“I’m not the girl I intend to be.” -Sara Bareilles

Tis’ a new year, and with the coming of a New Year also comes fresh starts, new goals, new intentions, and, in my case, new blog posts. Resolutions. Or, as dictionary.com defines, a “firmness of purpose.” Believe it or not, this year will be my first to set defined resolutions. Prior to 2013, my resolutions resembled more distant hopes than determined will.   

This may be due to the fact that up until now, my yearly cycle has adhered more to the academic calendar rather than the more traditional roman rule. It doesn’t help that my birthday falls but a stone throw away from the annual eagerly anticipated release date of school supplies lists (to this day I still get an ever-so subtle craving for Trapperkeepers™ and Crayolas™ around early August). The first of January was always just the start of another month amidst a busy school year. However, in August, with another full year of life behind me and facing forward towards what was, up until a few years ago, my primary purpose in life, it was easy and, in all actuality, justified to base my self-reflection and personal goals around this time frame.

While the switch in yearly calendars is most likely accredited to one day away from school too many, perhaps it also shows acceptance of time, a quest for growth, and a desire for increased firmness of purpose. Over the last 12 months I have done a bit of self-diagnosing. The verdict? I am not the girl I intend to be. And rather than waiting another eight months for my traditional annual jump-start, eleven days ago I was handed a silver platter full of 365.25 days to get this show on the road.    

I have no illusions that come early August, and the conclusion of my 27^th year, I will have an entirely new set of goals. However, the replacement of my “A Year in Colorado” weekly engagement calendar (I perhaps love my home state too much), means that for those of us no longer enrolled in school, a new year has begun and the time for resolutions has come.   

So, like the thousands…er, who am I kidding, the millions of blog posts being written within the first few weeks of January (not to mention the gazillion facebook posts, and umpto tweets) about this exact same topic (nothing like ringing in the new year with originality, aye?), I join the multitudes and publicly proclaim my 2013 new year’s resolutions.

So as to not overwhelm myself (which I’ve found is a sure bet for failure), I’ve stuck with four:    

1. Floss Daily (stipulation: floss daily except if I’m up past 1 am. No amount of dental hygiene is worth staying up for at that hour) 

2. Take my vitamins every weekday (interestingly enough, this will be the most difficult of the four to keep and I have already failed multiple times…oye)

3. Take the GRE by June

4. Do something intentionally creative every week (unfortunately this means there will not always be a blog post, but I‘ll do my best to share my creations when possible)

2013, let’s do this.