2016 has been a rollercoaster of emotion, not gonna lie. Although I wouldn't quite say it was the worst year in history  (1939-45 (ww2) were pretty bad, and so were 1346-53 (plague)), it's the worst political year that we've had in a while. Although, in contrast to that, my actual life hasn't been too horrific.

So, let's go through the year. Sorry if this gets a bit long and sentimental.

I can't remember most of the year before the summer holidays, and I'm in the car at the moment so I can't even check my calendar. I'll be relying entirely on instagram and my memory. Let's see how this goes.

Side note - i just checked insta and apparently I didn't post anything from December 2015 to June 2016. Gr8. I'll be relying on my memory, then. My camera roll, if I'm lucky.

Another side note - nope. There's an even bigger gap in my camera roll. Even betterrr.

So, let's see how this goes.

January? A complete blank in my mind. I know I did stuff, but I have no clue what. This is going well.

February... again, nothing. Literally nothing.

March was my birthday! 🎉🎉🎉 I had a cake that looked a bit like a combination of Phil and Hitler but it had cat whiskers so all was good.

I also started writing my first phanfiction! I actually joined wattpad in June 2015 but I didn't start to write until 8 months later.

During the Easter holidays I went to a li'l Scottish island called Shuna where we had to heat the house with an open fire and collect our own wood - luckily we had my dad's girlfriend's sons to do most of that (although I did help a bit...). There were only 5 houses on this island and it was 3 miles long by 1 mile wide,  so you could walk all the way around in a few hours. I spent a long time exploring that place. There was an abandoned castle house thing that had burnt down and it was creeeeepy because it was just this empty shell of a building with collapsed floors inside.

April? Well, I finished my first phanfic, and... actually that was about it.

May - on the 2nd, my brother sliced his foot open with broken glass and i spent the day in hospital with him while he got stitches... fun!

It was also his birthday on the 31st so I'm sure we had a wild party.

I finished publishing Set Up on the 26th, and it hit 1k reads 2 days after, so those were some milestones.

June. This is the month where I (for some reason) decided to listen to blurryface while writing, and it was the best decision I ever made.

My grandma got rabbits, and i went with her to collect them. When we arrived back at her house and i wasn't breathing very much, I discovered I am still allergic to rabbits. Fantastic.

Also i got super depressed this month. Yay!

July! Aka the month of joy.

My grade 2 treble recorder exam was at the start of the month, and I got my results - 136/150, distinction - at the end.

I spent 5 days in ICELAND which was AMAZING and i loved it and I'll be going back about 20 times if I get my way.

I went on a plane for the first time, which was gr10 and the clouds were very exciting.

I then went straight to Swanage for my summer holiday with my mum and brother, which was fabulous as always (it was our 9th summer going, don't judge). There was a new film set there, and Tom Hardy and Harry Styles were in there, so I actually ended up about 5 metres from them. They also filmed a few scenes on a tallship which i'd been on only days before. Weird, right?

PJ also hit a million subs. I got very emotional that day.

August: not so gr10 - well, not the first half. I went to the Lake District with my dad and brother but it was not good at all and we argued all the time and i walked around the same lake 3 times on my own because that was what I did when they were off doing stuff. Because I didn't want to go anywhere with him.

It was Charnwood - international scouting and guiding camp - after that, which was actually great. I was really depressed all through it, but it was great, and I made an actual friend. Bonus!

I went to this thing called Clash of Drums with my mum and it was also epic. There was many many fireworks.

September! Back at school, time to start GCSEs, super stressful, I thought. But no! I've literally had no stress. LUCKY ME OR WHAT?!

It was my gran's 80th birthday, so I went to a big family party thing and saw all my fabulous relatives. And some people who aren't relatives but were there anyway. And some people who i didn't even know that well but turned out to be fabulous.

According to instagram, I also went ice skating with ma pal on the 30th. Just thought I'd mention that. And I got 2k on Set Up.

October... well, I bought some PJ merch. That was good.

