2018

Okay, so yes, but what's next, anyway? A few things!

First, the job. I'm digging in and working on Being Useful in all the ways. I'm still agog at the joy of benefits, vacation pay, paid holidays, sick time... not to mention a salary that, after years of grad stipends, feels positively luxurious, so we're firmly in the land of "be good at job, job very nice." The folk at the job know I'm writing my dissertation and may be looking to make moves if I don't land teaching work once I finish, but (or is it so? Regardless!) I'm still very much pulled to keep putting my best foot forward.

Second, the dissertation. It's shocking how the mental clarity of having a job has kicked me into gear on this front. I'm moving and enjoying it for the first time in ages, rather than sort of bailing water as I felt like I was doing this fall. Feeling optimistic about having a chapter done this month, and a full draft before the end of spring. The hopegoaldream is to defend this calendar year (academic year would be a tight squeeze) and I think it's highly doable.

Third, flexing fun/creative muscles. I got to perform last month for the first time in ages in a staged reading (loved my director, loved my cast, loved everything about it) and this week I've got my first audition in a couple years. Grad school/life really boxed me out of this one, but I keep re-discovering how good it is for me. Hoping to keep up that collaborative, failure-as-process work this year.

Fourth, trying to do good. I'm hoping, especially as I finish the dissertation, to take not just my token donations but my energy and time to work for the change I want to support, which this year likely means volunteering in the IL-6th district and hopefully helping with whatever manner of voter-rights struggle is happening in Wisconsin, where Scott Walker's racist policies have deliberately made it hard for low-income and African-American citizens to get the right to vote (or even to vote, given the allocation of voting stations). I wanna be a boot on the ground if I can this year.

So those are the four major sort of platforms of the year. What travels lie ahead? Well, I am still very much loving the "I don't have to go anywhere" vibe of this chapter so far, but I've definitely started the "reading and daydreaming" phase of travel planning. 2018 will likely be pretty mild in comparison to the berserk last few years, and almost or entirely domestic.

What's on that horizon? Very likely a lot of pal visits to places I've either never been, or need to revisit: DC and Seattle for the latter; Los Angeles, New Orleans and Dallas for the former. LA is a particular priority, and a longer trip; two years ago I had mapped out a very different trip that ultimately didn't happen for extremely lame reasons, so I'm hoping to catch a week of that friends-and-exploring fun I'd grown excited about before it fell apart. All that and a family reunion in Colorado will be plenty (okay, I might sneak up to Minneapolis again, I love it up there, and I owe my Madison pal Tim a visit, and who would deny me at least a day trip up to Three Oaks) and I might not even get to it all. (I'd also like to visit Portland OR, Austin, and ok fine a little New England runaround after I finish defending. Very little of this will actually happen.)

The major test will be seeing how my finances are by the year's end; if things have gone rather particularly swimmingly, I may springboard a somewhat more ambitious post-Christmas trip (University recess policies are amazing vacation-makers)... Which is likely to be either Portugal (the one European destination that still tugs at my solo-travel string, though there are plenty of spots I'd explore or revisit with a friend or partner) or Japan, which is for sure the next major horizon. In general, my "everything in order" madness is drifting toward Asia, with inspiration from my sister and her thoroughly excellent boyfriend's travels there last year. One lives in hope?

Anyhow. It's weirdly comforting to be back in the mode of daydreaming rather than planning, and to be finding the everyday joys and tasks that keep time flying by as I find myself increasingly happy in the moment. Here's hoping your 2018 is also, both now and in the months to come, full of contentment, peace, and just a really snazzy excellence, you know?