Right now, I am sitting on a train on my way to Canterbury,eating ham, cheese, double cream, and carrots and drinking champagne. Not a badpicnic to kick off my birthday! Since my birthday comes so close to the beginning of the newyear, this time is doubly reflective for me. It’s not just the start of a newyear; it’s the start of MY new year. I’m 33 today, so I am starting off my 34thyear. That sounds like a lot. J
My 2011 in Review post reminded me of how amazing last yearwas, how many adventures I had, how much progress I made in school and work,and how much I have grown and changed (for the better). Thinking about andwriting this post is my chance to imagine the coming year and to make plans (Iwon’t say resolutions because that makes me feel all bound in by rules andlaws.) for adventures to come.
Here are some of the adventures I intend to pursue thisyear:
The assistant director of the writing center jobmay come open this year, and I want it. I have been working toward that goalfor the past semester as well, and I intend to keep learning how to be a bettertutor, a better manager, and a better researcher to make myself more qualified.
Aaron and I are planning two big trips nextyear, and we are taking Livy with us (assuming she wants to go and is willingto get the required vaccinations for the second one).
This summer, we are traveling in theNorthwest, probably through the Dakotas, Montana, Washington, Oregon, Wyoming, and a bit ofNorthern California. Livy has been a part of planning that trip, and I am sureshe wants to go. We want to do a lot of hiking and stay mostly in the countryin National Parks, but we’ll see a few cities too (Seattle and Portland areplaces I have always wanted to visit).
Over next Christmas break, we are planninga trip to Costa Rica, Bolivia, or Chile. All three destinations have been onAaron’s list for years. This is the tripthat Livy and I will have to discuss. I think she’ll want to go, but will she wantto go enough to get a bunch of shots? I sure hope so because I am dying to takeher with us! I think she will love the kind of outdoorsy vacation Aaron wantsinstead of the looking-at-musty-books kind of vacation I really love. J
I want to memorize poetry. The few poems that Ihave memorized bring me a huge amount of joy, and I want to increase that storethis year. One poem a week may be too ambitious, but I’m going to try that outand see what happens. If I don’t get that many done, no worries. These are notresolutions of things I have to do; they are pleasurable visions of what I wantthe future to hold. If they stop being pleasurable, I’ll get a new plan.
I bought a wonderful little pocket-sizedanthology called The Ruins of Time:Antiquarian and Archaeological Poems at Blackwell’s Bookstore in Oxford.Doesn’t that sound like the perfect poetry collection for me? A quote from theintroduction: “The distant past is brought to life in the brilliant mimicry ofKipling or Auden, or brooded on elegiacally by Housman or Larkin.” So, in honorof this new book and its contents that seem specially selected for me, I thinkmy first new poem to memorize will be “Ozymandias” by Shelley. It is the poemin the collection I am most familiar with and the one I often desperately tryto remember when thinking over “Dust in the Wind” and human mortality. (Yes, Ido that often. No, not in a morbid way. No, it doesn’t make me sad.)
In preparation for our trip to Costa Rica oranother Spanish-speaking country in about a year, I want to brush up my Spanishand see if I can reach a new level of proficiency. I’ll be using Rosetta Stoneand trying to find native speakers to talk to, and I hope I can convince Livyto learn some Spanish along with me.
After hearing Evensong so many times on thistrip, I have decided that I need to get back into singing in some way thisyear, and in a pretty good choir. Singing in college in a great choir prettymuch spoiled me for groups who just sing for fun and aren’t that great; I can’tstop hearing the wrong notes! I know of a good summer chorus, but I am going tolook for something sooner than that. At the very least, I will go to moreSacred Harp singings until I can do the summer chorus.
Finally, I don’t want to let the feeling that Ihad in Blackwell’s Bookstore slip away; I want to be more diligent aboutserious study outside of my research and classes. I am very busy, and when I amin school, it can be hard to add more reading and writing to my life. But I wantto continue to read some classics (perhaps more ancient and medieval ones), doa bit of Latin (Greek will probably have to wait for its brush-up until I amout of school), and write consistently on my blog (particularly travelnarratives, stories about my past, and things I want to ponder from books,school, conversations, etc.).
I love that I have finally found a career and a relationshipthat make me look forward to the new year with so much pleasure and so muchhope. I have gotten so much better at saying no and not doing things that don’tmake me feel great, and, finally, my life is full of things that I love and onlygetting fuller.
