I don’t have a cool title for but hey it’s 2020

It's a new year, which means people are making resolutions. I admire those who make New Year's resolutions with the goal of making changes over the year, because honestly ya girl hates change. I'm painfully routine, like I've eaten the same thing for breakfast almost every day for the last 2.5 years kind of routine. It's a problem. But more than that, I don't really see the point of only making changes at the beginning of the year when you have 12 months to tackle these things anyway. It's awesome if you stick to those things, but I feel like you can face those changes at any given moment and it not seem like such an obstacle. Saving things for the New Year makes them hold more weight.

That being said, in 2019 I did make a to-do style list of goals I wanted to accomplish by the end of the year. It was a fun way to keep a focus on some bigger goals I wanted to tackle, when I remembered to check my list. Even though I only succeeded at 3 of the 9 goals I wrote down, looking back at the list made me want to think about all the "smaller" things I accomplished without even realizing it in the moment. I've said it before, but I'm good at getting stuck in my head about the negative things. This is another of my little lists to counter that.

 So that's what this is. The "big" and the "small" successes of 2019 that make me happy.

Here's the three things I had actually written out:

1. Read 5 books:

• I read 7! That may not sound like much, but compared to 2018 when I trudged through maybe 2, it was a huge thing. Here's what I read:
• Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson
• A Lite Too Bright by Samuel Miller
• Contagion by Erin Bowman
• An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green
• A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (reread)
• Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden 
• The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena 

2. Go to two new places.

• This started off as a goal to go to two new cities/states, but ended up being just two new places I had never been, as it made more sense. I went to Universal Studios, Big Kahuna's water park, and Magnolia Branch Wildlife Reserve for camping. But I did end up traveling to four cities over the year! Birmingham, Orlando, Nashville, and Atlanta. 

3. Find what I'm passionate about work-wise.

• I'd like to think I did this. Over the last year, I fell in love with working with my kids at The Learning Tree. I loved helping them reach new goals and learn new skills. I loved seeing the growth and building relationships with every kid on my team, even the ones who liked to be punks 24/7. I got to see them learn new words, how take themselves to the bathroom, to write their names, to mimic knocking on a table, and so much more. It made my heart so full. I realized I really want to keep working with kids with special needs and especially those on the Spectrum. 

Maybe I didn't accomplish all 9 of the goals I set for myself, but there's still time to do those things. They don't have to end with 2019.

Now it's time for the things I hadn't planned on and that may seem silly, but are improvements from 2018, starting with a not-so-small thing:

1. I prayed more days than not.
2. I went to several ballet classes on my own with a teacher who honestly scares me a little bit.
3. In addition to that, I did a lot more things on my own. I'm not big on being by myself, I would rather someone else be next to me than sitting on my own. But over the last year I went to a tattoo parlor, coffee shops, parks, Fairhope, and stores on my own and it felt good.
4. Got my hair cut regularly, which sounds silly but my curls were grateful for (then bleached them-whoops)
5. I danced a lot more and more consistently, including multiple performances.
6. I met up and had dinner with a couple of old friends that I hadn't seen in at least a year.
7. I filled one whole journal with a new book I'm working on and started writing down all the little scenes in my head again.
8. I started cross-stitching. My mom taught me how and I like having another thing to share with her.
9. I got a new job that I'll be starting tomorrow even though I was scared to leave what I'm comfortable with. I needed to go somewhere else.
10. I started looking into going to grad school again.
11. I wrote more blogs that I'm proud of. I wrote more that I'm proud of as a whole.
12. My kids mastered so many more skills than they did in 2018 and that isn't directly due to me, but I'm counting it as a win anyway.
13. I didn't go to urgent care for a work-related injury. I had this trend starting where every November since 2017 I ended up at urgent care for possible concussions from work, partially because I'm clumsy and partially because my kids are punks, but thankfully broke that cycle. Here's to hoping that continues into 2020.
14. I did a lot of other new things in 2019, but it'd be too much for me to sit here and try to list it all. Besides, this is already probably not the most exciting read anyway, so we'll leave it at "did lots of stuff that was pretty dope"

I like lists. That's the real reason for half the posts I make, honestly, but I gotta say this might be my favorite yet.

Thanks for reading, if you did. I'm still in shock that we're actually in 2020. I don't have anything inspiring to say-that's not my talent, but I hope your year is the best yet.

Xo,
Shel