Almost Over, A Young Woman's Top 3 Goals Post-Pandemic 2021
It's been well more than a year since the beginning of this pandemic that even a wild-sleep dreamer like myself could never have imagined. As a young women in her early 20s living in a major European city, this year has slowed my pace as I reflected on my not-so-long life.
A couple of years ago, I moved to this city for university and it was a deep dive into freedom. I always imagined that I would travel to every possible city in Europe with friends, going out to a pub to grab drinks after classes, and more. However, life hasn't always been this comfortable and with the shocking currency exchange rate, spending money has always felt somewhat painful. I restricted myself from eating out, not buying new clothes (though I spend quite a bit of time adding items to my cart to feel good), but you get the idea. I have been frugal, very in fact.
At the beginning of the pandemic, a close family member fell ill and with the border controls, it was impossible to fly home immediately even though I had enough money saved up. At the time, I lived in a tiny student hall that I couldn't leave as the country was in a national lockdown. The 9 sq m room was not a fun place to be in 24/7 as I felt helpless. That knocked some sense into me.
I reflected a lot and made changes to my life as I went along and would love to share them with you in due time. But today, as we appear to be heading into the post-pandemic world, I want to share my top 3 goals for the rest of the year.
Spending more time outside
In the past years, I burrowed myself in university work and the occasional Netflix procrastinating. In that tiny room, I would think of all the evenings I wish I said yes to friends when they invited me to clubs and bars. The concerts that I wish I went to because there were almost none in the city I grew up in. The parks I have never been to. The irony is that before I moved here, my parents and I looked up a huge list of places I should visit, but once I got here, I spent all my time hiding in my room. No more.
I have decided that I will spend more time outside, be it exploring new streets, new bakeries, or a nice little garden. As you can imagine, it hasn't been easy, but for me, I find a place to walk to every Friday evening. Today was the third consecutive week and I even looked forward to it.
Pampering myself
Staying in also meant that I hardly spent on things. Despite adding 100+ items to my wishlists on various sites (no kidding), I just couldn't. On the bright side, I have saved up a good amount of money.
Now that things are opening up again and the weather is warming up, I'm still adding items to my cart, except I actually click on buy and put in my card details. A big part of me still screams "don't do it", but what's the point of money if I don't use it to make me happy.
To be clear, I'm not spending on designer clothes. It is still tricky spending money, so I tend to buy things in the sale section that I wishlisted previously. Also, little things like a nice mocha or ice cream cone have also brightened up my days. I can confirm that the value that has been added to my life has been surprisingly substantial and I intend to continue.
Building a passive income
It's easy to say pamper thyself, buy nice things! But in reality, if you relate to me, you'll know how hard it is to even bring yourself to buying a piece of pastry thinking that you could either make it or settle with white bread with butter and sugar. Hence, my most important goal for the year is to build a passive income. Something that will allow me to afford a nice cup of mocha to celebrate the end of the week.
After many sleepless nights visiting various Reddit threads, here are a couple: tutoring students, selling graphic files, buying and selling secondhand stuff, blogging, and investing. As I have been wanting to share my life with people, adding on my excessive reflection in the past year, this platform has come at the perfect time. I intend to write here once a week to start with and I have so many ideas! In building a sustainable passive income, there are a couple of other things I have been trying too and I look forward to sharing them soon as I accumulate more results.
I hope that some of you found what I wrote relatable and maybe useful even a little bit. Being new to this, I'm not an excellent writer yet, but I'll get better. Though I already have a list of ideas to write, I would like my readers to be a part of this process, so feel free to drop anything here and I'll pick them up in my future articles (https://forms.gle/2v4poZLGXPeEf2Ru5).
Till next week!
inspiration!