Jennavier Gilbert: New Years Resolutions

The time has come for the New Years Resolutions. Well, the time has come for me. Most people have already finished theirs. You know, when it’s actually New Years. I’m a champion procrastinator so mine are a little delayed. Last year I didn’t finish writing them out until February. Plus, who voted that we should sit down and figure out our lives at the same time as we’re trying to celebrate? It’s very inefficient. So New Years should be in March or something.

How did I do last year? Well, it was a mixed bag. As these sort of things usually are. Since I’ve lost my list- and the iPod that it was on (yikes!)- I can only remember three.

Take care of Mental and Physical Health- this is an interesting one for me. My health has always been shaky. This year I wanted to take the time to actually better my mental state in the hopes that it would by physical problems. Since I didn’t have health insurance it really was the only available option. It’s still in process but I did a lot of work over the last year. That works paid off and I’m doing a lot better then I was at this point in 2013.
Learn basic Spanish- Did this! It was very, very basic Spanish but I signed myself up for a Spanish course at the local community college. I haven’t gotten much beyond hola and cuando but I’m still going. My next class starts in two weeks.
Learn to play the easy hymns on the piano- Ummm….. this one was a wash. I was really great in the beginning of the year and learned to play a couple but then I gave up. Aformentioned health problems made it insanely difficult to get to and from the piano I was practicing on and this fell by the wayside.

So what’s up for this year? That’s the hard part. Some things are just a continuation of last years and those are easy. It’s the original ones that are hard! I have so many things I want to do but I’m trying to keep my expecatations reasonable.

Learn Intermediate Spanish- It seems that after learning beginning next is intermediate? Jonathon warns me that I’m being a little too ambitious. My hope is that after another year I’ll be able to hold basic conversations and read childrens books without a dictionary. Not quite intermediate level, but it sounds better then saying beginner Spanish again.
Learn to play the easy hymns on the piano- Once more unto the breach!
Get a novel submission ready- I’ve written a lot. I’ve dreamed a lot. But up to now I haven’t had anything that was really ready to see the light of day. I did have a pretty impressive query fail a few years ago that I really don’t want to repeat. That’s why I’m pushing myself to learn how to edit. Because while I’m so much better than I was I’m still not good enough to go where I want to go. So this year is going to be the year where I close that gap.
Something personal that I’ve been putting off and something for my youth group that’s going to be a ridiculous amount of work.