New Years Resolutions: 2020

Happy New Year!  It's that time of year again where I set goals for myself.  This year is going to be one of great change and so on top of this, I am also approaching my goal setting in a slightly different way that I have previously.  First, I will not be setting nearly as many goals for myself as I have in the past.  Last year I set 12 goals for myself across the categories "personal," "media" (meaning my online presence), and "professional."  This year I have 6 goals that melds these worlds together, but hopefully in a more focused way so that I'm more likely to accomplish a majority of these goals.  I also have some action steps outlined that I hope will help keep me focused and help me feel like these bigger goals that I set for myself can actually be accomplished.

Without further ado, here are my goals for the year 2020:

1. Get ready for our baby!  We have already started work on this goal, but since my due date is in May, we will have to be intentional about getting some of these things done sooner rather than later.  Preparing for a small human is no small task, as it turns out.  In order to accomplish this goal, we'll need to do the following:

• Build furniture and arrange the room (I know that baby will be in our room for a while to start and that this isn't 100% necessary to complete prior to his arrival, but this is something that will make me feel better about bringing home a newborn).
• Take parenting classes (we'll sign up soon, but won't take them until sometime in the third trimester)
• Fill out hospital paperwork (again, this is a 30+ week thing, not a right-now thing)
• Research birth options (I want to go in with a rough idea of how things will work even if things ultimately change)
• Choose a daycare (we're working on this)

2. KonMari the whole apartment.  The first book I finished this year was "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo.  I am feeling very inspired to take back my house and make it a place that is comfortable to live in.  Ideally, this would be done before baby arrives, but I'm not going to put that kind of pressure on myself.  My action steps will be to follow the order that Marie Kondo outlines in her book, but after discarding and putting things away, I want to work on rearranging the house.

3. Get a handle on my grading life.  This is part of my mission to pursue balance in my life and some separation between work and home. 

• Avoid bringing grading home as much as possible by grading at school
• Stick to grading schedule + staying after school schedule.

4. Post on blog 1-2 times a month.

• 1 reading blog post at the end of each month
• 1 life blog post in the middle of the month (could be about school, home, or something totally unrelated.  I just want to use my blog more)

5. Successfully complete InCoWriMo 2020.  This occurs in February and I will write one letter to someone (a current pen pal or a new one) each day.

6. Yoga or other exercises 5 days a week.  This is a goal I keep having each year, but I'm hoping my action steps will help me be successful in accomplishing this goal by the end of the year.

• Build up to this number of days (I'll start with 2 days a week and add a day every 2 months so that I have a long stretch where at the end of 2020, I'm exercising 5 days a week.  I think that's how I can get myself to stick with this goal).
• Find supporting classes + YouTube videos (if you know any resources on prenatal yoga, that would be really helpful.  After May, I'll use Yoga with Adriene as much as possible)
• Consider signing up for an at-home program (I follow a couple people on Instagram who use a program that sends a really good message, but I'm unsure about the cost and some other things.  But I don't want to totally rule it out until I have some answers).

Reviewing My 2019 Goals

Welcome to 2020!  I want to take a moment and look back at the goals that I set myself for 2019.  I'll write a separate post for my 2020 goals shortly after this post goes up.

Personal

1. Participate in and win National Novel Writing Month.  I definitely participated in NaNoWriMo this year, but I didn't win this year.  I attribute this to a few things.  First, I didn't have a plan going into NaNoWrimo.  I am not a good "pantser," or person who flies by the seat of their pants when it comes to writing a novel.  I did not prepare to the extent that I should have and that I asked my students to prepare.  Secondly, I was too rigid with my story.  When I felt myself slipping because I was losing interest in my story (why did I think it was a good idea to make my character part of the coast guard when I don't give a crap nor know the first thing about the coast guard?), I didn't switch gears fast enough.  This sort of relates to my third point that I was shooting too much for perfection.  I think I was floating into NaNoWriMo this year with the confidence that I have won the past two years, this year should be no different.  I thought that I had the fortitude to stick with whatever story I started no matter what.  But alas, it was not enough.  So, this goal is only half accomplished.

2. Travel 3 or more times this year.  I did accomplish this goal!  I went on a scrapbooking weekend in February, I went to Utah and New Mexico in June, and I also went to a cabin for a week with my family in July.  Mission accomplished!

3. Play a whole song from a musical on piano.  Nope.  Maybe in 2020.  I didn't put in the time that I needed to in order to accomplish this goal.

