At the beginning of 2017 I was a full-time dance student, a lot of my focus was on my degree (I was there from 8am - 5pm everyday so it was hard not to). Now, I am ending my year as a full-time blogger / influencer / content creator / whatever-you-want-to-call-it. And still dancing 24/7, it's like a dream come true!
I finished my first year of my degree then in the first couple of weeks of my second year I decided to drop out and work full time. It was possibly one of the hardest decisions I've had to make this year. I feel like I 100% made the right choice. 
When I wasn't dancing (which is pretty much all the time) I hit 800,000 followers on musical.ly, 13,000 subscribers on YouTube, finally got an Invisalign (I've always wanted to get perfect teeth), celebrated my 19th birthday, went to see Kehlani in concert (didn't know any songs and now I love them all), met some cool people (Jourdan Dunn, Zara Larsson, Rudimental, Sigala, John Newman), went to my first meet up with the musical.ly reps, went to Key 103 Live and also went to Radio 1xtra the day after (and watched French Montana, Donae'o and Bryson Tiller!). I went to a fancy ball with my Mum and had a girls night at the Mercure Haydock Hotel.
I also had a family trip to Brighton (a place that I've always wanted to visit and would love to go back again), travelled to Ibiza and Paris with Ben (my first blogger trip abroad and I got to go with my boyfriend!). I also went back to Germany to Urban Dance Camp (I finally took Matt Steffanina's class after filming his cover's online for so long!) and took class with Hamilton Evans and Mec Giasor.
I worked with some amazing people this year including Disney! I grew up watching Disney and loving their TV shows and films (Fun fact: when I was younger I was made my Mum take me to the Camp Rock dance auditions). So this was definitely a big highlight - I even had the opportunity to dance with Kenny Ortega, I was a little starstruck! Some other brands I have worked with include: Nike, Marc Jacobs Beauty, Missguided, Footasylum, Delilah, Next, Armani Beauty, French Connection, The FA. Oh and how could I forget, I shot my first advert with Coca Cola! Last but not least, I created my own makeup products... something I never thought I'd expect to say!
You could say that this year has been a pretty good but I know that there's room for so much more so I'm excited to make 2018 and even better. Every year I look back on my goals to see if I've accomplished them and I did well this time round. So I've created another list for 2017...
M Y G O A L S F O R 2018
M Y G O A L S F O R 2018
1 // BE FEARLESS - I want to take more opportunities as I realised I said no to a lot this year for silly reasons like being too scared or shy, so I'd love to try new things that are out of my comfort zone.
2 // START VLOGGING - I've been wanting to do this for a while, I really enjoy watching them so I'd love to create my own. I also think they'd be nice to look back on in the future.
3 // LEARN HOW TO DRIVE - There isn't really any reason why I haven't done this one yet. But now that I'm blogging full time it'd be helpful to have a car to take me places.
4 // DO MORE - And lastly, I just want to repeat what I have done this year but do more of it. I want more adverts, campaigns, trips, dance training, concerts, followers... :)
I more wrote this post so I can look back on it in a years time but I hope you enjoyed reading my highlights of 2017 too...
Happy New Year!
laurie-elle x
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