It has become an annual tradition for me and a couple close friends to write and share each other’s goals for the year. For Greg and Maureen’s awesome posts, please go here and here respectively.
Without further adieu, here are my goals for 2017.
Get Married
I recently got engaged to my girlfriend Em. We have been dating for 2 ½ years and we are looking forward to starting a life together. In the legal sense, this is a trivial goal that does not require more than a couple hours of planning. But I put it here for two reasons:
(1) I’d like to remind myself constantly to take the engagement process seriously. The vows we are going to make are important, and I plan to take the time to reflect and prepare. Since we will be getting married in the Catholic church, we will be taking marriage prep class, which I genuinely hope is worth the time. Also, there is a tendency in modern day to have the discerning process end at engagement, when really that should be the beginning.
(2) I have seen enough weddings to know that this is a rare time in life in which the bride and groom will have the most interaction with all their family and friends. I’d like to take full advantage of that and enjoy those moments.
Move Out
If you asked me at the beginning of 2016 if I would be living with my parents by the end of the year, I most likely would have said no. But I made that decision this fall, and have been very happy since. With that said, it was always meant to be a temporary arrangement and every person needs to leave their parents house at some point. I’m not sure if we will buy or rent, but either would be a big enough process to be included here.
Graduate
3 ½ years ago, I decided to take on a sort of crazy adventure by pursuing a graduate degree in applied and computational mathematics. It has been stressful, rewarding, disappointing, not what I expected, exactly what I expected, and much more. This spring, I have one more course to take. If I pass it, I graduate.
Take Piano Lessons
Each year, I put some version of “learn to play the piano” on my goals, and each year I fail miserably. What I seem to lack most is the discipline to set aside the time and practice regularly. So this year, I’m going to call in the cavalry and get some lessons. Note that the goal implies more than one lesson, and so that’s what I will use to measure myself.
Improve Coding Skills
My eventual goal for coding is to be able to freelance on the side, but I have a long way to go. I already have knowledge of Python, Bash, R and SQL. This year, I’d like to learn more about operating systems and hardware in general, as well as learn some front end development with CSS, HTML, Javascript, Ruby on Rails, etc.
Write
This is my second post on the blog this year, so I am off to a good start. I always have a lot of drafts hanging around that are never perfect, so I’m going to force myself to publish a little more this year. I figure it’s better to publish and learn from feedback than to be a hoarder of half-finished essays.
Eat Out Less
I waste too much money on eating out, especially at work. My new simple goal / rule is to only buy a meal at work once each week. This gets really challenging when life is busy, but I’m going to do my best.
