Dear god, I just looked up my resolutions for this year and I swear that I wrote this list more than just a year ago. How can one year feel so long? I truly can’t wrap my head around the fact that Black Panther and Into the Spider-verse (phenomenal movie, by the way) were both released in the same year.

Although, I suppose there were some big changes that happened in my life, so perhaps it’s to be expected. In this one year, I graduated college with a bachelor’s degree, I moved to Long Island to study in grad school, I’m living alone (well, with five housemates I don’t really hang out with) and paying rent for the first time, and I don’t have a dining plan. Slowly but surely, I’m taking steps into adulthood, whatever that means.

However, in the end, those aren’t the kind of changes that matter to me. I’ve always been the kind of person to take those kind of changes – life changes – in stride. Milestones don’t necessarily feel like milestones to me, and I’ve long since accepted growing up as an inevitability. I think of growing up as independent from my growth as a person.

The changes that I care about are the ones that influence my growth as a person, and there were a few of those this year.

I’ve met a handful of people this year who have led very different lives from me. Their experiences are profoundly different in ways that I had never even imagined, and getting to know them has broadened the way I look at the world. I know for a fact that I am more open-minded now than I was at the beginning of the year. I am better informed about the variance of life, and I am a better, more compassionate person for it.

Over the past months, I’ve gotten to know a few of these people on a more personal level. I have since developed a great respect for these few, not only as content creators but as individuals, and I find myself hoping that we can be committed, long-term friends. Those of you who know me realize how rare this is, me wanting to be friends with someone.

These are individuals who inspire me to be better, work harder, and ultimately become the kind of person that I want to be – all things that this blog is supposed to help me accomplish. So, I’m back, and I’m ready for the New Year. I’m resolved and ready for a fresh batch of resolutions. But first, we have to revisit the old ones:

2018 Resolutions (completed)

• Reduced imitation baked goods from my diet
• Sold or otherwise donated excess belongings
• Learned to cook three new things
• Read at least five non-school-assigned books
• Moved from Rough Draft to First Draft phase on one of my novels!

As far as track records go, five resolutions isn’t bad. Of course, I didn’t get to everything on my list or the resolutions I missed the year before, but considering that in my adolescence I wouldn’t keep any resolutions, I think this is a step forward.

However, this year I’ll take it a step further. Maybe this year I’ll be able to finish at least six. So, without further ado, my resolutions for this upcoming year:

2019 Resolutions

• Get my dream diary up-to-date to anticipate publication in 2020. Get the short story versions of longer dreams done.

• Write at least one poem a week; alternatively, keep a journal, practicing describing at least one remarkable event a week.

• Write at least a paragraph every day in one of my main projects.

• Stretch in the morning and or evening for at least five minutes.

• Return to reading at least one novel a month, regardless of writing. (Read a minimum of 12 books.)

• Finish at least three video games I have yet to finish.

• Adhere to the blog schedule I set up for myself for the entire year.

• Write and revise at least two short stories.

• Adhere to the blog schedule I set up for myself for the entire year.

• Get my emergency fund back up to $1000.

• Draw at least once a month.

• Remove store-bought chips from my diet (again).

• Learn to cook at least three new things.

• Make significant progress on either a non-novel story idea.

 

Happy New Year, everyone. Let’s make 2019 a year to remember fondly.