4. Exercise 3 days a week.  I have come to the conclusion that I am approaching my goals like this in the wrong way.  I don't think I've ever had a progression when it comes to accomplishing this goal.  I have always written goals like this and expected that I would immediately start exercising that many times in a week as opposed to saying I would reach this by the end of the year.  So by the end of 2019, I didn't do this.  I did have 2 full months where I did yoga with my partner as we followed Yoga with Adriene on YouTube.  I need to approach this goal with more grace for myself.  That'll be what I work on next year.  

Media

5. Read and/or listen to 70 books this year.  Yes!  It took me until New Year's Eve to accomplish this, but I hit 70 books this year!  Woohoo!

6. Read 20 books that are already on my shelves.  Mission accomplished!  I'd like to keep cleaning out my bookshelf in this way going into 2020 as well.

7. Write book posts once a month.  I will say that I half accomplish this.  I did get book posts written, but they were not posted once a month.  I want to have more of a blogging schedule in 2020.  I think the way I'm writing book posts is working for me, I just want to make sure that I'm writing them soon after the month is complete.

8. Write more about teaching and life.  Nope.  This didn't really happen.  I'll be working on this in 2020.

Professional

9. Set up website for classroom and teaching.  I have accomplished this goal in the sense that I set up the website, but I never actually used it.  I think this is something that I'm not very serious about doing at this point in time.  Perhaps in the future.

10. Go to 2 professional development opportunities.  I will consider this goal accomplished.  I went to one professional development opportunity by choice about trauma in students and my school is going through ongoing professional development with someone named Cornelius Minor out of New York.  We are continuing to work with him through this school year and I'll be reading his book this year too.  

11. Create higher level quizzes and tests.  This did not happen yet.  The school year is still going on, so it's not too late to accomplish this goal for this school year.  I don't think I'll keep this as one of my official goals for the year though.

12. Pass my GRE and apply to Grad School.  This is another goal that is half finished.  I took my GRE over the summer and I got a score that I am happy with (especially my writing score!), but because I am expecting a baby, I chose not to apply to graduate school just yet.  I thought it would be too much pressure to put on myself and too stressful to go through at the same time as other life changes are happening.  Luckily, my test scores are good for 7 years, so I will consider starting my Master's degree in a year or so.  We'll check in after the start of 2021, let's say.

Even though I didn't accomplish all of the goals I set for myself in 2019, I still feel like this was a good year.  There are many life changes happening and I think I'll be continuing my pursuit of balance, as I have for the past couple years.  This year I am working on boundaries and considering what that means to me and what it means for my life.  I'm hoping that 2020 will be even better than 2019.

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

December 2019 Reads

Admittedly, I've been feeling the push to meet my 2019 goal of reading 70 books.  I fell quite behind, despite a strong start.  But with the permission to relax and let go over winter break came a lot of time to read, and I ended up meeting my goal, which makes me incredibly happy!  Here are the books I finished this month:

• The Umbrella Academy, Vol. 1 by Gerard Way
• Drama by Raina Telgemaier
• Paper Towns by John Green
• Paper Girls, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan
• For Everyone by Jason Reynolds
• Noise by Kathleen Raymundo
• Kid Gloves by Lucy Knisley
• On A Sunbeam by Tillie Walden
• Love is Love: A Comic Book Anthology to Benefit the Survivors of the Orlando Pulse Shooting by Marc Andreyko
• Nichijou, Vol. 1, 2, 3
• Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration by Bryan Caplan
• Street Angel by Jim Rugg
• We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• The Tales of Beadle the Bard by J.K. Rowling
• Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: A Graphic Novel by Pete Katz

As usual, I will just talk about a handful that have really stuck with me from this bunch.  I also love that most of these are graphic novels... it's been so wonderful to get to indulge in them.

The Umbrella Academy, Vol. 1 by Gerard Way

I picked up this book a long time ago, long before the show was even a thing on Netflix... maybe in middle school.  But I didn't finish.  I don't think I had an idea of what was going on in this story.  So I'm really glad that I didn't try to force myself to read it anyway, but waited a bit.  I think I needed more practice with graphic novels, if that makes sense.

This book is sort of an anti-superhero story.  I can't say that the characters in this story have led better lives because they have powers and dedicate their lives, at least for a time, to fighting crime.  This is an interesting angle for me.  I imagine that being a superhero is a lot of pressure and isn't all that it's cracked up to be. 

