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Laura
Hi! I'm Laura, a 23-year-old millennial girl discovering who I am by sharing my life experiences on my blog. You'll find me writing about me discovering my personal style, my growing wanderlust or giving any sort of style, uni or mental health advice.

If you ever have any questions, notes or other things that you want to know, feel free to email me

styleandsushi@outlook.com

From July 2012 all items marked with a (*) are gifted items or PR samples. Posts on this blog may contain affiliate links or sponsored content. Please read my disclaimer for more details.

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TRAVEL

A YEAR IN REVIEW: 2018


Just before I start completely with all the other content I had planned, I thought it would also be fun to also share a couple of highlights from 2018 with you on my blog. Since I wrote that one of my goals is to be appreciative of everything, I thought this would be such a good way to start off the year by appreciating every memory of last year. It does not matter if these memories are big or small, they are all to be appreciated and captured. And I think they might give you a bit more of an insight into what I have been up to besides my blog, as you really get to know me and my life a bit better. Also a little warning, this is probably one of the longest posts I wrote in a while, if not ever! So I hope it's still somewhat entertaining to read.


JANUARY

January of 2018 wasn’t all too eventful… I also don’t have a lot of memories of January written down, as I didn’t start my bullet journal and collecting smaller highlights until February. However, I did manage to go into my fourth and last year of university in January. This meant that I needed to look for companies I could possibly write my bachelor dissertation for.

FEBRUARY

In February I turned 21, it’s crazy to think it’s almost been a year already, as it feels just like yesterday since I posted my birthday photo on Instagram that did surprisingly well. Anyway, I had the best birthday every celebrating it with my parents and my brother and then afterwards with my whole family.

And then I ended off February by going to Brussels with one of my best friends. We booked a super impromptu trip to Brussels to celebrate my birthday and I honestly had the best time with her while we were there for those 36 hours we were there. It’s this trip that made me realise that I really enjoy creating lifestyle content and shooting travel photos myself. That’s why I really am hoping to do some more travelling in the upcoming year.

MARCH

In March I firstly went to see The Script again. The Script are honestly one of my favourite bands, and their old school songs are so catchy. But the main reason why I always tend to buy tickets for their concerts is because I get to spend quality time with my cousin. I love spending time with her and it’s probably these memories I have of spending time with her that make these memories.

Then in March I also had a beautiful and lovely belated birthday gift from my cousins. I have a big family but my two girl cousins and I always try to find time to hang out together. It’s just so fun to see each other lots and catch up on life. Anyway, for my birthday they gave me a high tea at Het Conservatorium Hotel in Amsterdam. Again, I got to catch up with my cousins, have proper girly talk and down time while we enjoyed the tastiest foods and loveliest teas.

APRIL

In April I finally decided to give writing my dissertation a go. The first couple of months of the year were quite hectic when it came to university and I decided to postpone it for a little bit. A new term came around in April, so I decided to start during that new term to start with my thesis. For the next nine months I would be spending most of my time writing this dissertation.

Besides starting on my dissertation in April I also remember spending so many beautiful and sunny days outside with friends. We were super lucky with the weather during spring, where it almost felt like summer during some days. The same goes for May, June, July, August, September and even October. The weather has been very glorious this year, which meant I got to spend a lot of time having brunch, lunch and drinks with friends while basking away in the sun.

MAY

2018 really was all about all the concerts. In May I also went to see Sam Smith live and I still am not over how incredible he is. He has such an amazing and extremely beautiful voice and not only was he incredibly good, so were his band and his background singers. I remember having goose bumps throughout the whole concert because his voice was just so powerful.

Then May got even better because that’s the month my cousin told me she is moving to The Hague, which is where I live. This was such exciting news as it meant we got to spend even more time with each other. Ever since she has moved to The Hague I have seen her so much more and we even randomly run into each other while we’re in town. It’s been so fun to have her living closer to me. It’s a good thing that she’s not growing sick of me yet... But maybe that will happen this year when I have a lot more time on my hands to spend with her.

JUNE

Surprise surprise… In June I went to yet two other concerts. First off I went to Camila Cabello with the same friend I went to Brussels with. It was so fun to go to a concert that I normally wouldn’t go to, but my other friend had two tickets left over so we decided to go. It was so funny to see as it was such a different atmosphere than The Script or Sam Smith for example. The crowd was younger and it was mostly girls, which is also something I have not experienced before. Camila Cabello was really good though, she also left me with goose bumps with her voice.

Then halfway through the month I also went to the On The Run II concert by Jay-Z and Beyonce, and omg what a show that was. I think I am pretty easy to impress because this show also gave me absolute goose bumps. It had been a childhood dream to see Jay-Z and Beyonce perform Bonnie and Clyde live, I honestly don’t think I have ever fangirled this hard. And I even got merch. That’s not really something I would ever do.

June was also all about birthdays. One of my oldest, best friends turned 21 in June and her sister decided to throw her a surprise party with all of her closest friends. This is one of my favourite memories of the summer, as it was one of last days of me being home before going away on holiday. Anyway, I still look at the surprise video on my Instagram Highlight super often as it’s just such a cute video and it makes me very happy just by looking at it. Afterwards I rushed straight back home as we celebrated my dad turning 65 in June that same day. It was a day filled with festive birthday celebrations and it just makes me feel so super happy. I just love talking about my June memories, June was such a good month!

