Talinjoo, Fort Dauphin, Madagascar

2019 GOALS

HAPPY 2019!!

I can’t believe it’s here! I can’t believe 2018 is over! Sometimes I think back to 1999/2000 New Year and remember how scared I was of Y2K. I was at my Aunty Gail’s house with my two best friends and moving into the 2000s seemed insane. Now it just seems crazy that was 19 years ago. Wow, wow, wow.

Anyway, looking back on my goals for 2018, I was semi-successful. I failed at refocusing on Spanish, I did not learn to drive a standard, and while I got back into Pilates for a while, the move to Mada really undid most/all of that effort.

I’m not totally caught up on this blog — one day I’ll write about Croatia, Poland, Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Mzansi in Cape Town. BUT I kept up with it relatively well and got through a backlog of other things. So I’m going to mark this one down as a win.

Feeling content is a work in progress but I’m definitely doing better than I was this time last year, so again, a win.

A theme is that I suck at accomplishing any of my resolutions, which is well documented on this blog. So this year I’m setting “intentions.” Let’s see if that helps any.

2019 INTENTIONS

  • French. Would be SUCH a career boost if I could speak French, and I’m living in a country where French is commonly spoken and would hugely assist my ability to get by. I’m going to look into lessons and try to leave Mada with a solid grasp of the basics — something off of which I can continue to build. I think often with languages the hardest part is just getting started.
  • My masters. I want to take (and pass) the finals of at least three of my classes.
  • Surfing. Fort Dauphin is great for surfing and there are tons of people offering lessons. Learning to surf used to be on my 30 before 30 before I decided my fear of the ocean was stronger than my desire to surf. But when in Rome…

Very few intentions this year, and zero travel related! It’s not cheap getting to/from Mada, so I expect I’ll be here most of the year. When my contract is up, depending on finances, I could see myself moving to France for a bit and taking a month or two of intensive French lessons. We shall see.

The most important things left on my 30 before 30 are: masters, learn French, live in France, B2 level of Spanish, Bali, and Buenos Aires. I might be able to get the first three started, but the last three will be a bit of a push. We shall see! If I turned 30 tomorrow I’d be over the moon excited about how much I managed to do in the past five years. Anything further is just a bonus, really!