for my plans for 2017

Since announcing to many family and friends that I was coming home at the end of January after a 6 month stint teaching English in South Korea I have been repeatedly hit with one question and one question only....

What are you plans for when you get home?

Some of this hit me with much frustration as I still had some months to go to enjoy my time in South Korea and also because I thought.... why do you want to know? why do I need a plan? and why can't you just let me enjoy the present rather than worrying about the future?

I realised that I know the answer to those "whys" and it's because they are my friends and my family and they care and they are concerned and interested in my life.  Some even thought that the reason I am coming home is because things "didn't work out" over here for me.... and that kind of annoyed me to... Absolute, hand on heart truth is that I came here with no expectations of how long I would stay and came with the intention to enjoy and experience every moment and go with the flow and see what happened. I have absolutely LOVED my time in South Korea. I have met some wonderful people who I am sure will become life long friends, I have experienced living within a whole other culture (which hasn't always been easy and there have been many "what the fuck have I done moments"), I have done things (and eaten things) I never thought I would, I have been pushed out of my comfort zone. Most importantly though I have had many many moments of reflection and clarity over what I want my life to look like and the person I want to be moving forward. Truth be told I need to be at home for things to happen and when push came to shove and I had to make the decision to sign a new work contract here or not it came down to the fact that I wanted to stay here... but I wanted to go home more. 

So to answer the question... what are my plans for when I get home... here goes

I plan to run more - running is always something I have done half-heartedly, I never really enjoyed it that much and always seemed to focus on time and distance rather than just running for enjoyment and health. Since being here I have found a new enjoyment in running and ran because I wanted to. I even ran 10km in a fun run event over here and it was one of the best things I did. So I am hoping to continue to run for the joy of it when I get home.

We just ran 10ks!

I plan to hike - hiking is like a national sport in South Korea and with 22 national parks and amazing landscapes and views it's easy to see why. Whilst some of the hikes I did were challenging, there was this amazing sense of accomplishment standing at the peak and soaking up the view and the atmosphere! I loved being outdoors with nature and again, I hope to further indulge this new passion of mine at home!

At the peak of Wolchulsan

I plan do all the things I have said I have wanted to do but have made up excuses for not doing them - make sense! lol... I have said many times that I want a new tattoo and have had a photo saved on my phone of what I want since September 2015, I have said I want to try stand up paddle-boarding, get my grandmother to teach me how to crochet, run a half marathon, donate blood, go on a retreat, do another course in photography but for some reason I have never followed through on any of them....This year I am going to do them!

I am going to jump into doing all the things I've said I always wanted to do!

I plan on seeing more of my own country - I have managed to squeeze so much into such a sort period of time here. There are so many things to do and places to see and that is true of my own country as well. When there was a festival in another town that I wanted to go to but was 2 hours away, I didn't even give it a second thought, I jumped on a bus and I went. I went on so many day trips and explored so many areas that I really want to do that when I get home as well! So many times I have sat at home on weekends and said there was nothing to do, when the truth is there is plenty to see and do, I just, for whatever reason, didn't do them!

I took 2 buses and a taxi for 1 hour and 45 mins  to visit the Damyang Bamboo Park all by myself and had a wonderful day!

I plan on maintaining my positive mental health - for so long I have focused on all the things I don't have and on how I thought my life should be and what I should have. Since being here I have been able to work on my mental health and feel good about the things I have done and the good things in my life. It's not roses here all the time but my positive mindsets have been outweighing my negative ones for quite some time now and I know it MUST stay like that for me to attain all the things I have planned. I know this one will be difficult to sustain but I need to make sure those little voices in my head maintain a positive dialogue and that I don't get drawn back into the negative. 

Spending time focusing on my mental health will take a priority

So there you have it.... my plans for when I get home....

Obviously these aren't really the plans they want to know about, they are asking about other plans ....the big ones.... the ones that they think matter the most... 

where am I going to live and what am I going to do for work

and I have plans for that as well which will come in time but for now I am not focused on them because I know that if I focus on the above mentioned plans, those will fall into place as well.