A Review of 2015

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Wow, 2015 is almost over! This year has been full of life changes. From graduating college to accepting life changes, I have learned so much about myself. I am slowly becoming the person I want to be, and I couldn't be more proud of the progress I have made internally this year. Here are some of the highlights from this year.

I got glasses.
I got certified to teach ESL.
I earned a Bachelor's Degree in English at Frostburg State University.
I got a job that required me to work 40+ hours a week.
My brother became a Novice Buddhist Monk.
I did my best to remain optimistic and happy in every situation.
I actually completed one of my New Year's Resolutions. I read 12 books this year.
I almost watched the entire series of Friends (I'm in season 10.)
I cut my hair very short (I prefer long hair, but I wanted to get rid of my security blanket and embrace something new.)
I lived in Philadelphia for one month.
I roadtripped to Ocean City twice with my closest friends.
I went through an episode of depression and opened up to those closest to me about it.
I started blogging again and stuck to my schedule.

What did you accomplish this year?

Shannon

Check out my previous post here.

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My Happiness Project: An Overview for 2016

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I recently read The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin and became inspired to make my own happiness project for the upcoming year. The difference between Rubin's project and mine is that I will only be doing six months of different categories rather than twelve. I will follow the first six months of categories the last six months. When I started working on my own happiness project, I realized that many of the things I wanted to work on could be combined. I ended up six categories that I don't think are too difficult to maintain.

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Monthly Favorites: December 2015

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Wow, this month has flown by! I feel like I just wrote my November Monthly Favorites post yesterday! I have spent a majority of my month working and reading. I haven't done as much writing as I usually do around this time of year, but I plan on focusing on it in the new year.

Here are my favorites this month:

Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

I love this book! It came at a time when I needed to reinspire myself. I am so glad I bought it and read it this month, as opposed to asking for it for Christmas. I plan on writing a book review on this book. I will link it here when I post it.

Ghost Asylum 

Ghost Asylum follows a ghost hunting team that visit haunted places and attempt to catch the spirits there. I like watching these type of shows, as I am a believer in ghosts and demons. I think the team is hilarious and good at what they do. My favorite paranormal show will always be Ghost Hunters, but Ghost Asylum is a good one to watch if you are into this type of show.

Relaxing

I've been working 41+ hour weeks this month, so I have been loving spending some of my free time relaxing. I like to get a lot of my to do lists accomplished on days off, but I enjoy spending my first hour or two awake laying in bed watching YouTube videos or playing games on my iPad. Sometimes nothing feels as good as laying in bed doing nothing.

Solitaire 

I've recently gotten back into playing solitaire. My mom loves this game, and I always see her playing it. I decided to put it on my iPad for right after work when I need to relax and not think too much about what I'm doing. The game is fun, and I love trying to beat the best times and moves under the "winning deals" category, even though I always lose.

Comfy clothes

It's starting (more like trying) to get cold here in Maryland, so I have all of my sweatpants and hoodies ready to go. I love to curl up in bed with my hoodie on and pile my mass of blankets on top of me. Just thinking about doing this makes me happy.

Let me know your favorites for the month of December! Also, please note that I will not be posting on Friday as that is Christmas. I will be spending the day with my family. Instead, I will post on Saturday.

Shannon

Check out my previous post here.

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Winter Essentials 2015 Edition

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Winter is upon us. I love fall, but I believe that winter is a time for reflection and appreciating what we have. To help myself enjoy this time of year, I like to do certain things that I normally don't do year round and things that I do around the year, but do more of during winter.

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Book Review: The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

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Today's post is a book review of Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project. If you have read some of my previous posts you will know that I have been interested in starting my own happiness project for quite some time now. I decided to read this book to see if a happiness project was something that would be worth doing as opposed to making a group of resolutions at the beginning of the year that I never succeed at completing.

To give a brief summary, Rubin came up with the idea of a happiness project while on the subway. She saw her life passing by and wasn't sure if she was as happy as she could be. She came up with eleven categories and resolutions to go in each category. One category would be the highlight of each month, and she would add January's category with February, and then January and February with March, and so forth until she had to keep up all of her resolutions in December.

If you would like more of a summary of this book, I will link the book's Amazon page here.

Do not keep reading unless you have read the book or spoilers excite you.

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December 2015 Music Playlist

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Hello there!

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My Depression Story

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This is a different post for me to be making. This is extremely personal, and I am happy to open up on my blog in an effort to share my experience and help others who are in need of it. Please remember that if you are depressed, you need to talk to others about it and possibly look into getting professional help, depending on your situation. I have only recently started turning to others about my depression, and I wish I would've done so sooner. Always know that when on this blog, you are loved by all that are here. If you wish to, please comment and share your own personal experiences with depression. You can get in contact with me personally via Twitter or Facebook, or really any of my social media sites, if you do not want your story to be posted publically.

As a disclaimer, please know that I am no expert when it comes to depression. I am only stating facts that I know about depression and my own personal experiences with it.

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A Reflective Walk in Nature

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Hello there.

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Book Review: Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

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I recently finished reading Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love. I had been wanting to read this book ever since the movie came out and my mom couldn't stop talking about it. I decided to buy the book when I saw it on the clearance rack at Books-A-Million a couple of months ago. I went to Books-A-Million because I had a giftcard from last Christmas to use. I have never been so grateful for a giftcard in my life.

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A Famous Event That Occurred on This Day: Attack on Pearl Harbor

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I don't think I've ever shared my interest in history on my blog before. I've been thinking about introducing a new segment where every once and awhile I make a post about a famous event that occurred on a certain day I am blogging. Please let me know what you think about this type of blog post. I'm always interested in getting feedback on my post ideas and writing.

 Attack on Pearl Harbor

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Stripped Down Challenge: Blog Edition

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I was trying to figure out what today's post should be, and I couldn't come up with any ideas. I have most of December's posts planned out already, but the inspiration for what to write about today just wouldn't come to me. I thought about the Stripped Down Challenge, which was started by Jonah Green as a response to Essena O'Neill's criticization of social media. I thought, why can't I do that? Instead of turning a camera on and talking to it for ten minutes, why not write instead?  The time limit for this challenge is ten minutes, so for ten minutes I am just going to write. No edits. Nothing. Just me typing. Let's see how this goes.

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December 2015 Goals

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December is going to be a busy one. My work shifts have increased, which leaves less time for doing certain things that I like to do. But this also gives me more time to work on certain goals that I think are important to start on before the new year.

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