Prompt: Travel. How did you travel in 2010? How and/or where would you like to travel next year?

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This is an interesting question.  Not, where did you travel, but how did you travel?

Well. 

I traveled by car mainly—around town for daily work and errands, to Ohio for work in the spring, to Chicago for a friend’s wedding in April, to South Carolina to visit family over the summer. 

I traveled by plane to Tampa for vacation in August. I traveled by cruise ship to the Caribbean.

I traveled by jet ski while I was on Grand Cayman Island.  I traveled by parasail over the waters of Cozumel, Mexico.  I traveled by a tender boat to and from the cruise ship.  I traveled by bus in Belize to visit the ruins of Xunantunich. 

I traveled by shuttle van from the parking lot to jury duty. 

I traveled by golf cart at the Missouri Botanical Gardens to get to a wedding that had been moved due to rain.

I traveled by my own two legs through a variety of races, including a half-marathon. 

How and/or where would you like to travel next year?

I’d love to take a cruise to Alaska.  That would involve car, plane, ship, and possibly train.

If I don’t go to Alaska, I’d like to travel somewhere else that I have to fly to…

Maybe a trip to Chicago or Colorado to visit friends over the summer–

I will be traveling to Phoenix by plane, and then running a race…

Maybe I should get a bike to ride around town, but I worry about safety.  It would be nice to take bike rides in Forest Park though! 

I’ll see if I can think of more ideas while I’m traveling today…

Prompt: Future self. Imagine yourself five years from now. What advice would you give your current self for the year ahead? (Bonus: Write a note to yourself 10 years ago. What would you tell your younger self?)

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About five or six years ago, I was sitting at a restaurant with a small group of friends, and one of my friends asked if we had “five year plans,” as in, where did we want to be in five years.  I did not.  Sure, I had ideas of what I might want to be doing, but I’m more of a “go with the flow” person when it comes to life.  Maybe that puts me “behind schedule” (aka, not married, no kids, still working freelance), but at least I haven’t been disappointed by failing to reach my goals, right?  As a musician, you just can’t always choose what you want out of life—there is just too much luck involved.  I wonder if my friends are now where they wanted to be then?  I would rather not know…

SHOULD I institute a five-year plan?  There’s just a few things I’d like to change for sure—I don’t want to be renting or paying my student loans anymore.  I’d still like to get married and have a kid, and probably should do that within five years.  I’ll still be playing violin and teaching, and I’ll have a different car than the one I drive now.  I’ll, sadly, probably have a different cat as well.  My clothes will probably be different, according to the fashion.  I’ll still be working out regularly, running, and eating well.  I’ll still be wearing jeans, and my hair will be some shade of brown.  I’ll probably still own a large amount of black clothing—or at least I want to.

Things I can’t imagine because there are just too many variables:  where I will be living (honestly, I don’t care as long as I’m with Chris ), what sort of house/condo we’ll own, whether the new cat would be fat as well, what sort of car I’d be driving, etc.  Friend-wise, well if I’m still in this city I’ll have lots of good friends, probably many of the same ones I have now, if we’ve moved I’ll have new friends and keep in touch with some of the old. 

What advice would I give my current self for the year ahead?  Relax.  Enjoy.  It’s out of your control anyway.

(Bonus: Write a note to yourself 10 years ago. What would you tell your younger self?

I would remind myself to read the Harry Potter books many times, to enjoy the Lord of the Rings movies, to treasure my friends while I can because we will all be moving, that it’s okay to leave the Charlotte Symphony because happiness is more important…and to relax.  Enjoy.  It’ll turn out okay. Oh, and don’t panic and accept every possible teaching position!)

Prompt: Beyond avoidance. What should you have done this year but didn’t because you were too scared, worried, unsure, busy or otherwise deterred from doing? (Bonus: Will you do it?)

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Hmm…the only thing that comes to mind is the eye doctor—I didn’t go to the eye doctor this year because I was too busy plus I really do still have enough contacts.  However, I’m pretty sure my prescription has gotten a bit worse and I really need to make an appointment.  Another reason I’ve been avoiding it is that I don’t have an eye doctor here yet, so I don’t know where would be good to go.  Oddly most of my friends don’t wear glasses or contacts and don’t have people to recommend.

Will I do it?  Yes!  Otherwise I will run out of contacts in a few months and have to resort to my glasses and there’s no way that is happening!

