Helllo Blog!

I've never been a "New Year / New Me" kind of person. I've never really done New Year's resolutions. True to my Capricorn nature, when I decide something needs to change, I make a plan and change it. If it's something that can wait till the New Year, it's not relevant enough for me to remember or attempt to change. As such, New Year's resolutions just never happened. They were just plans formed in March or November or when things needed to happen.

That being mentioned, 2020 was a hurricane through my life. I am sure this is true of basically every other person in the world. I know that 2020 being a wrecking ball isn't unique to me, and much like the rest of the world, I wasn't prepared for its destructive path. .

Only just a year ago now, I was in a job I loved. My work community and family were everything to me. I found joy in the work I did and the community I was involved in. I planned to retire there. I recognize that not everyone gets a job they love. And I really loved my job. I never dreaded Mondays or prayed the weekends got here quicker. Every day was an adventure I looked forward to. I worked with international students. My job duties included taking them around Seattle, the best eateries, orientating them to life in America, and teaching them English of course. Late February 2020, I remember suddenly COVID (or as I affectionately call it the 'plague') was all over the news. I recall trying to calm my students, who were panicking and talking about going home. I honestly thought it was 'media hype' and 'election year crap.' At most, maybe it would be like SARS . You know, something that people talk about in other places but doesn't ever hit home.

By the last week in February, my boss came to talk to my panicked students. The end of the first week in March, it was announced that my school would be moving to online classes 'for a week or two.' You know, just until the panic died.

I grabbed my calendar from my office, not wanting to forget important deadlines. I grabbed nothing else. I wish I had known that would be the last day in my office, with my students, with my work family. I was delighted about the thought of online teaching. The idea seemed like a mini-vacation. "I can teach from my bedroom! YIPPEE" If anyone out there is reading this and had to transition from in-person learning to online learning, please know as I write about my past feelings, I'm laughing at the ignorance of past me.

I did online teaching for three weeks. It was terrible. I still loved my students, and I loved seeing them every day. But DEAR GOD were those the most challenging three weeks of my career.

When I got the 'call' from my boss about 'future plans' I was expecting news about returning to my classroom, I was shocked to find out that they had decided to furlough all admin (not just my school but all admin, at an international company.) I was part admin and part teacher. At first, it was unclear if I would be considered 'teacher' or 'admin'; I fell squarely on the admin side.

Furloughed until July. I tried to look at my time off as 'downtime.'

I sewed about 500 masks for hospitals back when there was a HUGE PPE shortage. I started Christmas gifts and caught up on sewing projects. I am not an individual who is ok sitting and doing 'nothing.' I need purpose. I was still secure in my knowledge that I would be returning to work. I had no doubts. I remember remarking to a co-worker that "When this is all over, people are going to be running back to the schools. No one is going to want to stay at home." It was just a matter of waiting it out.

It wasn't, but no one had lived through a plague, so what did I know?

July came, and when they said our furlough would go till September, I started to worry. The idea that my job would ALWAYS be there was fading quickly. The problem was it wasn't just my job. My whole career field was nuked. No one was coming here to study English! No one was leaving their countries. This wasn't a shocking fact; I knew it in my heart of hearts and bone of bones.

It's a plague! The whole world is staying at home.

I started my classes at the Novelty (best writing community ever between. More on them later), I began to crave out objectives and plans. Waiting and not waiting all at once. The what if's had started. "What if there is no school to return to? What if there are no students?"

October came, and to my deep sorrow, my job was simply not there anymore. I wasn't surprised when the schools started to close, but I was heartbroken. In six short months, there was nothing left of my career field. Now, I know that someday things will get better and eventually things will return to normal, but I also know that road is long. Do I wait for three years? Five? Not only are there no international students, but colleges have also seen a drastic decline in admission. No one wants to go to school. I can't blame them; there aren't really any jobs.

I did allow myself time to grieve the loss of my livelihood. I know everything, good or bad, ends, changes. Life is change.

So by the time the dust settled, it was shortly before Christmas.

Life changes and those changes require life-changing plans. So here I am making 'New Year's goals' Or 2021 plans.

There is always a first time for something.

So here they are my year-long goals for 2021!

1) Finish my book! - Like finish all the drafts. I want to be agent shopping by the end of the year.

Writing is my new 'career' goals. Right now, I have the means to give writing my full attention, so I am throwing myself into it. When that is no longer an option anymore I'll figure out those steps at that point. I know writing is a poor man's career. Most writers have other jobs. But you know all those things are true of teachers as well. If I can make writing what I made teaching, I'll be okay. That is a pretty low bar. McDonald's managers made more than I did as a teacher.

2) Create a blog that tells my writing journey. I LOVE reading about writing craft. I love reading about how other authors write. I haven't found a lot of blogs about their writing journeys, though. Some Youtube, but not blogs, so hello blog!

3) Walk twice a day. I never thought I'd need a goal to leave my house, but there it is. I need to leave my house. Even if it's just around my block for thirty minutes. I now understand why morning and afternoon 'constitutionals" were a big thing in Jane Austen's books.

4) Read at least one book a week and write reviews about said book. If I can spend eight hours texting my besties about books I've read every day, surely I can manage to give that feedback to other readers (and the writers.)

There they are. My 2021 goals. They probably don't seem like much. A new career. Lots of writing and reading. So let's see how this goes!