Looking back on 2008

[nightprowler10]

What have you done/accomplished this year that's worth recounting?

For me it was the year of appreciating the arts in a way. Read five books and am in the middle of reading two more, watched close to a hundred movies, and massively expanded my music collection. I used to own music from something like 8 artists, I have now expanded that number to almost 30.

Also got out and went to some good concerts as well as some bad ones, the AC/DC one being the best and the Stone Temple Pilots one being the absolute worst. Went to a Bears game as well. Biggest regret is not playing enough golf this year when we had some beautiful weather.

[Langeveldt]

Been a year of rebuilding for mine after my absolute shocker in 2007.. Got myself financially in a position to go back to SA and to stop being reliant on my parents, built up a great business relationship with my photography boss in the UK which should help me all the time.. Decided to go all in and go back to my life as a student pilot in 2009..

Burnt some pretty massive bridges with people I've known all my life and now realised they weren't worth knowing at all, and built some new ones with some new friends I hope I keep for life.. I hang out with whoever I like now, rather than people who are the same age or from the same background.. Meaning I've got a diverse bunch of friends which makes me a lot happier.

I hope next year is a lot less eventful to be honest, 2008 has been turbulent to say the least but things are rapidly settling down.. I think I've learnt to be a lot more independant, but on the other hand I have become far less trusting of people. I have been conned quite a bit this year. Robbed and bailed out on.

I pretty much gave up playing cricket and learnt how to play poker.. That was something I could never have seen happening..

5/10 for this year, but next year has the potential to be an 8 or 9

[andyc]

CBF evaluating it, so am going to try my best to turn this into a Made/Ruined Your Year thread:

Made my year
Spent the large majority of it in China, which was hands down the best year of my life, and met some people who I'm almost positive will be good friends for life. It also gave me the opportunity to do a whole lot of traveling around China, as well as making me so much more independent and less reliant on the folks. Also helped my Chinese I suppose.
Had the most mature and (at the time) rewarding relationship I've had so far.
Joined a rugby club here in Hangzhou and absolutely loved it, despite never playing a game before. Got involved in the organisation as well and met some really cool people.
Just the thought that I've developed well as a person, and can hold my head high and be proud of how I acted after a few bad experiences.
Seeing which of my friends from Australia have made the effort to stay in contact and invovled in my life.
Feeling like I have more direction in my life now, in terms of what I want to do, the kind of people I want to be friends with and the kind of person I want to be.

Ruined my year
Aforementioned relationship ending very messily, to the point where I kinda regret every getting it started in the first place, which I've never wanted to feel after a relationship.
My main set of travels in the summer being cut short by half of our group (including girlfriend at the time) packing it in and heading home without any warning and without saying goodbye, and then myself falling fairly sick and having to return home by myself, and being completely neglected and ignored by the half of our group that had already retured.

[silentstriker]

Started on my dream career.

[Mister Wright]

Got married this year and ended the year with a full year contract for next year. Pretty good year to say the least.

[Simon]

Pretty good year in hindsight
Got Engaged
Bought our first home
Got promoted at work
Made my 1st grade debut for my cricket club

[Barney Rubble]

Been a great year for me. Spent time (even if it was only a few hours) in no less than eight different countries over the course of the year, broadened my horizons hugely. Joined a new society at Uni which is incredibly enjoyable, made tons of new friends and am considering running for a leadership position next year. Which brings me onto having decided to stay on another year at Uni and do a Master of Arts course in Transnational Studies, which is great providing it's not uber-expensive and providing I get the 2:1 I need to get in.

Only downside of the year for me has been a lot of confusing relationship issues, but those were/are of my own doing, and will eventually be solved one way or the other. All in all, a fantastic year, probably the best of my life.

[SupaFreak2005]

What have you done/accomplished this year that's worth recounting?

For me it was the year of appreciating the arts in a way. Read five books and am in the middle of reading two more, watched close to a hundred movies, and massively expanded my music collection. I used to own music from something like 8 artists, I have now expanded that number to almost 30.

Also got out and went to some good concerts as well as some bad ones, the AC/DC one being the best and the Stone Temple Pilots one being the absolute worst. Went to a Bears game as well. Biggest regret is not playing enough golf this year when we had some beautiful weather.

Don't forget that killer round of Black Sheep!

[James90]

Made My Year
- Getting my first preference for uni as a result of the entry requirements dropping
- Front-row centre for Paul Kelly at Big Day Out
- Employment in the way of coaching a cricket team for a couple of months. Paid well.
- Finishing off a good season with the bat with a premiership
- Finding a winter cricket team and enjoying the format
- Finding something that I'm passionate about (student politics) and getting leadership in that area
- Made a killing betting on NRL
- Been promised a job for next year
- Passed my courses with what should be grades good enough to get into Law.

Ruined My Year
- Girl I had feelings for at the start of the year screwed me around quite a bit (and not even literally)
- Really didn't enjoy most of my time studying at University
- Still have no idea what I want to do for a career
- Liberals being in power at UQ and NUSQ. What's worse is that they're completely corrupt scumbags.
- Not having much money as I wait for this supposed job I have to get back to me officially
- Having our property destroyed and being left without power and clean drinking water for days
- Met another girl I'm really fond of but lives in Newcastle. Brisbane girls are dire.
- My cricket form has turned to **** and I'm doubting whether I should continue on next season, especially if I'm busy with work and uni.

[Jono]

Was elected president of the Melbourne University Law Students' Society which was quite a thrill :nerd:

Bought a nice shirt the other day too.

[Matt79]

Was elected president of the Melbourne University Law Students' Society which was quite a thrill :nerd:

Bought a nice shirt the other day too.

Simple pleasures.

[Smudge]

Made my year
Ended up in a really interesting job which quickly escalated to an even better job
Not living in Auckland anymore, but the much more pleasant Wellington

Ruined my year
Back pain ending in an operation
Rubbish job situation at the start of the year - I'll never work for someone as incompetent as that again.
Family friend dying last month
Economic situation having an impact on my job in the last couple of weeks - I still have a job (and still will as far as I know), but it's rocky times ahead.

[pasag]

Made my year
Started the new degree, am loving it
Won an award for topping one of the subjects.
Moved out of home
Got a job
Going interstate for one of my best mate's wedding at the start of the year and sister getting engaged towards the end of the year to a great bloke.
Had a great end to the year, going away for a few days and the cricket

Ruined my year
Stopped playing indoor cricket
Nothing much though, last year was the worst year of my life and this year has been a complete reversal of that, very happy at the moment.

[nightprowler10]

Well I suppose I should post the negative stuff too.

Ruined:

Got suspended from work in July for an honest mistake that apparently cost the company $80,000. I had thought that I had lost my job and at the same time my dad had a surgery, telling me about it just 10 hours before. Had a side reaction to the pain medication and ended in a hospital 30 miles away from home. So here I am driving back and forth to the hospital dealing with my dad's illness as he's 100% dependent on me and is about the worst patient you can get in a hospital while still worrying if I'm gonna have a job come next week.

Turns out I got a three day suspension instead with a one year probation period during which even one screw up can see me out of a job and I ended up driving something like 350 miles in that week due to my dad. Of course when I brought it up how it was worst week of my life just two days ago when he decided to have another unneeded surgery, he tells me that it was my job to do what I did and didn't do him any favors. Obviously I snapped and we haven't talked since even though we live in the same house.

[PhoenixFire]

Might I ask what this mistake was, NP?