I love the new year. Since I often travel around Christmas, I always fly home sometime around the new year. One of my favorite habits is to use that plane ride home to both look back at the past year and look ahead to the next. I love deciding what shape my new year’s resolutions will take, what I want to focus on, who I want to become. Since 2020 threw a curveball at us this year, there is no plane ride. In fact, there were no plane rides at all this year. I haven’t had a year off of flying since…1996?? Sometimes I fly too much, to be sure, but I do miss it. What’s even more weird to think about is the next time I fly is that I’ll have to figure out how to do so with a toddler! I welcome the challenge, whenever that may come. But even without a flight home, there is still a year-end recap to do!

Year-End Recap 2020

In the past I have posted my list of goals (2018, 2019). However, this year I just shared my one-word theme for the year, which was Walk. This word referred to a variety of activities and goals in 2020: graduating, watching my daughter learn to walk, going for more walks and/or hikes, growing in my walk of faith, and walking the grounds of Augusta (at the Masters). As you can imagine, some of these went better than others.

First, I am happy to report that my daughter did learn how to walk! She started walking a week after her first birthday…and then promptly forgot how to do it for a few weeks (or was just in such a hurry and realized crawling was still faster). However, she now (almost) exclusively walks, and it’s so fun to watch her get better each day.

Is there a better walk than Green Lake?

Although I think Green Lake is still my favorite place to walk in Seattle, my quarantine walk of choice became the arboretum. A friend lives near the park, so I would drive to her house and we would walk from her house, around the loop, and back home, which was about four miles. It was never as crowded as Green Lake, and even when it was busy, the pathways are wide. Apparently the park gets even better when you head off the main paved path, but Kerri’s stroller kept us on the paved loop. I still think I’ll return to Green Lake when Covid passes, but it’s nice to have another great walk in my pocket!

Failed Walks

Sadly, two big goals were postponed/canceled this year. The immediate and unforeseen transition to online teaching and 100% home life made it difficult to continue working at the pace needed to graduate this last summer. I am excited to have made a plan with my advisor to defend in February, however, so the countdown is on…! And sadly, as any sports fan knows, the Masters were initially postponed until November and then canceled (to fans), so we were not able to make that trip this year. Not much to dwell on here, but it remains on the bucket list!

How did your resolutions go this year?

It’s fair to say that 2020 wasn’t what anyone expected. As you recap your own year, do so with a healthy dose of grace. I made a few other more concrete goals, which I won’t detail here. I will say, however, that I was 7/7 on my January goals. Maybe monthly goals is the way to go instead…