Anyone who knows me will have read this title and said ‘this is the most Lauren thing she possibly could have written’, and they are absolutely right. I am a complete and utter list enthusiast and I am not one bit ashamed of it, because for me it works. I stress a lot, and I always find that making lists really helps, whether it’s for something big like assignments and deadlines or something mundane like things I need to buy at the supermarket.
2017 has undoubtedly been one of the biggest years of my life, and for many reasons both the best and the worst. For both your sake and mine, I’m going to focus on the best bits here.
So here it is, the best moments of a small twenty year old’s 2017 in list form. I guess it’s a bit like my own highlights reel. They’re also kind of in order as I compiled this list by going through my journal.
- Starting the year in true Lauren style by getting shouted at for trying to crowd surf to a High school Musical song – thank you to all my friends who were more than willing to catch me
- Annual girls fajita night still going strong
- Eating good soups
- Visiting Amsterdam – leaving a friend on the tram, finding the coolest food hall, going on a canal cruise, riding a tandem, going to the sex museum and getting an unavoidable photo by the Amsterdam sign
- Getting brushed cotton bed sheets
- Discovering the 8pm reduced food aisle at Tesco in Aberdeen, resulting in some epic bargains and almost a few injuries
- Going to Bingo – we will win one day I’m sure
- GETTING AN INTERNSHIP IN FREAKIN PARIS – can you tell this was a highlight of highlights
- Receiving surprise flowers
- Edinburgh University Dance Competition – mostly a highlight because the organisation was so stressful that it felt sensational to actually make it there
- Having cute flat Chinese takeaway nights
- Attending (I think) three ceilidhs
- Many reunion nights in Dundee – I can’t say that Dundee itself is a highlight, but the people are
- Taking Granny to Paris for a weekend
- Newcastle University Dance Competition – partially traumatising but it was worth it for the bonding experience
- Dundee University Dance Competition – where every single one of our dances placed (including my own choreography!!!)
- Doing a dance on a chair and not seriously injuring myself, contrary to what we assumed would happen
- The Disney Beauty and the Beast remake
- Actually getting an A in a French exam
- Eating ice cream at the beach
- AUDS Showcase – very very few things compare to being on stage with some of my dearest friends as we dance our little hearts out
- Passing second year of uni mostly unscathed
- Watching friends accomplish things that they worked hard for
- The afternoon when me and my sister rediscovered Singstar
- Many tea and cake trips
- The fact that my mum will still willingly make us Easter egg hunts
- Skimming stones
- AUDS Ball – and winning ‘Best Duo’ with my soulmate
- Dances with various props – skipping ropes, hats, chairs, umbrellas, balloons and a telephone, but to name a few
- Aberdeen being warm enough not to have to wear tights, on more than one occasion
- Getting a scholarship – even after telling the panel in french that I was desperate to host my own ceilidh in France which I most definitely am not
- Macaroni Cheese Festival
- Visiting Berlin – eating a lot of sausages, drinking very cheap wine by the river until the early hours of the morning, finding a long slide in a shopping centre, visiting the coolest zoo, seeing the Berlin wall, being petrified by a techno club and accidentally joining a Christian concert
- Dressing up as a tiger shark
- Visiting Copenhagen with my sister – seeing our lovely family, going to a theme park, making a dodgy blue cake, trying out a trapeze, having a waffle stick by some coloured houses, tying a wish to a wishing tree and eating a whole lot of good food
- Changing my hair and it not going horrifically wrong
- Regular summer board game nights
- Every single roast dinner consumed – and there have been a fair few
- Family weekend in Inverness – BBQ-ing on the beach, going out for a fancy meal, dolphin spotting and going to our favourite cake shop
- Playing rounders in the park
- Turning a whole 20 years old
- Getting a label maker (my baby)
- A big birthday BBQ
- Granny and Grandad’s 50th (!!!) wedding anniversary in Shetland
- Evening boat trips
- Generally spending properly good times with family
- TRAVELLING AROUND SOUTH EAST ASIA – Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, another obvious highlight
- Going to the Temples of Angkor at sunrise
- Being dropped off by a boat transfer in the middle of the sea
- Buying tacky souvenirs
- Napping in a hammock
- Boat trip around Ha Long Bay – even though we were epically scammed it was by far the most beautiful place I have ever been
- Bathing in mud with multiple elephants
- Doing a Thai cooking course
- Spending a day at the Edinburgh Fringe with my family
- Seeing ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’
- Quite possibly the cutest little afternoon tea – me and my friends do some classy things sometimes
- MOVING TO PARIS – quite literally achieving my dream
- Meeting new friends from all over the world – meaning I now have free accommodation in many places
- Spending my first weekend in Paris with my family
- Ladurée macarons
- Managing to successfully set up a french bank account after an hour long meeting entirely in french
- Starting my blog
- Having an evening picnic in front of the Eiffel Tower – name a typical french food and we had it, cheese, baguettes, wine, pate, the lot
- GETTING MY FIRST OFFICIAL FREELANCE WRITING JOB – I pretend I have kids in my articles
- Going to an outdoor cinema
- Napoleon weekend – basically a weekend in the sun listening to music and watching fully grown men and women dressed up as olden time people
- Improving my french (hopefully)
- Being mistaken for a french person
- French wine
- Nuit Blanch Festival
- Showing people around Paris when they visit and pretending that I am a real local
- The fact that autumn in Paris averaged at around 25 degrees in Paris this year
- Shakespeare and Company bookshop
- Literally every Parisian landmark – arc de triomphe, pere lachaise, tour eiffel, moulin rouge, sacre coeur, centre pompidou, notre dame you name it
- The Christmas tree at Galeries Lafayette
- Rollerskating up the Montparnasse Tower
- Dressing up as a pineapple
- The day my Navigo card finally arrived after two months of horrific confusion and failed attempts – I shed a tear
- Being reunited with my Aberdeen flatmates in Cologne
- Cologne Karneval – mostly enjoyed cause I was covered in glitter
- Receiving postcards
- Managing to bring a wilted plant back to life – it died again later and I wasn’t as lucky
- Walks along the Seine
- Drinking hot chocolate in front of the Eiffel Tower
- Mum visiting me in Paris
- Christmas markets
- Vin chaud – mulled wine
- Drinking an overpriced hot chocolate on the roof of Galeries Lafayette
- My dressing gown
- Finally getting a light up Christmas jumper after years of wishing
- Amy visiting me in Paris
- Trying a cheese fondue
- The most magical Christmassy day at Disney – aka reliving my childhood
- Going to a restaurant where your food is sent to you down a conveyor belt
- Spending a December weekend in Strasbourg – the Christmas capital of the world, so I was most definitely in my happy place
- Surprising my family by going home for Christmas a day early – hilarious because they were asleep in bed and had no idea who I was at first glance when I woke them
- Being reunited with pretty much my whole year group at the pub
- Hosting a festive brunch – the best way to be reunited with friends, and setting the table up for it was a whole load of fun all in itself
- Spending Christmas at home with my family – my little cousins are all growing too fast
- Christmas dinner
- Snow
- My friend’s birthday ceilidh where everyone was looking dashing and having a whole lot of fun
- Shrek the Musical
- My sister’s incredible generosity in getting me a Polaroid camera
- Ending the year as a far less stressed person than I started it
Lauren Robertson 