New Year 2019
I wasn’t going to write anything for New Years. I probably wasn’t even going to write anything for a few weeks while I try to catch up on all the things I let slide over the holidays, but then I read a post on Neil Gaiman’s Journal.
There was a lot of great stuff in there, and I encourage everyone to give it a read, but here is what he had to say about the new year:
Be kind to yourself in the year ahead.
Remember to forgive yourself, and to forgive others. It's too easy to be outraged these days, so much harder to change things, to reach out, to understand.
Try to make your time matter: minutes and hours and days and weeks can blow away like dead leaves, with nothing to show but time you spent not quite ever doing things, or time you spent waiting to begin.
Meet new people and talk to them. Make new things and show them to people who might enjoy them.
Hug too much. Smile too much. And, when you can, love.
I couldn’t agree more with everything he says here. This is the case so much so, that I’m not even sure what else I could add. But one bit did hit me harder than the the rest: “Try to make your time matter”. This is what pushed me back to the blog, to write something of my own.
A problem we have in the present day is just how much distraction is out there. How many hours get spent in the endless scroll through social media? How many TV shows are coming out, waiting to be binged as soon as possible? How many video games take up 100+ hours to beat? There is so much out there that it is impossible to consume it all, but a lot of the time we still try. I’m constantly distracting myself with the “just one more video” myth on Youtube.
For me, 2018 was about building a foundation. It was about changing my life for the better, and creating something I could be proud of. I’m thrilled to say that I followed through on my goals. Some took longer to achieve than others, and some new ones popped up along the way. Last year was one that I feel like I’ll look back on as the one that changed everything. As amazing as it is, it also means I have a challenge for 2019. I need to top myself, or at least, continue to build on what I have started.
2019 is about pushing myself further. Last year I finished a lot of writing, this year I need to get something published. Last year I got my first IMDB credit, this year I need to write a short film that gets made. Last year I lost a ton of weight, this year I keep it going until I’m at the point I can make some kick ass cosplay and really pull it off (all body types can cosplay, this goal is entirely a self comfort thing).
Finally, last year I started Unsupervised Nerds. There are going to be some changes to what this is. What those changes are, I haven’t decided yet. Much of what it was doing was proving to not be sustainable, because so much of it came down to just me. And that works fine on the time I’m off work, but the rest of the time it became nearly impossible. This year I figure out how to get this all going in a more sustainable way.
And this is where we circle back to Neil Gaiman. The only way I’m going to have chance at any of this, is by making my time matter. I won’t completely rid my life of all the distractions, because so many of them make up a parts of my life I do enjoy, but I will try to lessen their impact.
For anyone who may be reading this, I hope you have an amazing 2019. Dream the impossible, and do everything in your power to make it come true.