JULY

July was all about switching off and enjoying my summer holiday to its fullest. I tend to always be online even when I am on holiday. I ask my parents, my brother or my cousins if they are with us on holiday to take photos for me to put online for Instagram or my blog. This year I was super stressed beforehand so while I felt pressure to post lots during the first couple of days of my holiday, I decided to let go of this pretty soon afterwards. This meant that I got to fully enjoy my holiday. I did nothing but tan, swim and read lots of books.

It’s a good thing I actually have a Kindle because I had started my Good Reads Reading Challenge a couple of weeks before that and pretty much finished this Reading Challenge just a few days after I came back from my holiday. I am such a book geek and to just spend my summer reading a lot was such a great feeling. I can’t wait to start reading my books soon.

AUGUST

August was pretty cool too. My cousin whom I went to see The Script, the same one who moved to The Hague, texted me in July while I was away to see if I wanted to go away with her in August. At first I thought we would just go somewhere close such as Antwerp or Brussels or something, but we actually ended up booking a very impromptu trip to Milan, a city I had never been to before. While we were there we ate all the risottos, pizzas and pastas and just like I had very fond memories of our little concert adventure at The Script, I loved going to Milan with her and making even more memories. I am really hoping to do something similar with her again this year.

Something I had not done in over a year was go to the cinema. August apparently was a month with lots of films I wanted to see, because I went to the cinema twice that month. I know… That’s quite shocking for me actually. I don’t go to the cinema that often, but those two nights I spent watching Crazy Rich Asians and Mamma Mia Here We Go Again in the cinema really made me like the whole cinema experience so much. I have not had any other trips to the cinema ever since, but I am really hoping to go to watch a film soon. Basically I’m just waiting for The Lion King to come out later this year so I can watch it in super high quality in the cinema.

SEPTEMBER

September meant it was time for me to go back to university. I don’t really remember that much of what happened during that month, as I was super stressed from having to go back to university as well as from writing my bachelor dissertation. So yes, September just kind of went by in a blur, however I do remember celebrating my mums birthday with my parents and my brother by going out for dinner and just having a fun time.

OCTOBER

Where September was quite a stressful month, October was a very hectic and overwhelming month. Mainly because of the dissertation I am writing. I don’t really think I explained everything about my dissertation on my blog or any other platform before. Mainly because I don’t want to bore you or because I am not allowed to share that much info. Anyway, in the Netherlands we have to write a research dissertation for a company to eventually graduate and get your Bachelor. I am writing a dissertation for a company, which has a Swedish target group for what I was writing my dissertation about. This meant I actually had to travel to Sweden to interview people from the target group. Travelling to another country is quite a unique event to happen when you are writing your dissertation and knowing myself I knew I would set myself super high goals. On top of that it was also my first time travelling completely alone and that was what made me feel super overwhelmed and anxious. I did learn lots because of it though, and I am super thankful to the company I am writing my dissertation for to have given me this much trust and just this chance in general. I went to Gothenburg and Stockholm and already am hoping to plan a trip back to Stockholm soon, as I loved it there.

To continue my travel journeys my two girl cousins and I booked a super fun trip to Lisbon after I came back from October too. This is quite a big deal as our mothers usually go on these annual trips to discover Europe and now we are also making this a thing. It’s super fun and I am really looking forward to this trip to Lisbon, as I have never been before. The three of us are now flying off to Lisbon in March and I am just counting down the days already to spend some quality time with them again.

NOVEMBER

Just like September, November also went by in a blur. Again, I was super stressed because of university because of my dissertation. It had to be finished to be read by my peers halfway through November, which was quite the challenge, as I also had to transcribe all of the interviews from October in November. I somehow managed to work through all this stress and make that deadline so that was quite the relief for me.

One of the great things about November was that I actually did manage to catch up with two of my best friends again. They were both separately going to Indonesia for 3 to 5 weeks. After not seeing them for about a whole month I finally got to catch up with them again. It’s just so great to see friends again after such a long time and to catch up with them.

DECEMBER

December went by within the blink of an eye. It’s probably because I had deadlines for university almost every Monday in December. I don’t know how I did it but I managed to finish writing my dissertation and hand in all of my uni assignments.

After I had finished writing all of those assignments and my dissertation it was time to focus on getting into the festive mood for Christmas. I spent lots of time in December hanging out with friends to stroll around the garden center and Christmas markets to feel very festive. Then Christmas came around and I had the best Christmas spending time with my family. But as soon as Christmas had gone by the exhaustion had kicked in, which was the perfect time to spend most of my days focusing on myself by doing absolutely nothing I did not want to do.

To finish the year off I went on a quick little trip to Amsterdam with my cousins and their mum and dad to celebrate my cousin her 26th birthday. It was a super lovely day as we spent most of the day just talking, celebrating and eating lunch.

What I'm wearing:
Mango blazer (similar), Mango jumper (similar), ASOS trousers, Stradivarius bag, Adidas trainers

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