Resolutions

Ahh, the New Year.  It is always filled with such a wide range of emotions, don't you think?

For me, there is the initial let down of the holidays being over... This year it's "Did I make the most of the Christmas season? Did I spend too much money?  Why didn't I bake like I said I was going to?  So long until I can listen to Christmas music again.  Matt and I didn't take any pictures together... how pathetic. So depressing to watch the decorations come down."  The nice thing about being Catholic is that the Christmas season lasts past Christmas day (I don't know the exact dates, all I know is that we sing "Oh Come, All Ye Faithful" and whatnot for a few weeks post-Christmas).  This helps ease the blow of Christmas being over and helps me to adjust to normal life again.

Then there is the freshness that comes with January 1st.  If you think about it, it's pretty arbitrary to make resolutions and write down goals for the New Year... we could really do this at any time of any day during any month.  But something about the start of the year gives us hope that we might actually stick to those resolutions and complete those goals.  I think it is a way for us to feel better about ourselves and it gives us a concrete time frame to do the things we say we are going to do and make the changes we want to make.  A lot of times, December 31st rolls around and we feel bad about ourselves for not doing what we said we were going to do... but oh well.  At least we tried.  Hopefully.

This year I rang in the New Year at my parents' house.  This is pretty typical- I don't think I've ever gone out on New Year's Eve... and I like it that way.  Matt was working, but the rest of us had a good time and enjoyed some adult beverages (Jake and Joe had sparkling raspberry lemonade from TJ's).

Well aren't they precious.

After returning from the Kings game. Typical.

Almost midnight.

2012!

This year I have a few resolutions/goals, so I suppose I will share them with you:

1.  Volunteer.  Everyone has time, and being in school is not an excuse.  Last semester I made myself feel better by telling myself that coaching for Team in Training was my volunteering.  But I do get paid (however small an amount) and I will probably always be involved with TNT in some capacity, so it kind of feels like that is my built in volunteering that I will always do.  I'm talking about volunteering on top of that.

2. Get a stronger core.  Come on, everyone has SOME sort of fitness goal for the New Year.  Last semester I missed a day of clinical because I hurt my back, and at the age of 24, that shouldn't be happening.  My back is terrible, and it's time to fix it.

3.  Be a better student.  I got a B in each of my last semesters, but to be honest with you, I didn't really work THAT hard.  I did work my butt off in clinical, but the classroom stuff always comes pretty easy to me, and I always put studying off until the last minute.  I think I could get an A if I worked to my potential, but I won't go so far as to say that is my goal... that would be complete nonsense because it might be impossible, from what I hear about this semester.  I'm hoping that my new second bedroom (more on this later) will help me with this goal.

4.  Run a sub-4-hour marathon.  I was going to keep this one a secret, but what the heck, I'll put it out there.  I'll talk more about this in the future.

I have some other smaller goals that tie into these, but listing everything would just be ridiculous.  Am I overshooting a little bit?  Perhaps.  But on December 31st I hope I will be able to say that I tried.

2012... I have high hopes for you.

First Post Ever

Well, I guess I'm doing a blog.  January is always a good time to try new things.

I have decided to take this leap at the convincing of one of my best pals.  She feels that others might like to hear about my life... I'm not so sure about that, but I will agree with her that I do have a lot going on. Being in nursing school alone is reason enough to have a sort of journal to jot down my thoughts about the triumphs and tribulations of this challenging time.  Mostly tribulations.  Actually, I shouldn't say that. A lot of times it's really great.  See these conflicting thoughts and feelings?  Maybe that's why I need a blog... Straighten out my mind a little bit.

Anyway, I thought it would be nice to have a place to a. journal some things about school, and b. talk about things not related to school at all.  I guess that's where the title comes in... I want to write about the things that "awake my soul." Yea, that's corny, but I don't really care.  "Awake My Soul" is the title of one of my favorite songs by Mumford and Sons.  It's really great.  You should listen to it.

I also thought that a blog would be a better use of time than trolling around Pinterest and Facebook.  When I don't have some sort of school thing to be doing, it's so easy to just turn on the tv, grab the computer, shlink around, and waste my life away.  I love Pinterest (I've even started planning a post about the wonders of Pinterest) and it's so easy to keep clicking "see more pins" for a good hour at a time.  I'm hoping that if I have a goal of at least 1 blog post per week, it might deter me from other, um, more wasteful activities.

Well, that about covers it!  It is really unlike me to do something like this, but it's a new year and I have some new goals (more about those goals later).

I will be writing, so if you want to read, feel free.  And don't be a creeper... if you follow along, leave a comment once in a while!