Resolutions?

This is the time of year for looking back and making grand pronouncements about what we will or will not do in the coming year, even though a year is a long time and New Year's resolutions rarely make it through January. It is nice to look back on where I've been and where I hope to be going in the coming year.

Things I accomplished in 2007:

1. Got into grad school.
2. Successfully taught a creative writing class by myself with a group of 3rd-5th grade students.
3. Helped establish my work with writing tutoring for 6th-8th graders as an ongoing volunteer program.
4. Made a friend unexpectedly who has already become one of the closest people in my life and who I expect will be a life-long friend.
5. Had a long relationship that taught me a lot about myself.
6. Found the courage to stand up for myself and end that same relationship when it grew increasingly unhealthy.
7. Began a serious and organized effort to get my poems published (aka, started a rejection slip collection).
8. Started to believe that I can be attractive to other people beyond my intellectual gifts.
9. Worked full-time and successfully navigated the minefield of a dysfunctional workplace.
10. Saved money and established a budget so that I should be able to get my masters without going into debt.

Things I would like to accomplish in 2008:

1. Break out of my patterns of procrastination.
2. Be more proactive about dating.
3. Make more of an effort to write new poems, without getting away from the good revision work that I've been doing.
4. Find out why my brother gets under my skin and learn to be at peace with him.
5. Commit the time to write an academic paper that represents my very best work.
6. Make more connections among the department's faculty and graduate students.
7. Restore the university's chapter of Sigma Tau Delta to viability with undergraduate leadership.
8. Find ways to travel without screwing up my budget (my upcoming trip to NYC will be a good start).
9. Learn more about teaching methods, effective classroom skills, and good pedagogy so that I'm more prepared to teach college-level courses.
10. Embrace the fantastic path I'm on without closing myself off to unexpected opportunities.
    

Things have changed significantly from where I was 365 days go, and while I don't foresee such dramatic changes in the coming year, I can only hope that my life improves as much in 2008 as it did in 2007.