Here's to 26 (and a lot) more!

Today marks the 26th anniversary of my birth. According to my mom, dad, and sister, I am old. I love my family. I really do!

Being 26 is weird. I am closer to 30 than I am 20. In all actuality, I have already lived for 26 years. I am working on number 27. Yay. I am thankful for another year-- for another day, even. I'm not going to reminisce or anything like that. You can read my blog. You're welcome.

Today, I want to talk about long and short-term goals I have.

In no particular order:

1. Finish my degree. I never thought I'd be where I am today-- 26 and no degree. I have a lot of credits and nothing to show for it. I've not really enjoyed the schooling part of college so far, so I hope to find what I love and go for it. My inspirations for finishing my degree despite my "advanced" age are my parents, Aunt Susan, cousin Cindy, Laura Smith (Day's mom), and the husband and kids I may have one day.


2. Get out of debt. I'll need a lot of help and support for this one. A sub-goal for this one is to no longer feel worthless for having the debt. I've made mistakes, and I've learned from them. I am still learning and unlearning habits, and I really want to feel like someone could love me despite the fact that I was an idiot when I was younger.


3. Lose weight. I know that a lot of people have this goal, and it's nothing special. I figured that I need to make it public that I've always struggled with how I look. I've always thought I was fat even though I really wasn't in high school. Hindsight. My parents got me a Wii and Wii Fit for my birthday/ Christmas, and we're going to have some fun while doing exercise.


4. Complete a triathlon. Say what? Yeah. I've never done anything like that before, and a friend from church wants to do. We'll see how this goes. (Number 3 and 4 are directly related.)


5. Get this blog revamped and reorganized. I want to refocus the content and have more consistency. I love to write, and I can write best about what I know. That's me. I know that sounds incredibly selfish, but just wait for it. I want to be more open, honest, funny, and just plain real than ever before. I want to tackle issues like being single longer than I realized I wanted to be, having doubt, lack of motivation, how we get ourselves into trouble, etc. It will take a bit to re-work, but I think you'll like it. I'll only write about things I know or have researched. I don't like the uncertainty of posting something with the fear that I may have said something that was wrong. I'm not saying everything I write will be perfect. It will at least be well thought out and as true as I can tell it.


6. Finish reading the Bible cover to cover. The prophets are daunting to me. I don't know why. I've read through Leviticus, so why not the prophets...?


7. Learn sign language. This has always been a passion of mine. By always, I mean always. I can't remember a time when I've not thought about wanting to learn sign language. Along with schools of technology, I considered going to a university in DC that is for the deaf and HOH (and hearing folk, too). I wanted to be a psychologist that was able to take deaf and HOH clients. (Ask my mom for a funny story relating to sign language.)

I hope that in pushing toward these goals, I press into God to find the motivations that are pure. I've gone in circles long enough, and I want to be a better witness for God than what I am. I'm tired of doing nothing for the Kingdom.

Are you with me?