The Year Ahead.

Here's to a year of views like this from our bay window

Last year I made a practice of not looking too far ahead.  I grounded myself in the present and focused on being grateful for the now.  I'm still aiming for that in the coming year, but I'm also allowing myself a little time now to look at what is coming and to anticipate good things for the year.  Most people made their 2015 goals a few weeks ago and started the year off with a refreshed, clear head, ready to take on the coming year with immense hope brewing deep within.  For reasons I choose not to share, I was unable to do this.  I started the year unsure of many things in my future and wondering if I would just be better off not choosing goals for this year.  I was sulky and tearful and probably quite a drag to be around.  I chose my word, endure, in the midst of all of this, and though I'm now wishing I had chosen one of the words I had been contemplating later in 2014 instead of what I felt in early January, in the spirit of the word endure, I shall endure it for the year (I think there's a lot of things that are making my grammar spine feel all prickly with this sentence, but I'm just going to let it happen if that's not a problem for you, friends).

Two weeks later, I'm in a different place.  I decided to do something this morning (read: early afternoon) that I haven't done since back in my single lady days here in Indy.  I carried my computer and my coffee over to our little glass dining table where we sometimes eat meals (these days, I have our coffee table set for meals instead, as this is where we tend to enjoy most meals together.  Weird? I don't know, maybe.  We've come to enjoy our Chancey couch dinners over the table we sanded and stained ourselves last Spring), and I set myself up to write.  I used to spend all of my mornings here when I first moved to Indianapolis.  I was jobless and living alone in an apartment much too large for just one person (yet, in marriage, much too small for two), and I found myself indulging in early morning sunrises by the bay window as I wrote about adventures in a new land.

As I sit here today, I'm excited for what's ahead this year.  I've also decided to allow myself to make goals this year to share with readers and friends and family.  Maybe it's too glass-half-full of me or maybe it's a little cliche to make goals for the year ahead when we all know that we end up busying ourselves so much that we have little time to make room for our goals halfway through the year, but in this very moment, I feel excited about 2015 and want to do my best to make room for good things in this year.  Here's a look at what I'm hopeful for in the year ahead.

No. 1: Pass my Med/Surg Certification exam. I've been talking about this forever.  Or so it seems.  I took a break from studying over the holidays but have decided to resume studying and answering practice questions this week.  I have off until Friday (hooray!) and feel like I can catch up on a lot of the material I've allowed myself to get behind on.  I am still waiting for confirmation that I can go ahead and sign up for the exam, but once it comes, I have 90 days to schedule my exam and honestly, I'd rather take it sooner than later!  This should be a goal I can check off fairly soon as long as I truly work for it and don't neglect it like I have over the past month.

No. 2: Write a letter a week.  I've been SO bad about writing letters lately.  Just ask Shannon! I'm months behind on responding to a pen pal letter from her, and though I have felt so guilty for it, I just haven't made the time for it lately.  I love writing (especially handwriting notes to friends) and need to continue my practice in this.  There aren't many of us left who send snail mail-- how dare I step back from my part in continuing this practice.  I have oodles of cute winter stamps that I need to use before Spring comes-- must get to writing!

No. 3: Read a book a month.  I would have laughed reading this goal a few years ago.  I would devour a book in a week!  Now, a combination of life circumstances leaves me with less time for reading.  What will life look like when there are little people running around our house? I will probably make a goal of reading one magazine article a month! (Don't worry.  Little people aren't on the radar for 2015, and likely not for 2016 either, unless the Lord has other plans.  We're working on paying off our giant fancy house-sized student loans first.  Our student loans really are the size of a fancy house right now, wish we could just move into the house instead of paying these loans back!)

No. 4: Write a blog a week.   One of my favorite bloggers, Annie B. Jones, vowed to write an essay a week for the next year, and I quite like this goal.  I sometimes go months at a time without posting, and I'd like to make a practice of writing weekly.  I have come to love writing in this space after getting over my fear of sharing my writing with people on a public space, and I do feel guilty when I go weeks and months without writing.  Anticipate a post a week and remind me of this goal if you see that I've gone too long without writing!

No. 5: Simplify our home.  I'm a clutter bug, a trait I've always loathed about myself.  I find inanimate objects to be so overly sentimental and hold onto them for far too long.  This year, I've already started the process of decluttering and cleaning out our closets.  We have two big boxes waiting to go to Goodwill and likely will have more in the coming weeks, and that's just how I like it.  I'm finding that I really don't miss a lot of these items as much as I thought I would.  Once they're out of the house, I usually forget about them anyways.  Out of sight, out of mind, really is true in our books.  I want to know where things are in our home instead of freaking out every time we need a belt or a pair of shoes or that little piece of paper with the phone number of the car mechanic written on it.  I want everything in our home to have a proper place.  Maybe I'm not destined for this sort of orderly life, but I sure am going to try to make it happen this year.

