What happened in 2014 & my goals for 2015

It's a week since the year changed, and I'm sure it's not too late to take a look back to 2014. Which, for me, was the best year of my life and the year of changes. So many amazing things happened. Things that I couldn't even imagine a couple of years ago. It hasn't been easy all the time, but I'm freakin' happy I made my dreams come true.
Let's see what everything the year 2014 offered!

The beginning of the year was full of fun stuff in our high school, as I was a senior-year-student. In January I was still going to school for the last courses, and we also started to make a video to show on our last school day (that's a tradition in Finnish high school, that senior-year-students make a video that's full of jokes of the teachers). The last official high school day was in February, before beginning the studying holiday followed by the big last exams. The last school day is something students really wait for the whole high school time. We wore funny costumes and threw candies all over the building, because that's the tradition. Then we got into trucks that took us riding around the town, to throw candies to other schools too. I just love that tradition! I was wearing a penguin costume, as you can see.
In March then, it was time for the final exams. Even though it felt so annoying to sit six hours in one place almost every day and answer stupid questions, after all them I was just feeling like a winner!

After exams, I took off to Berlin to spend a month there. Just relaxing and meeting friends. I also had a shooting with a photographer Veera Pitkänen (who took the photo of me in the blue dress and leather jacket).

Berlin was great, as always. I totally enjoyed the month in my favorite city! I also visited beautiful Potsdam and Dresden (I haven't actually shown you the pictures from Dresden, I gotta do a throwback post later).

For May I returned to Finland to get my grades from the exams and of course, to have a graduation party! In the beginning of the month it still was quite cold weather, and I was wearing the outfit above when we went to see The Other Woman with my friend.
I had ants in my pants before getting the grades, but they turned out to be really good! That made me happy.

My graduation day look. The dress is from Stefanel. The outfit was totally me, as well as hair and make-up. That was one of the best days of my life, and I'm remembering it with warmth in my heart.

The whole June and three weeks of July I spent working in Münsterland, Germany. The job wasn't my thing at all, but I learned a lot and saw beautiful places.

I also took a birthday getaway to Hannover.

After leaving my workplace, I had a three-week-tour in Europe. First I went to Stuttgart (I was staying in the cozy suburb Waiblingen), then to see my friend in Schopfheim. Then I visited Switzerland for the first time, I went to Basel exactly. After that was the highlight, Paris for the second time in my life! The week there was lovely. Before flying back to Finland I spent a couple of days in Düsseldorf.

I had just one month to stay in Finland before leaving for another trip. During that month I for example spent time in our summerhouse and made a day trip to Oulu, where that outfit photo was shot.

Then, in September it was the big time; starting my round-the-world-trip. I've come a loooong journey till where I'm now (I'm in Gold Coast, Australia).
These places I've already visited:
- Helsinki (Finland) -Berlin (Germany) -London (UK) -New York (USA) -Washington D.C. (USA) -Atlanta (USA) -New Orleans (USA) -Houston (USA) -Los Angeles (USA) -Las Vegas (USA) -Grand Canyon (USA) -San Francisco (USA) -Honolulu (Hawaii, USA) -Auckland (New Zealand) -Christchurch (New Zealand) -Kaikoura (New Zealand) -Melbourne (Australia) -Sydney (Australia)
18 different places, that's so crazy! This has been an unbelievable trip. I've seen so many beautiful places, met great people, eaten delicious food and tried new things. I would never have believed I'm doing such a trip when 19 years old! I'm so grateful for this chance.
So, obviously the year 2014 was a year of travel. Even though it's hard sometimes to do all this (stay so short time in one place and then move again), I love my life right now!
When I was in Sydney at New Year's Eve, watching the stunning skyline and waiting for the year to change, I just thought "Well 2015, let's try to have one even more fabulous year!" That's gonna be so hard to beat 2014, I'm so sure of that. But I'm also sure 2015 will have many amazing things to bring!
I don't do New Year's resolutions, but I set goals for me to achieve each year. These are for the year 2015:
1. Go to bed and get up earlier. This has been my problem so long I can remember. I go to bed at 3 am and sleep till the afternoon. But actually these last days I've woken up already at 10 am, which is a huge achievement for me.
2. Eat a bit more healthier. But just a bit, you know. I'm still not gonna go to that 100% vegetables line. But starting to eat breakfast every day and eating potato chips only on Saturdays is a good start I think.
3. Try more different kinds of sports. Going to gym is still crap in my opinion. But how would it be to go for hikes, play tennis or golf, for example? I like sports, so why not. I've started the year with swimming more than usually, which is a good thing.
4. Learn French. I studied 5 courses French in high school and then stopped. And forgot everything. I'm currently living in a half French household and every time I hear the language I'm sure I gotta learn it again. Now when I know German pretty well so can focus on French.
5. Do more for your blog. I've been quite lazy lately. There is so much I'd like to do here, but because of these travels I don't have so much time. Anyway, this site is gonna be put under construction this spring. Just some visual and technical improvements. I hope I still can post normally even though constructing the site. I have so many interesting posts to release! I'm also thinking of beginning another travel blog, in Finnish though. We'll see.
6. Do more charity. I wanna help animals. Of course there are many other things I wanna help too, but it's the easiest way to choose one and focus on it. Animals are always in my heart and it hurts me so much to see when those creatures have to suffer, no matter what kind of an animal. Animals need people to speak for their rights, because they can't do it themselves. Currently I'm making donations to different shelters etc. but I'd like to do something more concrete too. I hope someday I can start a foundation and an adoption center.
7. Start saving for an apartment. Well, now when I'm making my one dream come true, it's time to look at the another. Instead of wasting my money in stores all the time, I'm gonna put something to savings regularly, so that I can buy own apartment as soon as just possible.
8. Go studying. I almost miss the school life. I'm really enthusiastic of all the options I have now, when choosing what I'd like to study and where.
9. Spend more time with beloved ones. No need to say last year I was away from my family and friends a lot. This year I wanna spend more time with them. Also meeting new people is never bad.
10. Be happy and grateful.