Not much, it turns out. I was looking through my “journal” – a Moleskine I purchased in 2008 when I was in college and still have not filled nearly five years later – and I found my New Year’s Resolutions from last year. I don’t remember writing them down, but I do know that I was hungover and alone in my apartment for the majority of New Year’s Day 2012, which I’m sure had much to do with my state of mind while I was writing. I can’t see myself writing half of these things down as “resolutions” now. (I mean, I actually didn’t write down any resolutions for 2013 so, this last statement is pretty true.)
Here’s my list of resolutions for 2012 and what I did with them:
* Re-learn how to play the piano
(I didn’t even TOUCH a piano last year except for one time when I sat down at my parents’ piano and played the chords from “Hey, Jude” for about a minute.)
*Learn how to play the guitar
(Nope. Though I did think about contacting Marnie Stern for lessons.)
* Continue German study
(Nein. This didn’t happen either. I mean, I still think about taking German classes all the time but at this point I would probably have to start in a beginner’s class and ugh what’s the point?)
*Go back on Weight Watchers
(Um, I did this a few times for a few weeks at a time. And then inevitably I would have a sort of binge-y weekend and would just totally forget about tracking points and whatnot and then eventually I would remember and I would think to myself, “Howwwww did I ever do this religiously for over a year?”.)
*Try online dating again
(Haha. This didn’t happen. In fact, I ended up deleting the OKCupid profile that I hadn’t updated in two years.)
*Tweet more/funnier things
(OMG, ugh. I know. I feel bad for the Haley of January 2012 who wrote this. But then again, I didn’t anticipate publishing this in any kind of public forum, so…there we are.)
*Deactivate Facebook at some point
(I wish. I did this once a few years ago and it was incredibly freeing. Unfortunately though, it’s the only way I get anyone to look at this here blog, so I’ll keep these virtual shackles on as long as that remains true.)
*Write more/on a schedule
(Actually, I did this! I did start writing a lot more. I don’t know how much I’ve been able to keep to a schedule but I’ve at least put more words on more pages than in years past.)
*Get a new job
(I did this too! This was probably the biggest thing I accomplished in 2012 considering all of the effort and time it took. So…Huzzah!)
Maybe you’re wondering what my 2013 resolutions are. (Probably you’re not.) I didn’t think of any before the clock struck 12 on January 1st, but I’ve tried to think of a few since – frankly, since I started writing this – and not much has come to mind other than that I want to not put so much pressure on myself to do things. Like, I really don’t think I intended to learn the guitar last year because I knew I wouldn’t have the time or drive to do it, but I put it on that list and when I read the list a year later, I felt kind of bad about not even trying. This year, I think I’ll be much better off if I focus on and enjoy the things that I’m actually doing rather than lamenting not doing things that I knew I wasn’t going to do in the first place. And now I will get 2013 started off right by bringing this post to a close because I think I’ve stopped making sense.
