also met Craig Revel Horwood (who called me fab-u-lous darling), competed with the Napier Dance contemporary and hip hop teams, went to see the queen Bianca Del Rio, turned 19, judged at our first ever lip sync battle fundraiser, was nominated for Student Event awards with my uni gals for our Masquerade Ball, danced the night away at the Sports and Societies ball, won the air guitar competition at Aberdeen Rock Challenge (life goal achieved), danced my little butt off in our annual show, was voted in as Napier Dance Vice President, took a few days in the countryside for committee training, worked the whole summer at home with the best furry coworkers, volunteered at Rock Challenge again, Peterhead Academy got 2nd place at the Northern Premier Final, went to the first ever TRNSMT festival in Glasgow to see my loves Biffy Clyro for the 6th time, had a crazy Fringe working three jobs, most excitingly I wrote 20 reviews for Broadway Baby, met my Eurovision hero Graham Norton, danced in a charity show for Sands, reached my first blog anniversary, went Freshers Week mad with the dance committee, performed with Hot Dub Time Machine, reached my one year anniversary working Front of House at the Playhouse, started teaching my own Jazz class, became Contemporary competition team captain, raised a bunch at our Strictly Come Dancing fundraiser, freezed my toes off in the Meadows at 8am for the This Girl Can campaign, took part in Napier Panthers’ So You Think You Can Cheer fundraiser, had my darling Chris up to visit, kicked off my festivities with Friendmas after finishing my exams, carolled by candlelight at midnight mass with Erin as is tradition, successfully cooked our Christmas dinner and had a lovely time with my family, and finally, celebrated the New Year in Edinburgh with a fantastic selection of people.

Big thank you to everyone in my life who was involved in making these memories with me. I’ve had an absolute blast and I can’t wait to get on with 2018 now. Happy New Year!