The Next Year of My Life: Age 32

It’s funny.  Things can change so much in one year of your life, but the change never really is apparent until you stop and take a look back.  On my 31st birthday, I wrote a blog post very similar to what this one will be.  Summing it up, a year ago here’s what I wanted for the upcoming year and how I did:

• Be A Homeowner Again —> Completed!  I type right now from my fancy dining area in my fancy new house.  I couldn’t be happier with the home we purchased and what we’ve done with it so far – well, done with the outside.  The inside has much to be desired that will come in good time.
• Have Moved From Arizona —> FAIL!  We tried.  Damn it, we tried.  The job transfer/promotion didn’t work out.  In fact, in retrospect, the job I was going for was just eliminated this week across the country.  That would’ve been annoying – to be in cold, Indiana without a job.
• Continue to get healthier —> Completed!  I am for sure the healthiest I’ve ever been.  Sure, there are ups and downs in motivation, but, over the past year, I’ve added about ten pounds to my total weight loss and can say that from my heaviest (around October 2008) to now, I’ve lost around 40 pounds.  I’ll attribute much of my weight loss to running and a newfound love of yoga (although I don’t get to do that as often as I’d like).  And of course, to our vegetarian lifestyle.
• Complete a half marathon —> FAIL!  I registered for one in October and didn’t show up.  I blame it on the fact that work was super busy in September (peak training), I was taking two classes at UMass and … excuses, excuses.  It’ll be on my list again this year.
• Try to be vegetarian for a month —> MAJOR WIN!  Being vegetarian was super easy.  In fact, the thought of that blue cheese encrusted filet is not near as tantalizing as it was a year ago.  The ethical implications of eating factory-farmed meat are too much for me.  But I’ll get into that more for my goals this year.  What was meant to be a month of vegetarianism has turned into almost a year.  We started being vegetarian on December 30, 2009 and still are today.
• Finish my Information Technology degree —> FAIL!  I’m not sure how I calculated that I’d be finished by year’s end, because my goal was to get a degree without paying for it.  With the way tuition reimbursement works, I could only take five courses this year total, which wouldn’t complete my degree.  Now, by this time next year, this should be completed.

All in all, I am pretty pleased with my goals from a year ago.

Which brings me to my goals for year 32.  Ahem, ahem:

• Complete a half marathon or two. I’ll add a second one in because I think it’ll make up for my previous failure.
• Take more yoga. I love it so I should do more of it.  Plain and simple.  It clears my mind and in the few classes I’ve taken, it has made me more flexible.
• Try out veganism for a month. Damn hippie.  I can’t deny it.  As I educate myself on the production industry, it’s so apparent that as a culture, as a culture, we turn our eyes and minds from the devastation we cause this planet and other living animals through our appetites for not just meat, but so many other everyday products that contribute to the degradation of our planet.  It’s something nearly every American (and really most people on this planet) is brought up accepting: killing millions of factory-farmed animals is sick to think about, so we won’t think about it, we’ll just turn our heads and look the other way.This isn’t a rant, just a year-long theory that keeps formulating in my mind.  Is veganism the next step?  I think it is.  And we’re planning on trying it in January…
• Complete my Information Technology degree. Perhaps by the end of the summer, perhaps in November 2011.  It all depends the class load I feel I can handle.  Either way, I should be a double-bachelors degree type of guy by the time I turn 33.
• Use my mad knowledge and continue to build my own business. I keep learning new technologies on my own as well as in school.  Just before writing this, I was teaching myself more on PHP and creating WordPress themes.  I really need to capitalize on the knowledge I’m building and continue to learn new technologies.  My ultimate goal?  A small web design studio of my own that builds fancy, cutting edge websites for clients of all types.
• Share my thoughts more. On here.  Our website.  I used to do it quite a bit but haven’t much this year.  Hell, my last post was in February.  Writing on here clears my head.  It also makes me accountable for crap I say.  I don’t care if my writings fall on deaf ears, to me, it’s like broadcasting my thoughts to the world.  And I like it.  So I want to do it more.  That’s what she said.
• Learn more about photography. Last birthday, I bought myself a Nikon D3000 camera.  I still use it mostly on ‘Auto’ mode.  Sure, I’ve learned a few things about f-stops and aperture, but, not what I need to know to take awesome pictures.  I’m sure I can find plenty of websites and video tutorials online to start expanding my knowledge.  I’ll post my findings and results here.
• See my family more. This is actually an imposed goal on my family.  They should all come to Arizona more often.  Four hour plane rides are hell with a two year old.  So, this year, they are required to come see us more often than last year.  We’re planning on coming to Indiana at the end of July.  We all tentatively planned for all Shaffers, Madsons, Fishers and Hunts to come to AZ in April where many of us are planning on completing The Warrior Dash.  I better start seeing airline confirmations!  Beyond those two planned trips, I’d like to get out to Denver to see my brother and sister-in-law and to Florida to see my parents and sister and brother-in-law.

So there it is.  My Year 32 Goal List.  It’ll be interesting to see what happens over the course of the next year in my life.  My life doesn’t suck, that’s for sure.  I’ve got an amazing wife, a getting-more-amazing son (hey, the terrible twos are REAL y’all, but we’re starting to have some calming lately), an amazing family and am employed in a time when many are unemployed and more can’t say the former “statements of amazement.”

As I said last year: Cheers!  Here’s to 32!