Well it looks like this little bloggy has fallen by the wayside but this yearly tradition continues. Got most of my resolutions/wish list for 2013 so why not send another one out into the great cosmos / internet
2013 highlights
- well I got dumped twice this year but don't worry bloggy babies because it was USEFUL - if there was no i) then there would have been no ii), and what came in between was important - this also means that I have been a BRAVE gal who got back on that horse and tried again and has the resolve to continue try, trying again, even if it's hard, even if it hurts, because things that are worth doing usually aren't easy. also I said ILY to another human being in a serious romantic way for the first time since I was 17, big deal, big girl GETTING IT ON
- master's thesis idea, research design and data collection and transcription and data coding, no small feat
- found a relevant summer job that paid $$$ and granted me information and networking opportunities
- hosted a veritable BEVY of lovely and loving visitors to my new home in the southern half of this country - best friends, family and acquaintances alike and this shall continue 2 days after I get back to town
- healthy routines maintained! better cooking eating & staying full
- participated in a serious political moment for women's health in the TX legislature, revived/regained my passion for organizing/making a difference and got to know other people who feel the same
- grad student organizing is a thing at my university and it all started because of my friend Adam and I. we put on some good stuff, we got the word out, we gathered momentum. I met a bunch of new and good friends from it, I got involved in student government, I became known as somebody who knows what's going on and is working on changing things
- I made new friends. I am widening my Austin network. I got closer with friends from before and found new ones too. this had been the loneliest part of moving but I grow less and less lonely as I am sinking in my roots
- made it through a seriously TOUGH semester in terms of course content; emerged from the ugliest depths of the social world (child poverty, sexual violence) no longer demoralized but with vibrant ideas and a renewed commitment to social change
- learned more about MYSELF: that I am a social creature and good talks with good folks revitalize me and are essential to my happiness and well-being; found a seasonal pattern of sadness that I am taking steps to preempt; discovered a tendency towards complacency within unhappy relationships - these are USEFUL, I can do things better now that I know them
- abundance: not only sufficient but comfortable necessities even on the penury of a TA stipend; more than enough intellectual puzzles to last me a lifetime; more people that I love than I could ever count
2014 goals
- write, revise, finish master's thesis. submit portions for publication
- finesse academic relationships, work through disputes professionally and respectfully
- learn enough STATA to write a paper with PES/CAS data
- find a way to get paid in the summer (bonus points if relevant to research)
- find a new living situation that I like even a fraction as much as the one I have now
- G.F.H.; try to do a race competitively maybe
- organize, build networks politically, professionally and personally
- keep in touch with people back home more consistently
- do not write anybody off. not even the mailman. patience. appreciate the sanctity of others' time, give everyone the time of day
- learn how to harmonize
- work with/through tendencies; know thyself. break up with people if they don't make you happy, don't wait for somebody else to do it. open up to other people, be vulnerable, get hurt. it's okay. it's never the end of the world anyway
- in leisure time, do stuff that makes you feel good (music, books, catch up with friends) not stuff that makes ya feel bad (facebook for hours)
- remember the Big Questions and tackle them again. discuss and debate and refine them with others. be open to learn from them, be open to be wrong. be tolerant. keep asking and looking and thinking and reading about it
- tell the people you love and like and appreciate that you love and like and appreciate them. practice gratitude. be patient
- practice the harmonica
maybe i'll seeya in 2015 suckers!