It was my cousin's birthday so I'm sure there was some wild partying going on somewhere.

November, a month of gr8 times. I think. There was a bonfire at some point, and I toasted some of the world's biggest marshmallows.

December has been my most successful month on wattpad, for sure. I wrote another whole book (in a week, oops) and got quite a few more followers, and I really got back into writing again, which was great. And there was the 30 day writing challenge, which I'll talk about in a moment.

It was also CHRISTMAZ!!! I love Christmas so much, honestly, it's great to have a time where I'm not expected to work, and I can be massively immature and open presents and eat food and see family - i just love it.

This Christmas I did many wonderful things, but one of my favourites was coming down to Horsham and meeting my nephew Ralph. I absolutely love family gatherings because I have so many great and insane family members. I'm sure baby Ralph will turn out to be as mad as the rest of us.

I've probably missed many many things from this year, but never mind. I can't possibly fit everything in.

This December I did the 30 day writing challenge, which I have mixed opinions about. I enjoyed doing it much more than I thought I would, but it doesn't really fit in this book, and I'm considering deleting it after a while. However, i did enjoy it, and although some chapters I seem to have given up trying, I'm quite proud that I managed to do all 30 days reasonably on time.

I might do it again at some point - in a less busy month. In hindsight, doing it at Christmas wasn't the best idea.

Overall with the challenge though, if I can make it fit in a book, it would be perfect. Maybe I should do it as rants instead? Hmm. Stay tuned for that one.

disneyintrovert thank you thank you thank you for the topics list! They were great, and sorry that I didn't quite do some of them credit.

Now let's talk about the political side of things - namely, Brexit and Trump.

As for Brexit, we've all heard my views on that. I've written three chapters on it. I think we made the wrong decision, and that's all there is to it. I still haven't forgiven my grandma for voting leave.

Trump is also clearly the wrong choice, and I'm furious. However, a lot of the problems will now be caused by his supporters. Hate crimes and the like - he influenced them, but didnt actually perform them. If America bands together against what Trump encourages, the next four years could be bearable. Unfortunately, that's not really going to happen.

This chapter isn't about Trump, though, so I'll move on.

Now it's time to talk about 2017. Ah yes. The year which will probably be even worse than this one.

I want to finish 2017 with the feeling that I've achieved something, rather than another year of 'well, what just happened So, here are my goals for next year -

1- exercise more and eat less.
I'm not overweight, but if I carry on like I have been doing this year, I will be. More cycling for me, I think.

2- remain positive at ALL TIMES
Okay, maybe this isn't achievable. But I want to be as positive as I can be about life, because - and i hate to admit this, as I'm a massive pessimist - it helps a lot.

3- write an original novel
Or maybe two, or three, or... Anyway, i'd like to focus on certain weaker aspects of my writing (characterisation, pacing and emotions) and expand my 'repertoire' so i have more different types of book. I'll still write phanfiction, obviously, but as a side thing i'd like to try an original book, maybe some wolfstar, and write some different styles.

4- talk to people
I'm gonna actually speak to other humans. I believe in myself.

5- learn more guitar and piano pieces
I'm not doing too badly on piano, but I know almost nothing on guitar and my hands are so small they barely fit round the fretboard. I need to learn more pieces that I can actually play.

6- pass grade 3 and 4
I intend to do both these trades on treble recorder and hopefully get distinction or merit.

As I write this,  I'm driving back from Somerset, where we've been staying with my grandparents after seeing Ralph. When we get back, I'll unpack, maybe sleep, then later on go to my dad's girlfriend's house for a 'party' of sorts. I'll probably stay up until midnight, refuse to drink alcohol (it's disgusting, honestly) and fall asleep on their sofa. Probably.

I was debating publishing this at midnight, but that's a lot of effort. Why would anyone do that. I'll just publish it now.

I might make this year-summing-up a tradition... hmm. Look forward to 2017's, guys.

Happy New Year, everyone!