New Year, New Me

Here's a silly group of photos of me with my new haircut and my new shades. I'm all sophisticated now 🙂

So I’ve never been very good at keeping up with my new year’s resolutions, but I figured 2012 would be the perfect year to start—a lot is going to change for me this spring whether I’m ready for it or not.

In May, I’ll be graduating with a New Media Journalism degree and then what? I’ll continue working at my internship for the summer but at some point, I’m going to have to find a real job. So, in an effort to prepare myself for the search, I’m going to do my best to follow through with my short and modest list of resolutions. I doubt I’ll keep all of them but if I can hold on to one or two, it’s going to be a great start to the rest of my life 🙂

1. Overcome procrastination. I’m not saying I never get anything done, but I feel like my life would be a lot easier if I learned a bit of time management skills
2. Write everyday, whether its a blog entry (hopefully) or just something small, I need to keep my writing sharp because it’s my ticket to success in the real world.
3. Attend Church regularly. I’m already part-way there with this one since I now attend services with M and his family almost every Sunday.
4. Join a gym and work out at least 4 times a day. This one’s in progress…well, sort of. Mom and I are supposed to join an athletic club here shortly but life keeps happening and getting in the way.
5. Get published as a freelancer. This one’s a bold resolution, but I should be able to do it by summer.
6. Travel a bit. I never had the opportunity to travel aside from golf trips while in college, and when I have traveled, it’s always been with my parents. This year, I hope to spread my wings and maybe plan a short trip either by myself or with a few friends. Nothing major, but I definitely need this sort of growing experience.
7. Go sky-diving. You only live once. I’m slightly terrified by this one but you never know if you love something until you try it.
8. Use social media properly. This includes deleting my Facebook and publishing the bulk of my photos to Flickr rather than Facebook.
9. Talk to my extended family more. When we were growing up, my cousins and I were pretty close but we rarely talk now. This is a welcome change I’d like to see.
10. Volunteer more often. There are a lot of needy people out there and I love helping people so why shouldn’t I extend my support?

I’ll probably add to this list as the time goes on, but for now, I think I’m off to a healthy start.

What’s in a dream…

I’ve had two semi-recurring nightmares for the length of my college career. You know how you usually know you’re dreaming when you’re in a dream? Well for some reason, when I have either of these dreams, that whole notion goes out the window and I’m stuck until I’m fortunate enough to wake up.

In the first recurring dream, my teeth start falling out. And there’s this intense pain from them ripping themselves from my gums. In my dreams, it varies from my teeth grinding on each other until they inevitibly fall out to some cases where they just suddenly fall out and blood gushes everywhere.

I’ve done the research. I know why I have this dream—it’s stress. More specifically, it was golf. I literally had stressful dreams about my teeth falling out because I was so unhappy on the golf team. I’m happy to say that I haven’t had this dream since I quit the team back in the beginning of September. Yay for overcomming a nightmare!

Unfortunately, my second dream seems to be here to stay. It began shortly after I stopped going to karate regularly. Being a black belt is more than just an honor. It technically just means you’re a dedicated beginner, but at the same time, you can definitely kick some ass if you’re ever assaulted. So why is it that when I dream that I’m in a fight, it’s like I’m punching air? There’s no power behind my attacks. It’s like my arms have turned to jelly and I have no hopes for defeating my opponent.

I think, perhaps, it has something to do with the fact that I don’t feel quite as insecure when I’m not up to par with my martial arts. I took over a year—almost two—off from karate because of college and golf and just life in general. I don’t think I have a single stronger regret than giving up karate for two years. It clears my mind and helps me focus like nothing else. Over the summer, I went back to karate regularly and the nightmares stopped as well. But, now that I’m back in school, the nightmares have returned and I’m not sure when I’ll get the chance to train again.

I’m hoping that by teaching self-defense classes at Seton Hill, I’ll be able to increase my confidence and this will translate into my subconscious. Who knows…I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.