No. 6: Be professional.  How vague, right?  I'm working on being more professional at work instead of getting caught up in gossip and drama and all of the things that come with working with so many women.  I struggle with this immensely, but know that my faith and the roots of who I am do not like gossip and meanness.  I also mean for this goal to be more than just my attitude as a professional but my practice of nursing as well.  I've spent a lot of time recently reading articles about things I've always wanted to know more about in nursing.  Things I have little experience with or things that I should know more about.  Things I fear (chest tubes, ventilators, etc.), things I want to be proficient in.  I want to continue to practice my profession this year and to know as much as I can about something, through policies and continuing education and all of the resources available to me in my profession.  I start my first shift as charge nurse this week and do not take this opportunity lightly.  I want to be a good resource for those around me and I don't want to tell someone the wrong way to do something.  I'm fortunate to have some good experiences under my belt from the past 2.5 years as a nurse, and though those years may seem tiny compared to the 20 years some nurses around me have, I've worked in several different settings that have prepared me for this.  I used to think that I was less of a nurse on my unit because I haven't worked on my floor for as long as some nurses around me have, but I have realized that I have different perspectives than they do which is not such a bad thing.  I've known more to nursing than just the floor I work on, and I've seen how different systems work other than just the one that we are practicing at our hospital.  I respect the systems and the policies and procedures where I am, but I also recognize that these can always be better and that I have some knowledge of how other places do things, which I can bring to the table.  I've recently embraced my other experiences as a nurse (and as a nursing assistant before that) instead of thinking of them as something that makes me inadequate for the job I'm currently doing.  Sorry for the novel, maybe another goal of mine should be to get to the point quicker in my posts?

No. 7: Be good to my body.  I'm being vague here again because I know I don't do well when I commit to running a marathon or taking up cycling or anything like that.  I get too bored with doing the same physical activity over and over again.  I love kickboxing and Body Pump classes and running outdoors, but I need to mix it up a little to really feel excited about exercise.  Scott and I are supposed to join a gym this year, and I think maybe we'll wander over to the one we've chosen this week to get started.  Our apartment gym is lovely but I'm never motivated to walk downstairs to go to it because I know it's aways going to be there and it's always going to have the same things in it.  I need the variety, the spice of life.  One of my biggest goals this year is to drink more water.  I think I've lived in a constant stage of mild to moderate dehydration because of drinking coffee and tea and soda way more than I should.  I've been trying to drink more water at work lately and have really enjoyed how energized I've felt.  I used to think that drinking lots of coffee at work would keep me going on night shift, but I've been surprised by how energizing water can be.  Another goal with being good to my body is preparing more meals at home for Scott and myself instead of eating out as often or grabbing Chick-fil-a chicken minis on my way home from work (but they are so yummy!).  At 24, I think it's time to be serious about my body and preventing chronic illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes.  I'm doing my body no favors by being sedentary and eating meals out so often.

No. 8: Spend time with Jesus.  Oh, how neglectful I have been lately in this regard.  I've prayed often but spent very little time reading Scripture and learning more about Jesus.  This is a big one.  This should really be my main goal of this year.  I think all else would fall into place if I only picked this one goal.  He has already provided so much this year for our family.  The fact that I'm even able to write a post embracing the year ahead and feeling hopeful is such a testament to His provision.

No. 9: Date my husband.  Scott and I have spent a lot of our past 9 months of marriage making lemonade together.  We've been faced with a lot of interesting circumstances that most people don't have to deal with in year one of marriage.  We've learned together how to make the most of what we are given, and I think we've done a pretty ok job with it.  I want to spend year 2 of marriage doing the same.  I want to continue making lemonade and laughing and having weird dates in our apartment over bizarre 80s movies and homemade meals.  I also want to adventure with him, though.  I want more trips like our honeymoon in Italy and more spontaneous weekend outings to Nashville, more bike rides on the Monon Trail and more stops for Brics ice cream along the way.  I don't want the busy-ness of life to get in the way of cultivating a good marriage.

No. 10: Finish my book.  Oh, remember that old forgotten thing sitting in my Google Drive? It's still there.  It still has chapters waiting to be written.  It's been long-neglected, but I have SO much I want to say in it.  Once my Med/Surg exam is over, I hope to spend a lot of free time working on the book again.  Maybe I need a little staycation in the coming months to work on writing it.  I think that will be happening quite soon.

Lots of love to you all in the new year.  Now that the dust is settling and the Christmas decorations are in your closets until later this year, I hope you have time to reflect on goals you've made and what you hope for in the coming year.  I hope you find ways to work towards them while not always living months ahead of yourself.

Love,
C.