January 1st! Happy New Years, dear readers :).
It’s time to reflect on last years goals and set some new ones. If you allow me some flexibility with my resolutions from last year – I think I met a good deal of them.
Let’s take a look..
Now that I’m finished with my undergraduate degree, and I’m no longer tied to one place, my goal is to be completely moved to NYC by the end of the spring. I will be heading there in February to secure a place. This will be the first time I’ve lived anywhere but Kent… and I don’t plan on going back.
If I amend that goal to read “get out of Ohio and move somewhere” than I did that. Instead of moving ~6 hours to the big city, I moved across the country to Oregon instead. That is pretty big. I didn’t end up moving to a giant city (I’m south of Portland but in a smaller city). I did get a house instead of a tiny studio apartment. That’s a win and the cats appreciate it.
I’ve been putting some thought into this and I plan on continuing school to get my master’s degree.
I was accepted into the program – so I think I should get a little credit for this one ;). I ended up deferring to spring because of the move and then ultimately decided not to do the program. One of the reasons is because I became a team lead at Automattic (WordPress.com) which has taught me a lot itself. I also feel like it would be hard to balance a new degree with a new role. However, if I change this goal to “advance professionally” you can check this one of off!
My third goal is to write each and everyday. That means that I should have at least 356 blog posts by the end of next year.
I have nothing to say for this one. I failed :). It turns out blogging is really really hard. I’ll keep writing though – I still think it is a fantastic outlet for everyone.
The fourth and final goal relates to moving. I hope to make as many new friends and meet as many new people as I can. I’m starting over in a completely new place where I will know next to no one and I will need to make new local friends. I want to take use of as many opportunities as I can to meet people (such as doing improv classes). I don’t want to waste a moment. Who knows.. maybe I’ll even meet someone.
This can be marked as resolved without further edit. I went on a date with a wonderful person named Andrea 3 days after moving out here. We’ve been together ~4 months now. I also rang in the new year last night with a group of awesome people that I met entirely here. I also have Kristyn and Anthony who moved out here with me. I feel like I have a pretty good social circle here — and still have friends in other places that I video chat or play games with often.
So what about next year?
I’m not a firm believer that new years day is some magic construct that gives you a fresh start… you are still the same person once that ball drops. However, it is a good time to set goals for the next few months — just remember that you can restart these if you mess up. You don’t have to wait till 2016 to make your life better.
The only two I have this are:
#1. Develop better savings habits.
I’m a fortunate person.. but I could greatly improve my future by starting to save and invest. That includes paying off my debts and putting aside savings for stuff I would like to do in the future.
#2. Fill my life with more meaningful interactions.
Both online and off. Online, I’ve started this by purging my Facebook friend list and removing negativities, people I don’t talk to, or people that just clutter up my friends list (post something racist or sexist? you don’t belong in my newsfeed) — but I want to take that one step further and actually meaningfully engage with people online instead of just being passive. Offline, I want to spend more time with the people love — both here in Oregon and elsewhere.
Fin.
I think these are vague enough that I should be able to hit both next year. We’ll see :).
Happy New Years everyone!
