Politically, 2017 was quite a traumatizing year. What I learned is that I’ve been pretty blind to a lot of the pain in others’ lives as I’ve comfortably been living mine. Openness to seeing my privilege and standing up for justice and taking time to rest and recuperate became much more important.
Personally, 2017 was a pretty great year. I got tenure. We moved to the State College area which has been awesome. After we moved, lots of friends and family visited us. We bought me a new car. I traveled a fair bit, including a trip to Israel with my family.
Here are my 2017 Updates
1. Cross-stitch: finish one project.
NO. I did some solid cross-stitch for the first four months of the year, and then it fell off.
2. Knitting: finish 12 projects plus a bunch of hats for the kiddos for the holiday.
NO. I did finish about 6 pairs of socks and 4 hats, but nowhere near 12 projects.
3. Spinning: start spinning again. I want to say 15 minutes a day is the ultimate goal, or at least 15 minutes several days a week.
NO. I barely did any spinning this year.
4. Books: 2 a month worked well for me last year, so let’s say 24 books again. Also, I’d like to read all of the graphic novels that I own.
NO. I started reading audiobooks more often though as I am listening on my commute. However, I only finished 20 books this year.
5. Research: I need to find the next right thing for me research-wise. I haven’t really had time for research as I focused on my teaching the last five years to get tenure at Juniata, but research is important to me. I will use this year to think and consider what my research agenda will be going forward.
SORT OF. I definitely thought about it a lot. I did a research project on the Pussyhat and other activist patterns. I wrote a sabbatical proposal to focus on undergraduate research. I don’t feel comfortable specializing in anything, however, and I need to think more about my identity as a scholar.
6. Blogging: I’d like to blog again. Maybe once a week?
NO. I barely blogged at all.
7. Journal: Bullet journal all year long
YES! I really love bullet journaling. I’ve enjoyed the doodles and handwriting and planning and emergent aspects of bullet journaling.
8. Board games: Now I play board games like I read books! I’d love to finish 2 legacy games. Also, it’d be great to play more of the games in shrink wrap that we have in our house.
YES. Gaming is back in our lives. We bought a new board game table. Finished 2 legacy games. We went to three board game conventions. We are starting a regular game night at our house.
9. Travel: This year, I have many travel plans that I’m excited about. The big one is a trip to Israel in August. I am also planning to visit Philly, Portland Oregon, MD Sheep and Wool, Columbus, Orlando, Dallas, and Chicago.
YES. The only thing I missed was MD cause I got sick. I also added a trip to Ohio for a conference in October.
10. Meditation: Maybe combine with spinning and journaling, but I’d like to start some kind of daily meditation routine. I seem to have this goal every year, and I never meet it. Daily routines are tough. But I’ll keep this one on here for now.
YES. Meditation is amazing. It’s been helping me a lot.
This year, I decided to have only 6 goals with some subgoals within each category. I want to focus on broader goals with some subgoals within those.
2018 Goals
1. Reading: My goodreads goal is to read 24 books this year. I’m also planning to try reading according to some reading challenges. I’m planning to try the #readingwomen challenge and the book riot read harder challenge. My general reading goal for 2018 is to read what I want to read.
2. Crafting: I’m not going to try any specific crafting challenges for 2018, but my overall goals are to work on some lingering WIPs and to craft what I want to craft.
3. Journaling: Going along with crafting, I plan to write a lot more often. I want to try to write in my journal every day. I plan to bullet journal all year. I’m also planning to track some things like I did last year, including books and travel.
4. Meditation: Last year I finally got some kind of meditation practice going, and although I didn’t meditate every day, I did find meditation incredibly helpful. I would like to keep trying to meditate daily, and also learn more about meditation and what works for me this year.
5. Health: I actually don’t do well making too many specific health goals. Mainly, I’d like to be more active in 2018 and find some ways to incorporate daily activity since I’m no longer walking to work.
6. Research: So since I will be on Sabbatical for 2018-2019, research goals are really important. My friends are doing one article or book chapter a week challenge, so I’d like to keep up with that, and one goal is to read more scholarship this year. I also would like to work on a publication. More broadly, I want to keep thinking about my place in the field and an ongoing, sustainable research agenda.
Sounds like a great list! happy New Year!