What's a 2015 Anyway?

In the middle of January 2015 I laid out seven goals for the year. It is now late January in 2016 and it's high time I examined my progress on these goals. Here is a link to that post to read it for yourself. Originally I was going to include my goals for this year, but this post got looooong. I will include those in another post later.

Expand class-load at the Community School of the Arts

Status: Not kept.

I tried, honest I did. The classes I put up didn't make. You know what did make? My summer camp for Theatre for Children. It made with an agreement that I'd be paid by the class rather than by the hour. Then my class maximum was doubled from 10 to 20 without notice and they packed 18 young people into a room with just me for 15 hours. I want to believe that this was done out of an ignorance of how my class works and not out of a desire to wring more money out of my abilities, but I do know that this is the second year running that I've had to deal with fishy things going on around my summer camp with the CSA. I'm more than a little disillusioned with the company and I'm honestly considering not returning to teach again.

Create a regular improvised performance for families in Clarksville

Status: Not kept. 1/2 credit?

I did have a group of awesome people improvising with me for a few months in Clarksville. My original idea was to do musical narrative show but that quickly fell by the wayside when we had trouble managing the schedules of all the people who would've been willing to accompany us. I got to work with some amazing people and I proved to myself that I was capable of teaching improv. It kind of solidified what my ideals are and made me hyper aware of the building blocks of a good performance and story. Lauren, Maggie, Abby, and Dillon: I want y'all to know I was so proud to see you guys be incredible for a few weeks and I hope we can improvise together again because you're all crazy talented and the best kind of people.

Make, at minimum, 52 posts in this blog.

Status: Hahahahaha, definitely not kept.

33 posts. 19 short, which isn't as much as I'd expected. I fell off hard in 2015. Part of it is how busy I got toward the end of the year, but another piece is how I put so much pressure on myself to write and share and make sure everything I wrote was awesome and insightful. I learned that I tend to crumble in front of the assumption of success, probably cause I'm such a rebel. "Oh you think I'll be great, huh? I'll show you!" Honestly it's a thing I'm pecking away at.

Get my own place.

Status: Success.

Well it's not my own place, but I moved out of Clarksville and back to Nashville. I have a roommate who I like and plenty of space to myself. In August I kind of opted to fail at this resolution but I was offered a job and a place to live in late September and I pounced on the opportunity.

Get $1000 safely in savings and keep it there.

Status: Success

I did a real good job at this. Saved slowly and consistently and eclipsed my goal rather quickly. This year was a good start and I just need to keep it up.

Read 20 new novels. Autobiographies and theory books don't count!

Status: Not kept

I made some progress on this, but I fell off hard towards the middle of the year. Here's what I read:

Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, Return of the King, Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, The Anansi Boys, Good Omens, Guards Guards, Man in the High Castle

I also read Yes, Please and Improv at the Speed of Life but those didn't count towards my goal due to being an autobiography and a theory book. I read several new chidren's books for my class (it would be cheating to count those, I feel) and about half of Moby Dick. 

When it came down to it, I just had a lot of excuses and distractions from reading. This year I need to go into it with more discipline and structure if I want to succeed.

Study at a big-time improv school!

Status: Not Kept.

I chose not to succeed at this in order to succeed at my savings goal and my moving goal. It stings a little bit that I didn't manage to do this because I really, desperately want to take some time to learn from new people who are improvising for a living. I think some re-orientation is going to be necessary if I want to manage this goal this year.

2.5 out of 7 Resolutions Kept.

I'm tempted to say that's a laughably failing grade, but honestly that's not how real life works. I tried and learned and managed to do a few things that weren't on my list. I taught improv professionally for the first time, I moved back to Nashville, I got my Dungeons and Dragons show running finally.

On a more personal level, I've learned to say yes to opportunities and to be a better friend. I managed to get healthy and be better at being a grown-up in general. I'm going on dates and being a human, it's great!

By the numbers, I did not succeed. But real life isn't always by the numbers and I'm in a way better place than I've ever been. I just need to pick a direction and start marching, 2016 is going to be even more incredible.