I don’t know if that’s exactly what the prompt was looking for, but that’s all I can think of.  I really accomplished a lot of my personal goals this year…I really think I did everything that I SHOULD have done, except, like I said, the eye doctor.  COULD I have done more?  Yes, of course, but at some point one has to step back and say, yes, that’s good, you’ve done well.

“That’ll do, pig.” 

I think of that quote from “Babe” when I want to tell myself I’ve done enough.  I tend to beat myself up for not being overachieving enough…I worry that my house/car aren’t clean enough, that I’m not working hard enough at my jobs, that I don’t look put together enough, that my meals aren’t tasty enough, that I don’t act polite or nice enough…that I’m not accomplishing enough on EACH AND EVERY DAY. 

(And I don’t mean I think of myself as a pig! )

“That’ll do, pig.”  That’ll do, Hannah. Stop worrying.  You’re doing enough.

Prompt: Healing. What healed you this year? Was it sudden, or a drip-by-drip evolution? How would you like to be healed in 2011?

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What healed me this year? 

Not to continually bring up the same thing, but it was all due to signing on with my personal trainer, Joe.  In January I wanted to get in shape and lose weight.  My boyfriend and I joined a gym together and they had a special deal where you could get four sessions with a personal trainer for a cheaper rate.  We both signed up, quickly realized that working out with Joe could change our lives and signed on for longer.  Joe revamped our diets as well as encouraging us through physical exercise.  He made me keep a food diary and put me on a very strict diet.  I had to work out just about every day…and I did everything he asked (I think he was totally shocked by that!).  I lost about 40 pounds in 6 months and since then have maintained that loss.  I’ve also gotten into running and now I love exercising, sweating, and being sore from a tough workout.  I feel strong and healthy, and am so much happier!  (And my boyfriend is totally ripped now—he was thin before and put on about 30 pounds of muscle and looks fantastic!) 

Was it sudden, or a drip-by-drip evolution? 

It was more of a drip-by-drip evolution.  Each week my diet got easier to follow, each week I felt stronger and in better shape.  Losing weight is obviously a slow process, but it was much faster with Joe’s help and encouragement. 

How would you like to be healed in 2011? 

Well, I have no idea.  I don’t have anything obviously wrong with me at this time that needs healing…I guess we’ll see what life throws at me? Whatever happens, I’d just like to be able to handle it well without stress-eating, which I am pretty sure I can do.  We’ll see!

Prompt: Try. What do you want to try next year? Is there something you wanted to try in 2010? What happened when you did / didn’t go for it?

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We all know Yoda’s saying.  You may be thinking that I messed up the title of this post, but I didn’t.  My friend Ranya and I went through a period of time last fall where we played a lot of Mario Party 8 for the Wii.  We learned, no matter how hard we tried to win by skill, luck ended up being the only thing that mattered in the end.  You could play a bad game and win, or a great game and still lose.  We decided we needed to just relax and enjoy the ride, and coined the saying, “There is no do, only try.” 

The fun was in the trying.

So what do I want to try next year?  There are a few things I want to try that are personality traits.  I want to try to be less stressed over small unimportant things.  I have a hard time when I am not in control of a situation, and I want to try to be more relaxed when things aren’t under my control, especially when it’s fairly unimportant things like somebody making dinner or planning where to meet to friends. 

What else do I want to try?  I want to try new activities!  I want to try to visit the city’s museums, particularly the art museum.  I made a list of places I wanted to try to go last summer and never got to most of them…(nothing bad happened, the list just continued existing).  It’s still a great list!  I will try to carry that list over into the new year. 

Is there something I wanted to try in 2010? 

I wanted to try to get more into the freelance scene here…it’s a slow process but I am getting more calls from a few more people…so I know I will eventually get there (unless we move, then I’ll have to start all over again.). 

I wanted to try to have more students—that happened beyond my wildest dreams (in fact, I may need to try to have less students).  I wanted to try to lose weight and get in better shape—I definitely did that. 

I wanted to try to be more pleasant and less angry—I accomplished that as well.  In fact, I would say that 2010 was a pretty good year in terms of meeting my resolutions.

In summation:

2011 is going to be the year of HAPPINESS–

the year of really trying to enjoy the city I live in by taking advantage of the many opportunities here for recreation and education.

I will also continue on my path to be more relaxed (less stressed) and to maintain CALM, at least on the outside