Saturday, December 29, 2007

Keepin on

Resolutions mean a lot to me. Anytime I get a chance to try something new, turn a new page, make new decisions, etc. I'm all over it. I love new chances.

I also like reflecting. I like looking back and evaluating. Trying to figure out what went right, what went wrong. What I liked, disliked, etc.

So you can imagine this is a great time of year for me. And so, without any further ado - let me go ahead and do both.

In 2007, I wanted to make some serious changes in my life. I was living a pathetic life of mediocrity. I was only making enough money to get by, in a job I absolutely LOATHED. I knew I wanted to go into teaching, but was making no effort. I was a volunteer for a youth group where I knew only 5% of the students and wasn't actively involved at all. So I made a resolution to quit my job, go into teaching and get more involved.

Anybody who knows me at all knows that I did all of these things - and I did them well. While actually turning in my resignation was the hardest thing I've ever done, in the end, it brought me great joy. I got to follow my heart into teaching, which has taken me on the wildest ride ever. I mean, really, this time last year, teaching was just a thought I had, and now I've already got a semester under my belt. And the youth group? Yeah, I'd say we're pretty involved. It's hard to quantify our interaction, but I am personally involved in a couple dozen lives, help teach the senior sunday school class and practically adopted one as our son (shout out: Dylan).

And I can't take credit for any of this. God has taken me on the craziest spiritual journey ever. And it started right away, too. In January, our church began a Journey of Faith, and week after week, we studied examples of characters with great faith and every different story came with more encouragement and inspiration. I could not see Dec 29, 2007 in my head, but I knew it would come one day. And I just had to trust in God to take me there. There's so much more I could write in this blog, but I have a tendency to go on too long...

So in 2008, I want to take another journey. Well, actually, I want to continue the same journey. Because what I didn't tell you was that part of my 07 resolution was also to move to a new apt and get a puppy, but when I realized that waiting to move would be financially smarter (Thanks, Dave), I put it off. Now this year, I'm hoping to conclude that resolution. Hopefully I can learn to prioritize my spending. I also like to throw in fun things to my resolution like trying something new every month. I accomplished this in 07 (more on this later), so I want to do it again in 08.

What about you? Reflections? Resolutions? Thoughts?

2 comments:

Danielle and David said...

Hi,

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Kate said...

I'm keeping on my 52 projects. I've skipped a couple weeks, but I've also done the following: got back on a bike, went rollerblading (and fell, and got up), finished our wedding album, cleaned out our cars, started working out again, started cooking again, went media-less for a week, went kayaking, got my wedding photography portfolio up online, fixed up our new budget and started knitting socks.

Some of mine for 2008: journal daily for a week, go a week without spending any money, swap out all the photos in our house, do some fun household crafts, catch up on my scrapbooking, read through all the Gospels again, dance every day for a week, catalog all the SYTYCD eps, take a week to pamper myself, start some 'green' habits, start rock climbing, learn to drive a stick shift and take a weekend camping trip.

This is why we're friends. Lists bond us. :-)