New Year, More Me In-Progess
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New Year's always seems to bring the idea of "New Year, New You" and resolutions, and while I'll be waist-deep in this concept for work over the next few weeks (yay, content marketing for e-commerce!), instead of making "new me" as a goal for 2016, I've decided to look at it more as me, in-progress, and continue working on existing and newer goals as opposed to the idea I need to become a new person. I want to continue to grow and develop at work, to grow and develop with this blog, at some point get a header image and profile image I'm satisfied with for this page, and learn to take better flat lays. I want to learn to give less f*cks about things I really need to give less f*cks about, and keep working on managing my anxiety. There's of course the ubiquitous desire to eat healthier and move more and lose weight because it would make both myself and my doctors happy.
I also want to finish my first novel-length fictional draft, try to get at least one more short story accepted for publication this year, and improve my writing pace.
I'm also going to travel more, now that I'm in a somewhat stable contract for work with a flexible manager. I'm tentatively going to visit San Diego for the first time ever at the end of the month, using some Southwest points I want to burn up on that sine my BF has a work gig down there. With the Super Bowl being held way too close to home, and I'm not big on sports, we're fleeing to Las Vegas to spend the weekend with some East Coast friends since it's a short flight and I can hopefully finally see Evil Dead: The Musical. Then LA for Gallifrey One to nerd our over Doctor Who. Then Anime Boston end of March.
End of May, I'll be going to Amsterdam for the first time with a good friend who, while battling breast cancer (and thankfully is now in remission), mentioned one day wanting to go and a few weeks later I said let's just do it. So we should be there in time for tulips and good weather, and I'm pretty excited to visit my fourth European country! In the Fall, I'll be going a week long trip to Disney World with the group of my long-time, best friends for one of their birthdays, thanks to two of them being part of a Disney time share and having enough points to cover hotel rooms, because oh my God, Disney World isn't cheap and this helps our group so much in going. Because they're on the East Coast and I'm on the West Coast now, I only really see them for one day at Christmas, so I'm really looking forward to spending a week with them. And Dole Whip. And rum-infused Dole Whip. And Zebra Domes, because maaaan if you like coffee and chocolate based desserts, take the bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge, even if you aren't staying there, and buy the Zebra Domes from their quick food service shop or after a meal at Boma. Trust me on this, they're delicious.
Those are the travel plans so far, anything else is TBD. But if there's one thing 2014-2015 taught me, with seeing four friends being diagnosed with, battle, and sadly for one of them succumb to cancer, it's that you never know how many tomorrows you have; to take that trip you've always wanted to go on, or accomplish those goals you always say, "well someday...", because today might end up being all you have.
I'm fortunate to finally be in a place where I can take one or two fairly nice trips a year (with help from whatever points I have stashed ,deals, going off-season, etc.), after spending a decade struggling and scraping to get by and never taking any type of real vacation whatsoever, and what bits of PTO I did have I used volunteering for conventions and working long hours to make a lot of kids happy for a weekend.
In not so short, I'm hoping to keep progressing towards a happier, healthier life, to tick off those boxes of places I want to visit and things I want to accomplish, and try to better learn being more positive, which is something I do struggle with a lot.
So instead of trying to be a new me, I'm trying to work on me as I am and who I want to keep growing into as a person, and I hope many of you find more happiness and inspiration in your lives this year and that 2016 treats you well.