Some things in this book seemed a little random (like the Eiffel Tower blasting off in the beginning of the book... I hope this is addressed in future volumes), but they also caught my attention and make me want to read more.  It's like this book needed something weird in order to kick off the story and force us to stop everything and listen.  I think this book has only whet my appetite and I can't wait to get my hands on more issues of these graphic novels.  I want to see how this story ends.

Paper Girls, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan

This book has been sitting on my Amazon wishlist for a while (I don't know why I didn't seek these books out myself sooner), so I was really glad when I got it for Christmas! 

I didn't really get what Paper Girls referred to prior to reading this.  Maybe it would feature the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope?  Or break it down?  But it turns out I could interpret this term literally-- they are girls in the 80s who bike around in the early morning and deliver newspapers. 

This book had a strong "Stranger Things" and "War of the Worlds" vibe which I kind of loved.  After finishing this first volume, I'm left with a lot of questions, but I loved every second of asking those questions.  I think I need to read a few more volumes before passing a true opinion on this series, but just this first volume has gotten me really excited to read this series.  Maybe I'll finish in 2020!


Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos by Lucy Knisley

At the end of 2019, I announced to family and friends that my partner and I are expecting our first baby this coming May!  Naturally, I want to know everything there is to know about pregnancy and giving birth now.  I saw that someone I'm connected with on GoodReads was reading this book and I was instantly intrigued. 

Lucy Knisley and her partner struggled with infertility when they started trying to expand their family.  It turns out that when you actually want to get pregnant, it can be quite hard to conceive even if you don't struggle with issues of infertility.  Reading this, I was a little bit relieved that it wasn't just me thinking about how hard this whole process was as I took medication, took ovulation tests, consulted with my doctor... everything involved.  It could be very disheartening, and I never needed surgery in order to successfully conceive.  In this way, Lucy Knisley's book made me feel seen.

It's interesting comparing my experiences in my first and second trimesters with hers.  Her experience was a lot more tumultuous because she was sick several times every day and I never was.  Not bragging or anything, but I definitely expected to feel more than a little nauseous, especially early on. 

The part where she described her birth was really scary to me.  Oddly, until I read this part of her book, I haven't felt particularly nervous about the actual birth process.  I've been watching birth vlogs that people post on YouTube that goes through everything from labor to delivery and even though it can get intense, it still hasn't scared me, even when I can see... well, everything.  But to hear that she was basically ignored in the hospital (she has undiagnosed preeclampsia, despite the fact that she was noticing the signs and tried asking her doctor about them) and then had a really scary emergency delivery after a long and arduous labor... and that her partner wasn't allowed to be with her after their baby was born while they were stabilizing her... that was more than I could handle.  I remember crying and panicking myself to sleep the night I finished reading it.

I guess if you read this and you are expecting (especially your first), I think it is a worthwhile read, but take breaks towards the end if you're a nervous reader like me.

On A Sunbeam by Tillie Walden

My partner got this for Christmas one year (I think) and it's been sitting on our shelf ever since.  It's kind of a thick volume, even for a graphic novel, so it was a little bit intimidating to pick up.

I like that focus on women in this book.  The main character, Mia, goes to a boarding school for girls, she later joins a reconstruction team that is made up of women and nonbinary folks, and there is a society where it feels like the default is that you're attracted to women rather than our current default where relationships are centered on male and female relationships.  I liked experiencing what this shift could feel like if relationships were accepted just the way they are.  It was refreshing.

I love the ending when they go to try and find Grace.  Mia convinces her team to go to where she lives (a very dangerous place, it turns out), but doesn't have any expectations for the outcome of their encounter.  She is open to sweeping her off her feet and living happily ever after, but at the very least, she just wants some closure and to be able to say goodbye if she can.  I think that's awesome and such a great perspective on what a relationship should be, especially if it's a relationship that's been cut short for a while.  I loved those small moments of celebration.  This was a wonderful read.

Street Angel by Jim Rugg

This book caught me by surprise a bit.  It's a story featuring a 12-year-old homeless girl that reminds me a lot of Uma Thurman a la Kill Bill.  She's a badass fighter and someone her messed up city can and does turn to in times of great peril. 

It's kind of a quirky read.  She's not just battling typical bad guys like it other superhero stories, but she's also battling some completely unexpected characters too... Cortez and his Spanish Armada that has been transported through time by Incan gods, Satan himself... just really off-the-wall bad guys.  I thought it was awesome!

If you're looking for a book with fairly short chapters and some good actions and quirky characters, this is a great book to try!

This wraps up my reading for 2019!  I can't wait to see what I get to read in 2020 :)

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude