Happy 2021! Last year, the word I chose at the beginning of 2020, was “Adventure”, and I have to say, it has been a crazzzyyy adventure. I went from my job of almost 5 years at the daycare to becoming a Door dash and Walmart grocery deliverer plus continuing to work at the medical school (once it was reopened). Covid hit right in the middle of spring semester, so between zoom to finish spring semester and summer session, and two 1-week long “bootcamps” for missed in person labs at the end of August, undergrad is finally done with! Which means, I started and finished my first semester of grad school this past fall. But so many events were cancelled: 4 conferences, a retreat, Elevation’s tour, multiple birthdays, and so much more. I was able away for a weekend to spend time with just myself and nature. I discovered what an outhouse was for the first time, and no its not really like a port-a-potty. I saw parts of Letchworth. I marched on different streets singing and proclaiming that victory would come (and this was before the pandemic hit). I turned 25 and had a mini iPhone “photoshoot” in the park by my mom. I painted half of my house and organized a lot of the basement. I missed time with family because of social distancing. Holidays weren’t the same. Sacrifices had to be made. Family and friends got sick. But I also danced in the streets and on the roof of my car singing Happy Birthday, socially distanced, I drove through drive up birthday parades. I baked A LOT and delivered small care packages. I went to a drive in Christmas party. This hasn’t been a normal year what so ever and I just want to remind you that it is OKAY if you didn’t finish or even start goals. Its OKAY if you feel like you have taken steps backward or feel stuck. It’s OKAY if 2020 was supposed to be “your year” but you feel like the breath was knocked out of you and you couldn’t do much. It’s OKAY to grieve what was cancelled and what you missed and the opportunities that just didn’t come. It’s OKAY if you needed to ask for help in any capacity. Please just take a moment to take a breath (smell the roses slowly, blow out the candles slowly) and acknowledge that you did the best you could do and that is enough.
I just wanted to share an end of year, final progress report of how 2020 went in respect of my goals/intentions I made last year: So in no particular order: my 53 goals/intentions of 2020:
Self-Care
| I would like to finish my container of Himalayan bath salt (26 oz jar, approx 25 rocks of salt in there). | ✅ |
| I recently moved away from bath and body and have been more vigilant on reading labels and ingredients, so I would like to find more natural lotions and skin care, and develop a better daily routine | ✅ I have mostly stopped the use of bath and body and have found a lot of really good products |
| After allergy testing (on the 14th),if all goes well, find a new multivitamin to take everyday, if not take my current Flintstones every day, along with a different probiotic. | ✅ I decided Flintstones are the way to go until I can get in the habit and find a better multivitamin I will actually want to take. |
| I’ve always wanted to try a salt cave | |
| I would love to have a better handle on my consumption of sugar. | ✅ A lot of my eating has regulated and I have gained so much control in my eating |
| I would like to stop biting nails, to do this, I will have to continue putting nasty tasting nail liquid on and have short fake nails, and be extra aware. | ⚠️Work in Progress: I have used that nasty tasting liquid and even switched to a natural one, hopefully 2021 I can get my nails done |
| I want to be on track with the connected life podcast, I’m behind quite a few episodes but thankfully they come on once a week. | ⚠️Work in Progress: Did not complete, need to do better in 2021 |
| Learn to like a new fruit (no bananas, already like apples and oranges/clementines). | ✅ I love strawberries and pineapple |
Life/Organizational Skills
| Stop hoarding so much junk and actually give to people in need, clean out my room each month, keep it organized | ✅ Very successful, I even finished my end of year cleaning before the new year |
| Sell, donate, trash the items in the basement | ✅ I put donated items in buckets, organized a lot of my childhood boxes, trashed anything that was garbage, took old electronics in to be recycled, and began giving away stuff I no longer use |
| Get caught up with my nieces scrapbooks that I gave them, thankfully it’s only 2 pages for each year of their life | |
| Better manage my time, get to work on time, leave on time to get somewhere | ✅ I’ve become more aware and I am conscious about my time and being more organized |
| Throw away my old socks and take tags off of new ones (over half my socks either have tags on them, only worn a couple times, or I’ve had for approx three years with tags still on them, the other half are ones I wear everyday and are old and worn) | ⚠️Work in Progress: I’ve been doing better, still working on this..I just don’t see the need to wear nice socks if people can’t see them or I am not going anywhere where I need nice looking socks |
| Better budget my money | ✅ I have a really good system now, still needs some improvements but I count this as a win! |
| I want to finish the design of this blog site, I still need to upload a picture, finish the color scheme, and add some personalized touches to the site | |
Give Back
| I made purses and bags of hygiene products that I would like to give out to those in need (at least 5) | |
| Give 10-15 platelet donations (hopefully more) | |
| Volunteer at five different organizations for even just a day | |
| Visit Walter reed hospital | |
| Work on a “project” I’m making for someone | ✅ |
Personal Growth
| Finish Alive and Free (I have all the content until June) | ✅ I finished just in time at the beginning of June |
| I want to meet up with at least one person each month that I don’t really know and just grab coffee and get to know them better | ⚠️Work in Progress: In January and February I was able to do this! |
| At least begin The Father Series workbook by Abi Stumvoll | |
| Write in my “Letters to me” book, letters to future me, letters to past me | ✅ I wrote two letters so far! |
Adventure
| Every day in January, I want to do one fun/adventure/play activity | ✅ I did a thrifting trip and got a random item, went to a playground, took a trip to Toronto and went to an adult indoor adventure park, took myself out to lunch |
| I finally want to actually go to a Football game (my dad has tried for years, now we can dad!) | |
| Do a treetop rope course (possibly the haunted one?) | |
| Take a pic in front of the “Buffalo, An all America city” sign on the thruway | |
| Go to a llama/alpaca farm | |
| Allow myself time to bring out my inner kid and laugh and have fun without thinking who is judging me | ✅ Between dancing down the street, traveling to Toronto and riding big wheels/running through obstacle courses, and dancing on top of my car singing Happy Birthday two times for friends, I think I have accomplished quite nicely |
| Try out goat yoga | |
| Past few years, I’ve had this crazy idea that I want to get on a train, travel to a random city and state and spend the weekend there, no plans, just see what happens | |
| Watch all the classic disney movies | ⚠️Work in Progress: I watched maybe 10? |
| Watch the Bills win a playoff game, and dare I say: make it into the Super Bowl | ✅ Well technically this 2020-2021 season, but WE ARE THE AFC EAST CHAMPS! LETS GOOOO!!!! |
| Dance in public more | ✅ I danced down residential streets, main streets, on my car, for a music video, and in my car |
| Stay in an AirBNB | ✅ November 2020, I went to Angelica NY and stayed in a cabin by myself for the weekend |
| Find the perfect pancake, I rate pancakes on how good they are and I haven’t found one that is just the best pancake ever | |
Personal growth and growing deeper in relationship with God
| See elevation worship on their tour (In May/June), this is all depending on school schedule | |
| Go to elevation church in North Carolina, this would be a nice weekend trip. | |
| Really learn about the women of the Bible through my two devotionals: Women of the Bible and Fierce | |
| Go to two conferences that I’ve never been to, as well as the Cleveland, Canada, and Rochester ones | |
| I’m going to speak up more, join in on conversations | ✅ I definitely made a lot of progress, but there is always improvement to be made! |
| This year, I really want to devote some time to learning about myself, what do I actually like to do? I feel like a lot of times in life, growing up, I kinda did what everyone else did, so I want to try out different adventures, different experiences. | ✅ Well I tried some new things, as much as I could given circumstances, but definitely bringing this into 2021 |
| To help with number 43, I want to try to once or twice a month, take myself out on a date, trying something different that I didn’t like before | ⚠️Work in Progress: I was able to do this in January for lunch date and in November with the cabin |
Educational/brain stimulating
| Visit at least three- seven different different churches, temples, other religious services to learn a bit about how different religions worship | ⚠️Work in Progress: Well I visited about 4 different Christian churches, a Messianic Jewish Synagogue, a Jewish club at school, and I have been learning through TikTok about the Muslium culture and faith |
| I want to read at least 7 books (not including textbooks/schoolbooks) I normally can read more but with school and work, it can be hard to find time. | ⚠️Work in Progress: I read The Silent Sister, Undaunted, Safe Haven, The book of Romans from the Bible, and The Shack (I honestly thought I would crush this goal) |
| Learn at least the alphabet, numbers and 100 words in ASL, I know a handful now | ⚠️Work in Progress: I learned to sign “my name is Jessica”, I want tacos, yes, no, and a couple other words |
| Learn the basics of Italian, more then just eat, hello, goodbye, and 1-10 | ⚠️Work in Progress: I learned how to say apple, soup, woman, egg, your welcome, thank you, mushroom, bread, fruits, fork, and about 10 others |
| Understand football better | ⚠️Work in Progress: I didn’t really pay much attention and learned a little bit |
Physical
| Run a 5k (a fun one, already did a bounce one, bubble run, and color run) maybe the muddy dash? | |
| Continue with my Krav Maga training, especially get more experienced with being screamed at while attacked and up the aggressiveness of the training (slight update: I asked my trainer to up the attacks on me and he definitely delivered!) | |
| The marine booth at the Erie country fair has prizes for each gender who can do certain number of pull ups, I don’t expect myself to beat any records but at least do 3, I would even be happy with 1, but realistic goal is 3. | |
| The army booth has prizes depending on how many push ups each gender can do at the Eric county fair, last year I did 20 (they weren’t perfect form but i would say okay) I want to beat that record | |
And the five crazy goals that 99% sure won’t happen this year but who knows (Yeah no, did not happen!)
- Get another tattoo
- Get on an airplane and go random place
- Go to NYC with my mom
- Go to Europe
- Get married, have a kid, and buy a house ( definitely NOT happening in 2020! But a girl can dream right?)