Thinking about 2016.

I'm glad that the Christmas season is largely over. Every year, I hope I'll like Christmas a little more than the previous one, but I never really do. It's a thing. There's a good reason for my distaste, but this post isn't really about that - just that it's over, and I'm relieved, and I had to take two full days of talking to nobody, and doing nothing but attending to housework and videogames.

I've been giving thought to what my goals are in the next semester and in the upcoming several years. Not, like, in a "what'll you be doing in five years" kind of interview question but more along the lines of, "what do I want to do next, and how long do you think it'll take for Phase X to come to conclusion?" The conclusion of the semester and New Years resolutions coincide very nicely, so it becomes a semi-formal sort of thing. I don't keep resolutions on file like a sort of bucket list, but I do think that a small time seriously thinking about goals is pretty healthy and maybe fruitful.

In the upcoming year, I'll definitely be wrapping up my Master's. There's really no reason for me to suspect I won't succeed in this, and this kind of surety is really heartening. Coinciding with or, perhaps, subordinate to finishing my degree, I'll be starting my thesis come Spring Semester and that'll be the longest thing that I've ever written. This is the kind of work I've really been looking forward to, and I'm not certain that I would have been able to do it successfully without the education and guidance I've recieved. I'll also be teaching two sections of 102 Composition, which I'm looking forward to only in that they'll very likely be less stressful than 101 was, if only because I've done it once before. Two sections means twice the grading, of course, but also gets me out of the writing center. Everyone I've talked to who's done both says they prefer teaching the extra section, so that's probably a boon, overall.

I feel like, in real terms, that's really enough. "Get the Master's Degree" isn't just a New Year's resolution, it's kind of a life goal, but it won't last the year. I'll very likely be done after Summer (possibly Fall, but that isn't quite as good for me), so finding work will be the next goal. Very likely, also, I'll work on starting a writing project. That, plus continuing to get our house in order (which I feel is slow, but generally going well and is largely held back by income deficiencies which - for reasons that I'll probably elaborate on them if/when they come to fruition - may not be a problem all that much longer), and continuing to develop increasingly healthier habits in terms of what I eat, how much I excercise, and how much I drink, are pretty much it.

As stressful and difficult as it's been this year, it's one of the best I've had in a long time.