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| me at the beginning of 2011. i was in mexico when i made my new years reolutions. lookin' fresh and ready for the roller coaster ride of a year ahead of me. |
The good thing is, I don't feel too bad about myself when I don't achieve all the goals I set for myself, because I know that I did my best under the circumstances.
So, I want to look back at some of the goals I set for myself at the beginning of 2011. I accomplished some of them, and a lot of them I never really got around to completing. But you know what? That's life. If I've ever had a year where life got in the way of all my plans and good intentions, 2011 was that year. Life totally kicked my ass, actually. It didn't just send me down a road I wasn't planning on going down, it sent me to an entire different dimension.
Anyways, here were my new years resolutions of 2011:
1. Continue to strive for happiness (above all other things). I think I did this pretty well. There were a lot of times throughout 2011 that I threw caution to the wind and did something that was going to make me happy despite how unconventional it might have been. I took a lot of risks and had a great time. After Linn died I found it difficult to know or remember what made me happy, but I think I did the right thing in taking the last 2 months of the year to just be with myself and remember.
2. Maintain a weight of 120 pounds. I did this all year, until Linn died. then I blew up a bit. Now I'm working on getting back down. No more alcohol and eddas cheesy bread for me!
3. Be more outgoing and make several new friends. I think I pulled this off pretty well. I got really close with everyone I went on the Greece trip with, and now I'm good friends with all my coworkers at Brooklyn. In 2011 I also got much closer to my friends from Eddas.
4. Spend more carefully and save more money. I accomplished this in that I got a job and took a personal finance class, but I didn't actually save much.
5. Continue going on dates, playing games, laughing, joking, and loving with Stewart. Hmm. Well, Stewart and I had a great spring semester together, although shortly after I returned from Greece we broke up. Luckily, we stayed very close friends and lived together for the rest of 2011. So I guess I accomplished this.
6. Find more things to be passionate about. I love a lot of things, but I don't know that I found anything new to be passionate about this year. Unless Pinterest counts.
7. Always be reading a book. I'm in the middle of several books right now, but unfortunately I haven't read much since I got back from Greece. I'd like to start again. I feel like before shit went crazy last year I had so much time and I was doing so many things at once. School, working out, blogging, reading, socializing, traveling... I hope I remember how to do that again.
8. Worry less. Hm. I think I definitely became more apt to try risks, but new fears were also introduced into my life. But that's the way it goes, right? I think a small dose of fear is healthy. It keeps us from doing stupid things.
9. Do more creative things. I think I accomplished this. I learned to play some new songs on the piano, and spent a lot of time singing. I also wrote a few poems and started a couple stories. My film production class last semester also provided a great creative outlet. When linn died, I wrote a lot and also constructed a lovely 20 page scrapbook that helped me to take my crazed, grieving energy and focus it into something that turned out to be beautiful and healing.
10. Write 300 blog posts. Obviously I failed at this, but I don't really care. One of those things where life got in the way :)
11. Start compiling recipes and cooking new ones from online, cookbooks, magazines, etc. I think I accomplished this. With the help of foodgawker and pinterest, I was very cuisine-inspired last year. My favorite dishes included alton brown's chicken pot pie, that absolutely divine crazy feta recipe I posted, the pioneer woman's burgundy mushrooms, some feta saganaki I made when I returned from Greece, and pdubs brined turkey. A church down the street gave me a turkey for thanksgiving, and I was really excited to cook it because I had never tried before. Totally easier than the movies make it out to be.
Here are things I accomplished in 2011 that I didn't even fathom would happen:
1. Date Linn, who I secretly had a crush on since I met him in May of 2010.
2. Get a tattoo. In a very visible place, no less.
3. Be the guest of honor at a surprise party
4. Get roofied in Greece. Not exactly something I wanted to happen, but a crazy story and life experience, none the less.
5. Hike the Samarian Gorge. Something much better that happened in Greece.
6. Learn to cope with immeasurable loss.
7. Record a song
8. Work on foley for an independent film
9. Successfully live with my ex-boyfriend
10. Love something unconditionally, no matter how early it wakes me up with barking and gnawing on my fingers or how many times it pees on the carpet.
11. Pull off catering for a camp after a sleep-deprived month in a different time zone.
12. Pull myself together and push through it all, coming out on the other side (mostly) unscathed.
Obviously this is a little late, but I wanted to talk about it anyways. New Years resolutions are funny. We can try and attain all these goals we set for ourselves, but I've found that most of the time life seems to get in the way. Hopefully its for the better.
I hope your new years resolutions are already working out :) I'm not sure if I'll make a list for this year (now that we're one sixth of the way through) but we'll see. Have a lovely weekend!
Love,
Em
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