In recent years, all of my pseudo-New Year’s resolutions were about seeing things I’d already started to completion. Write X pages of my manuscript, then the following year, finish manuscript, et cetera.
2011 as a whole was a lot about finishing things. Finishing that manuscript, finishing grad school, finishing my life in Pittsburgh. Getting some closure with a relationship that’s been hanging in the balance these past few years.
But as the Semisonic song “Closing Time” says (oh, you know the one, and I bet you know the lines I’m going to quote here), “every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” I started a few major things in 2011: life in a different city–a re-beginning, if you want to call it that, in a city I know well, a grownup job, and living with roommates again.
When I moved from Pittsburgh to Boston, I had a very basic plan: 1) get a job, 2) find an apartment, 3) build a social life. Number 1 took a long time, longer than I would have liked. But it got done. Number 2 was a stressful two weeks, but then I found a place, and so far so good.
Now Number 3.
This is going to be tricky. As frustrating as jobhunting was, there was still some predictability to the process. One does not send resumes and cover letters to befriend new people. Well, I guess online dating is sort of like applying for open jobs, and yes, I do have a profile on one site and haven’t been actively looking at any so-called “matches”, but–
Okay, I have to stop making excuses.
Still, my pseudo-resolutions for 2012 revolve on cultivating me, rather than focusing on other people. Taking better care of myself, which includes going to the gym and remembering to wear eye cream. Finding hobbies again: I’ve signed up for a beginner’s pottery class, and I really need to pay more attention to writing, as it really fell to the wayside during my unemployment woes. Volunteering is on my to-do list–and yes, volunteering is generally thought of being the opposite of self-centered, but my motivations are not completely altruistic–it would be like a hobby, something to keep me busy. Plus, I prioritized registering for pottery class over committing to a volunteering project.
And maybe along the way, I’ll achieve Number 3.
I’m skeptical of what the psychic I saw in September predicted for this year: a work-related trip to Alabama this spring (people in my position don’t generally travel), and a love triangle–I’m supposed to meet the third member early this year. If these things happen, well, that’s cool. But I’m not going to be sitting around and twiddling my thumbs, waiting.
And that, I suppose, can be my main resolution for 2012: don’t sit around. Do stuff. Good advice for everyone, at any time of year, right?
Happy 2012, you few loyal readers.
