2014

I took this at the precise moment it turned from 2013 to 2014. It's interesting to me that time works that way -- somehow, between hitting the picture button on my phone and the picture being taken, it changed from one year to the next. I almost feel like this picture belongs to both years. In my mind it occupies a liminal space between the two, not quite 2013, not quite 2014.

This year I have many resolutions. I'm going to eat vegetarian for a few weeks and see how it goes; it's an experiment, one driven by conscience and by health. I'm also going to post to blip every day this year -- I've got a new method for doing this that should help me if I encounter days where I don't get a chance to take a picture (which will be many days during the semester). I'll talk about that more when it comes time to employ it. I'm gonna write more of my own stuff this year, including short fiction even though I'm no good at it (look for some of that to be coming your way shortly). By the end of the year I'll have my Master's degree, a terrifying and exciting prospect (by the end of the year I'll also be done applying to PhD programs -- yikes!). Hell if I can get my ducks in a row I may even try to find a way to publish this year. I'm still co-President of the EGSA, which means I'll be helping to (deep breath) put on a conference, put together a lit journal, put together an academic journal, and get everything in place for the next co-Presidents who I'm sure will be fabulous, and they'd better be because after this semester they are on their own. I look forward to working with my close friends in the department, to learning more about others and myself, to growing as a person as much as I grew in 2013 (seriously, a banner year on the "Ikol's Personal Growth and Maturation as a Human Being" scale). I sincerely believe that this will be a good year.

So, in short - bring it on, 2014!