Happy new year! (belated!)
I fell off the internet bandwagon again, sorry. ;__; There are too many entries for me to be able to go back enough to catch up on everyone's posts, so please let me know if you posted anything super important I should absolutely read! I spent a couple of weeks on vacation
visiting my mom and sister in Nebraska, and I unfortunately discovered once
there that T-Mobile doesn't exist there, which means I had no wireless service
and couldn't check anything on the internet. D: I had an AWESOME time
seeing them, and it was great to get out of California for a while,
even if it meant seeing a lot of temperatures below freezing outside.
I hope to be able to see them again this year!
Happy new year to everybody!! I hope that 2014 kicks ass for you guys.
As I usually do, I'm posting a quick review of last year, how my goals
for the year went, and what my goals are for the upcoming year.
2013:
I quit my job in Japan and moved my life back to America to go to
school. I left Japan in April, and it still feels like yesterday that
I was there. I miss it every day and desperately want to return but am
trying to enjoy life in America! In the summer I got a full-time job,
which I luckily still have, and right now my finances are still
looking pretty good, where even if I lost my job I could afford
another semester of full-time school without going broke.
My goals for the year were:
1. Get in great shape. This is my goal every year, and I failed
again. I am in great shape in terms of health, but I don't look really
fit, so it doesn't count.
2. Successfully move back to America/make transition back home.
I think this was accomplished! I have a place to live and a job, so I
can't ask for much more than that.
3. Become a starving art student and put 100% of my energy into
getting technically proficient. Sort of. Unfortunately, 80% of my
time and energy goes to my job, and the remaining 20% goes towards class time... I have been struggling to understand how I am supposed
to really get good fast enough when the only way I can afford to stay
in school is if I'm working full-time, which means no time for
studying outside of class.
4. Get a job. Success! :D Here's hoping I can keep it.
5. Finish my time in Japan with no regrets. Check! I regret
that I was kind of dead/had no energy when I was seeing people in my
last couple of weeks, but hopefully everybody understood that I was
just insanely busy and stressed and it wasn't that I didn't want to
see them.
2014:
I honestly have no idea what to expect from the upcoming year. I am
worried about my progress (or lack thereof) with art and balancing my
time, having to find a new place to live, and trying to keep a job,
along with dealing with how much I don't care for living in California. But here
are my goals for the time being:
1. Look fit. Changing my wording slightly because I probably am
in "great shape" depending how you judge it, and at this point I just
care about not looking awful. Still, it's the same old yearly goal!
2.Keep a job throughout the year. I don't know if my current job
will last past the spring, but I'm hoping if it doesn't, I can find a
new one quickly and stay gainfully employed full-time.
3.Start going to conventions and cosplaying again. I want to go
to 2 or 3 conventions this year and have some fun! This week I'm going to seriously decide what costumes I'm doing and start acquiring materials to make them.
4. Make SERIOUS progress with art or change things in a big way. If I don't make good
enough progress at school, I need to seriously reevaluate what I'm
doing and either quit school and move somewhere with low costs of
living so I can work half-time and study my ass off on my own the rest
of the time, or figure out if I should keep investing my time into
studying where I am now. I feel the progress I've made in my first
year here is embarrassing and awful, and if the second year
goes the same, I'm nowhere near being on track for becoming a
professional.
5.Get an art portfolio site made. Even if I don't use it and I'm not
ready to put myself out there, I want to have a portfolio full of
original art made so I can try to do creative things besides schoolwork
regularly.
6.Somehow get a better way to balance study/work/life time.
This is my biggest problem in life right now. I spend all day at work,
all evenings/weekends at class, and then I have no time or energy
left. I'm barely scraping by financially, and I can't stay in a
stagnant situation like this forever. No idea how I'm going to fix
things, though. :/ If I could just somehow get more time for
studying, I'd feel like all the sacrifices were worth and I'd be making good steps forward instead of feeling like I am moving at a snail's pace indefinitely.
