posted by Rebecca on indie2012, Life

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It’s been a while since I last posted, an occurrence that is not directly related to, but which I will blame on, the holidays What have I been doing since then? Not a whole lot, to be honest. I’ve been job hunting (still unsuccessfully), spending time with family, involving myself in entangling alliances, making a heavenly (but politically incorrect) Irish Car Bomb cake for my brother’s 21st birthday, and managing to destroy both my body and immune system. As for this latter event, it was not intentional. I stepped off a treadmill wrong and managed to severely sprain my left ankle. I tried to ignore the building pain for a week, even going so far as to run two 8-milers on it, before it it got so bad that I opted for a late-night ER visit. Two weeks later and I am still in pain, but at least I am no longer hobbling around on crutches. Still, it means that I’ve not run a single step since Dec. 18th and have had to rely on the elliptical and stationary bike to get my cardio fix. Top on to that a lingering upper respiratory illness and I have done little exercise over the past few weeks.

It is killing me.

Anyway, 2012 is here and, according to some people (namely, Hollywood), this is the year in which the world is going to end.

I  don’t particularly subscribe to this theory, but it can’t hurt to try and expand my horizons a bit in the off chance that it does turn out to be true. Looking back at 2011, I realized that my life was dictated a lot by what other people wanted or expected of me. I stayed in ‘safe’ countries, applied for ‘safe’ jobs, did things that were not necessarily out of my comfort zone. But as I’ve learned, disaster can strike even in the safest of places. After all, who would have thought that I would be assaulted in Scotland? I’m 23 years old and I am not getting any younger. One day, perhaps even as soon as within the next 5 years, I could be saddled down with a significant other, job, house, even *gulp* kid. Once those factors enter the equation, your own individual desires go by the wayside. Or at least this seems to be the recurring theme amongst the stories that my parents and family members tell me. So it seems that this year should be the year in which I tick things off my bucket list while I am still young, free, and relatively unencumbered. I have a few plans in the works, none of which are in any state to be revealed just yet, but lets just ay that if everything works out, I may be spending more time out of the country than in it.

One of the things that I would like to work on is this blog. In order to motivate myself to actually post more, I’m signing on to the BootsnAll Indie Travel Challenge 2012. Each week, BootsnAll (one of the best online travel resources/communities out there) will post a writing prompt designed to push bloggers to reconsider their traveling experiences, expectations, and futures.Week one’s assignment? Resolutions. Travel resolutions, on particular. But since I dislike the word ‘resolution’, I would much rather title this my 2012 ‘to do’ list. I aim to get everything done but if one or two goals slips away from, it won’t be the end of the world. (I wish that I could go into more detail with some of the items on the list, but I can’t give away details of my plans before I am certain that they will come to fruition.)

1. Travel to another US state – Surprisingly, I’ve only traveled along the eastern seaboard of the US and, even then, the farthest north I’ve been is Massachusetts.

2. Ride the London Eye to gain a clearer view of the city that I used to live in

3. Reach the Glastonbury Tor, sacred in both the old and new religions

4. Re-visit Wells Cathedral and appreciate the centuries of work that went into its construction

5. Travel to a developing country - I would go into more detail with this one but it ties into some of the plans that I mentioned above.

6. Learn to go with the flow more.  - Not everything works out like it was planned, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t going to work out.

7. Work on my writing (and travel writing) skills

8. Update this blog more frequently (2-3 times a week)

9. Walk along The Shambles in York

10. Sample local cuisine while traveling…without freaking out about how many calories I am consuming

11. Help my aunt and uncle in planning their trip to Burkina Faso to see their granddaughter  - My cousin, Ken, and his wife, Anita, are missionaries with CMF International in Bobo, Burkina Faso. They are expecting their first child in late April.

12. Get a job  - I already have several ideas as to what the next step will be. As everyone knows, the poor economy is putting quite the damper on employment prospects for the recently graduated…even those with master’s degrees. That said, I have a plan. And it may end up being the wildest ride of my life.

13. Live life for myself

 

What are your resolutions for the new year? Do you make resolutions? Where would you travel in 2012 if you had the opportunity?