Last Day of 2023

Welcome to the end of 2023. I had no idea that it had been so long since I did any journaling--a full 18 months. I will honestly say that I had high hopes for 2023, but as usual the results were mixed. What did happen?

I finished my first year of full-time classroom teaching. Overall it was a good experience. I began a second year of teaching. I had a few reasons for doing this, but in the end it might be attributed to the sunk cost fallacy. Although, it may not have been a fallacy in this case. I wanted to do a better job with my science teaching, and I wanted to see how the precious students that I student-taught in their 6th grade year matured into wonderful 8th graders. Living conditions and a lack of monetary resources probably played into the decision as well. I would like to find my own place to live, but a single year of saving (after nearly emptying my bank account for grad school) was not nearly enough to satisfy the greed of the gluttonous housing market of 2023. As a result, I moved back in with my parents with the hopes of having better prospects in 2024.

In the summer I worked for a general contractor and learned the basics of several skills, especially cutting tiles for drop-down ceilings. There was more demolition than I like and some awkward interactions with a coworker, but I made it through and maintained a good relationship with my employer. Later in the year, I was called for jury duty and seated, thereby making me miss a crucial week (plus a couple of days) before midterms and Christmas break. It was a very interesting experience though, and I appreciated the variety. Throughout this whole year, Jordan, Cody, and I have had book club meetings. This tradition began last August, with the goal of reading a book that one of the three of us would choose and meeting monthly to discuss it. We started out with fantasy books, but have widened our horizons as none of the fantasy books really impressed us.

My traveling quota was met. At Easter break, Jared and I visited my cousin in Hendersonville. It was a good time, and I had fun hanging out with her and seeing Greenville, SC. In August, the family went to Warm Springs for a cousin's wedding. For Thanksgiving, we went to the Outer Banks, because I had never been before. The most distinctive experiences were climbing to the top of a lighthouse and surfing on sand (it did not work very well, but it was fun to try). Finally, for Christmas we went to visit cousins in the Nashville, TN area. I haven't spent much time with cousins since we all became adults, so it was nice to get to know how they matured. We mostly hung around the house, played games, and watched the children.

As I didn't journal at all last year, I am not exactly sure what my goals were. As always, I know that I intended to do regular exercise. I can say with some confidence that possibly discounting 2018-19, the years of biking and bouldering, I did more exercise than any other year in my adult life. I ran with Jared for about a month before I moved, and after I moved I spent a lot of time doing calisthenics, especially push-ups, chin-ups, squats, and handstands. I did exercises about three times a week from August until Thanksgiving break, and a little bit in the summer (though my job was sometimes physically demanding enough that I excused myself). Before Thanksgiving, I was able to do about five archer push-ups on each side without great effort, which has been a goal of mine for a while.

At a presently indeterminate point that had to be at least a year ago, I had decided that I needed to cook at least two meals a week (unless other circumstances render it unnecessary). I have kept to that commitment faithfully and intend to continue it. The leftovers are consumed more quickly now that I live with the parents, but since Mom also contributes to meals, it has generally worked out well.

Every year I make an effort to dedicate more time to the pursuit of Christ. This past year I feel that I was more successful than in the past. I prayed more consistently and read about half of a year-long devotion book. Waking up early helps this tremendously, and until Thanksgiving break and jury duty threw off my schedule, I was faithful in this. Since the new school year, I have also striven to devote my time on Sunday to the Lord. I have generally been successful at not doing work on Sunday, though my substitute for the work has not always been edifying. In April I began using a new Bible memory website, and for six months I consistently reviewed and studied new verses, for a total of 593 verses. I lost my drive when I missed a few days at the middle school retreat, and then I took a break entirely at Thanksgiving.

Unlike last year, I have many intended goals and habits this year:

1. Reading the Bible - going through the entire OT and the NT twice over the course of the year. I will read through a reading plan in the morning. I anticipate that it will take about 15 minutes a day.
2. Prayer--I am going to use a prayer app to help me stay on task with this. I will do it after reading the Bible.
3. Bible memory - I will review at least 50 verses a day and, once I get caught up on my backlog of verses (hopefully by February), I will begin learning one new verse a day. I usually do this right before getting up in the morning, so the time I spend on it varies based on how long I read and prayed. Generally I spend 10-15 minutes on this though.
4. Reading - At least five days a week, I will go to bed before 9 and read until I get sleepy. I will not touch my phone after 9. My reading choices will be varied, but I plan to have 3-4 options at any time. One of them will probably be Jonathan Edwards, and I will have a book club book (unless I have already finished it). The other two are yet to be determined, but I think I will have a lighter theological book and a historical book.
5. Fitness - For now, I will try using the app Habit Nest to do workouts 5 days a week. These workouts will take place before 8:30 PM, but probably after 7 PM on school days. I will not drink any special drink before I have completed the daily workout. I want to be able to do a handstand more consistently and longer, and I want to be able to do a one-handed push-up. I don't have exact dates for these goals--maybe I will update them later.
6. Learning - between teaching world languages and science, my quota for learning will probably be filled. But I also hope to take a welding course or two in the spring. Other goals will be revisted at the end of the school year in May.
7. Journaling - I am going to start writing a journal entry every Sunday. This should be easy to do in the morning after breakfast, because I usually have a couple of hours before church. I can write not just about the past week but also about what I am reading, what I am learning about in the Bible, and the progression of my prayer life.
8. Work - I will find a new job by the end of August. If it takes me a couple of months, I will probably do some interim work somewhere. I don't foresee that happening, but job hunting has a mercurial temperament.
9. DIY - I have to finish the table for the den by the time I move out. For now, my goal is to have it done by May. I will work on it during the weekend if I don't have welding class. That won't happen until after J-Term though, because I have to finish the adirondack chairs for J-term first.

This may seem like a tall order, but the first five are just slight increases from what I was doing before my routine was disrupted by Thanksgiving break. If I sign up for welding, I will be held accountable, and there is outside pressure to accomplish the work and DIY goals. The journaling is the only completely new habit.

There are other areas that I want to address but I have not mapped out a system by which to do so:

1. Music - I would like to be able to play guitar, piano, or violin. I practiced guitar consistently in the fall when I knew that I would play it at the middle school retreat, but I have only picked it up twice since then. I am afraid that I will need some sort of accountability. Thinking on it, guitar is definitely the most accessible, so unless I come across a reason to change to another instrument, I should stick with it. It would be good to have a regular practice time as a habit and some songs I would like to be able to play well as a goal. I will plan to revisit this after J-term.
2. Social - I need to talk to more people and have relationships with them. One way I can do this is by staying at church, which I should do anyway. However, I need to find other ways to socialize. This also needs a revisit after J-term.
3. Travel - specifically for Easter break. I will go to Philadelphia with the 8th graders in March. I plan to go to Colombia in August. If I can get off from work, the family may go somewhere interesting for Thanksgiving. Otherwise, Easter may be my last chance to travel somewhere for a year, but it will likely be the best time for job hunting as well. At the moment I feel a bit travel-weary, so I will need to come back to this too, probably after J-term.

If some of these goals seem like an excessive overloading of my time, that is intentional. There are several negative habits that I want to avoid, and filling up my time with other things helps me with those. My main two bugbears are video games and wish fulfillment stories, both of which lead to escapism and loathing of reality for me. If I can remember the goals that I have made, the appeal of these distractions will lessen. So there you have it, folks: a bunch of goals and resolutions for the new year. I should be back with updates next week, but if nothing else, I should check back in on January 21st to reconsider the areas of uncertainty.