Resolving the Resolutions

It's almost time to bid adieu to 2006. At the beginning of the year, I, like many, made a set of resolutions. It's time to look back and see how I did with those.

1. Exercise Regularly. I have to say I failed at this one. We did a lot of active things. I got a new bike for my birthday, which I rode fairly frequently, only falling off of it once. We hiked pretty often, including one heck of a hike out of the Grand Canyon. We swam and ran on occasion. But I don't think any of it qualifies as regular exercise. Maybe this year?

2. Figure out what I want to do about my job. I think I accomplished this one about as well as I could have. I switched jobs in July, and now I really like what I do. I don't have the rest of my life figured out, but that would make things pretty boring if I did. I do, however, have some good ideas about where I want to go from here. That's good enough for me.

3. Take advantage of living in DC. I think we did fairly well with this one, although there's still a lot that I haven't done. We hit a number of outdoor sites this year that I hadn't hit before--gardens and hiking trails. We also made it back to a few of our favorite spots. There are still many museums I haven't yet made it to, but this will be an ongoing goal until we move away from here.

4. Learn something new. I ended up taking two classes this year, and I think I learned something in both of them. Early in the year, I took a one-day travel writing class sponsored by National Geographic Traveler, and during the fall semester, I was chosen to be a part of a writing class at George Washington University taught by novelist Tayari Jones. It was nice being back in a class with the structure that motivates you to learn and complete assignments. I want to continue taking classes. Maybe a language class this year? And hopefully another writing class. And then there's also scuba diving, history, etc.

5. Donate/Volunteer. Well we did do some donating this past year, but it wasn't quite what I had in mind as it wasn't really well-planned and not necessarily to the places I cared about most. But we've sat down and made a plan for 2007, already deciding how much we're donating and who we're donating to, so that's nice. As far as volunteering goes, I have been doing volunteer work for the Holocaust Museum, providing editing assistance on the Concentration Camp Encyclopedia project. This year, however, I'd like to add something that will help people more in "need." I'm thinking maybe some kind of literacy/ESL thing. I have to look into it more.

6. Write More. Thanks to the class I took at GW, I wrote a bit more than I did the year before. I again entered the Bethesda Literary Festival essay contest, and this year placed first, winning $500, which I guess satisfies my goal of getting paid to write. I also had an essay published in the Washington Post. I submitted a few articles to a variety of publications, but without anything panning out. At the very end of the year, I did, however, submit an article to a small, local paper and got a positive response from them. I've worked out a contract with them and am hoping the article appears soon (and I get paid for it). But there are no guarantees on that. The goal this year is to improve on the publishing record.

So that's that. I accomplished some of what I set out to do. I fell short in some areas. But all in all, 2006 was a good year. We traveled a lot. We had fun with family and friends. We learned new things. We grew. So resolutions resolved or not, I'm declaring 2006 a success. Here's to a 2007 that's just as good if not better.