What are your resolutions for this year? Are you guys excited about this year/do you have anything awesome coming up?
visiting my mom and sister in Nebraska, and I unfortunately discovered once
there that T-Mobile doesn't exist there, which means I had no wireless service
and couldn't check anything on the internet. D: I had an AWESOME time
seeing them, and it was great to get out of California for a while,
even if it meant seeing a lot of temperatures below freezing outside.
I hope to be able to see them again this year!
Happy new year to everybody!! I hope that 2014 kicks ass for you guys.
As I usually do, I'm posting a quick review of last year, how my goals
for the year went, and what my goals are for the upcoming year.
2013:
I quit my job in Japan and moved my life back to America to go to
school. I left Japan in April, and it still feels like yesterday that
I was there. I miss it every day and desperately want to return but am
trying to enjoy life in America! In the summer I got a full-time job,
which I luckily still have, and right now my finances are still
looking pretty good, where even if I lost my job I could afford
another semester of full-time school without going broke.
My goals for the year were:
1. Get in great shape. This is my goal every year, and I failed
again. I am in great shape in terms of health, but I don't look really
fit, so it doesn't count.
2. Successfully move back to America/make transition back home.
I think this was accomplished! I have a place to live and a job, so I
can't ask for much more than that.
3. Become a starving art student and put 100% of my energy into
getting technically proficient. Sort of. Unfortunately, 80% of my
time and energy goes to my job, and the remaining 20% goes towards class time... I have been struggling to understand how I am supposed
to really get good fast enough when the only way I can afford to stay
in school is if I'm working full-time, which means no time for
studying outside of class.
4. Get a job. Success! :D Here's hoping I can keep it.
5. Finish my time in Japan with no regrets. Check! I regret
that I was kind of dead/had no energy when I was seeing people in my
last couple of weeks, but hopefully everybody understood that I was
just insanely busy and stressed and it wasn't that I didn't want to
see them.
2014:
I honestly have no idea what to expect from the upcoming year. I am
worried about my progress (or lack thereof) with art and balancing my
time, having to find a new place to live, and trying to keep a job,
along with dealing with how much I don't care for living in California. But here
are my goals for the time being:
1. Look fit. Changing my wording slightly because I probably am
in "great shape" depending how you judge it, and at this point I just
care about not looking awful. Still, it's the same old yearly goal!
2.Keep a job throughout the year. I don't know if my current job
will last past the spring, but I'm hoping if it doesn't, I can find a
new one quickly and stay gainfully employed full-time.
3.Start going to conventions and cosplaying again. I want to go
to 2 or 3 conventions this year and have some fun! This week I'm going to seriously decide what costumes I'm doing and start acquiring materials to make them.
4. Make SERIOUS progress with art or change things in a big way. If I don't make good
enough progress at school, I need to seriously reevaluate what I'm
doing and either quit school and move somewhere with low costs of
living so I can work half-time and study my ass off on my own the rest
of the time, or figure out if I should keep investing my time into
studying where I am now. I feel the progress I've made in my first
year here is embarrassing and awful, and if the second year
goes the same, I'm nowhere near being on track for becoming a
professional.
5.Get an art portfolio site made. Even if I don't use it and I'm not
ready to put myself out there, I want to have a portfolio full of
original art made so I can try to do creative things besides schoolwork
regularly.
6.Somehow get a better way to balance study/work/life time.
This is my biggest problem in life right now. I spend all day at work,
all evenings/weekends at class, and then I have no time or energy
left. I'm barely scraping by financially, and I can't stay in a
stagnant situation like this forever. No idea how I'm going to fix
things, though. :/ If I could just somehow get more time for
studying, I'd feel like all the sacrifices were worth and I'd be making good steps forward instead of feeling like I am moving at a snail's pace indefinitely.
What are your resolutions for this year? Are you guys excited about this year/do you have anything awesome coming up?