2015 Priorities

Confession: I do not like years that end in five. Maybe that is just because I don’t really have any great memories from 1995, and 2005 was a rough year. Of course 2005 was a rough year, I was fifteen.

With that out of the way, I want to take a look both back at my priorities in 2014 and forward at my priorities in 2015. There is largely a similarity in the two – probably in this chapter of my life that will stay relatively consistent.

First off, faith. The longer I live in the Pacific Northwest and the more time I spend with friends here, the more I learn how averse even people in strong communities of faith are to talking about their faith. Often, when I build up the confidence to bring it up in conversation, that conversation either changes to theology and practicality or some other conversation.

Partly I feel disconnected because the faith and conviction I had to have every day when I first moved here is washed away. I am relatively stable now. Partly I feel disconnected because I sing and I worship and I believe and I read and I think and I pray, but I do not ever feel like that is enough. Maybe it is, maybe I am doing the right things. But it feels so… disconnected.

It has been a good year on the writing front. I finished a couple of shorter projects (1000 words-ish) and am beginning to think I may be compiling a short physical self-published bit in the next few months. This is something I have talked a lot about doing, and am pretty excited to more seriously consider. I also started a project that I’m hoping will come out to close to 10,000 words that is cool . It partly addresses war and fear and losing people in a science fiction setting. It is relatively plot-less, so my goal in the next year is rounding out the writing for a first draft then re-reading and editing a plot in.

I have been awful with editing things people have sent to me – I have a stack of short stories from a friend that sits on my table making me feel guilty. I have even been slow with my reviews for PDX Book Review. I did include conference presentation in the writing goal last year, which was something I achieved. I received mostly good reviews. My boss and I have talked about it a few times this year. I want to have a best of conference presentation at a regional conference in the next five years. For 2015, I have been accepted for a regional, and submitted two proposals to a national conference. Hoping to submit to another regional this year and turn last years presentation into an article for a lower-level (non-peer-reviewed) publication in my professional association.

Running this year has been mostly phenomenal. After all, I did run a half marathon in May and had what felt like my most regular/healthy running month in October. I have dealt with a few spots of major pain – I hesitate to call them injuries. I ran a total of 350.2 miles this year, with runs ranging from just under a mile to, well, a half marathon. The past few weeks I have been fairly light on running, and expect that to maintain through early February. While traveling in November, I think I injured my ankle a bit. I will be doing some physical therapy soon to resolve that and, hopefully, some other issues that have arisen. In the meantime, I am using the gym. Using weights and stretching is good for me, and I know it. But it is so hard to be still and stay in one place and do the same thing repeatedly. I prefer the running, the constantly being somewhere new and different and looking around.

It was great to meet some of my goals in 2014, and overall, I hope to further that in 2015.