This was a great year. Well, I think it was anyway. I accomplished quite a bit. I took the GRE and did quite well, I volunteered with some kick-ass folks at my favorite kick-ass non-profit, I started writing creatively, I applied to grad schools, I paid off my car loan, and on top of it all, I jumped out of an airplane.
This is the end of a decade, too. Everybody's talking about it, so I started thinking about where I was ten years ago and where I might be ten years from now. I feel like it would be completely pointless to say that I've grown a lot over the last decade. Ten years ago, I was 14, so if I hadn't grown up at least a little bit since then, then I would have some serious problems. When I read the diaries and journals I kept as a teenager, I'm embarrassed for myself. "Boys, boys, boys. Why don't boys like me? Boys, boys. Why am I not thin enough? Boys, boys. I don't want people to think I'm some kind of feminist. Boys, boys. What am I going to do with my life?"
(Interesting note here: A few weeks ago, I found one such journal I kept when I was 18. I flipped it open to a random page, and the first thing I landed on, I had written a really angsty entry that began with, "I don't think Dave likes me, and I don't think he ever will." Yes, that Dave.)
I guess that's pretty typical for a teenage girl, though. I'm proud of the person I've become, and I think 14-year-old Laura would be pretty impressed, too. In high school, I didn't have the faintest idea that I would be a reporter or even remotely interested in a media career. In high school, I thought I was going to be a veterinarian or a cop or a lawyer. Then I got a D in biology, and later decided that I really didn't want to wear a Kevlar vest to work or take the LSAT. Things change, or as some say, shit happens.
Already, I have some pretty lofty expectations for 2010. By the way, what are we calling it? "Two-thousand-ten" or "Twenty-ten"? I think I'm going to go with "Twenty-ten," personally.
New Year's resolutions are kinda cheesy, and I don't keep most of them anyway, but I've still made a list. I'd like to hear yours, too, but not if they're stupid or cliche ones, like "I want to lose weight" (unless you're like my good friend Matt Engelhardt and can write a witty-as-hell blog about it) or "I want to finally chase those rabid squirrels out of my attic crawlspace" (face it: those squirrels are never going anywhere).
My 2010 New Year's resolutions:
1. I will get better at chess.
2. I will learn to play poker.
3. I will set aside one night each week for myself, to read, write, and just veg out. In other words, I will make relaxation a priority.
4. I will not obsessively check my work email and voice mail from outside the office.
5. I will blog at least once a week.
6. I will not let my credit card balance exceed 20% of my limit (except, obviously, in case of emergencies).
7. I will save at least 10% of each paycheck. (Not really a very good resolution. I already do this, but let's just say I'll keep on doing it.)
8. I will write more fiction.
9. I will learn to cook at least one meal that doesn't suck. (NOTE: I am definitely not turning into some little domestic pet. It's just dawning on me that I may need to prepare my own food someday in the not-too-distant future. Besides, I'm not cooking for any children or menfolk, except maybe Dave... and only if he's nice to me.)
10. I will keep about 1/3 of these resolutions.
One final note: Happy New Year, everyone! Have fun and be safe!
What a great old journal entry!
ReplyDeleteIan and I went through old stuff last night, too, and he found a very, very funny note I'd written him in high school (or, darkly funny, because I was being a twit) about where we "stood" as a couple. Oy. I have no idea why he liked me then.
We've also decided to write, every new year's (starting with this one) a list of things we hope we'll do, or will have done, or have accomplished, in the upcoming decade - and we can't open the list until new year's day ten years from then. Should be interesting.