2019 Goals Check-In, Quarter 2
Coming at you from an under-construction US Highway 1, with peach- and blue-colored houses high on a hill meeting my view to my left and long yellow grasses, burned in patches from the fires earlier this year, on my right. I’m on the road again, and there’s something so rich and rewarding about reflecting while on the road. I have these literal markers of progress (miles traveled, new places visited) to help start the germination of less-easily-measured movement.
We’re halfway through 2019. How are we doing?
This Quarter’s Theme: There Is No New Normal
This last quarter has seen many a change. Diego and I left Buenos Aires, headed to the U.S., and started a big road trip. We did a month in the Midwest that was rich with family and in moments of realizing “wow, I probably don’t want to live here long-term”, a month out West, where I was dazzled by this patchwork land and its diversity, and now we’ve been almost half a month in California, which have been marked by some much-needed beach days, reunions with loved ones, and another budget-breaking and very-much-worth it road trip.
These three months have seen Diego and I spend more time together than ever before. They’ve seen us spend more money than ever before (while also seeing us achieve and surpass other goals—he’s signed his first deal as a designer-on-retainer; I’ve placed more pieces in one four-week period than I had in the four months previous). And they’ve seen us investigating my country with an intensity I’ve never applied to it before, asking questions like “What does freedom mean to us?” and “What kind of communities do we feel welcome in?”
We’ve been on the road constantly, in a way I haven’t been for almost a year. It feels different this time.
Not only am I not alone, but it’s not just me and Diego, either; of our 75 nights in the U.S., we’ve spent 65 of them with my friends or family. We’ve stayed with my ex-roommates, my old dorm-mates, my cousins, my best friends, and my family friends. By-and-large, we’ve felt extremely welcomed, and I’m so grateful to have such a generous and supportive community. Occasionally, our presence in someone’s home has put strain on my relationship with that person, which, while painful, has been a good catalyst for reflections about cultural differences, empathy, and the kind of hostess I want to be. (Let me tell you all now: you are each immensely welcome to all my future homes, whenever they may be, and everything that’s mine shall be yours. How rich it feels to be received with generosity; how very much am I looking forward to paying that generosity forward.)
Many a time I’ve found myself sharing something—a fish dinner, a fried chicken sandwich, a pair of pints—with someone from my past—a friend from grade school, a second cousin, a classmate—and marveled at the distance between who I was when I met / saw / knew that person and who I am now. How elastic we are, we humans. How long our lives are. How much they can include. How wonderful it feels to double back and grab onto a piece of your past and have it fit comfortably in your present. And how freeing it is to let that which doesn’t fit go.
Okay, my friends. Onto our midpoint mark-to-market.
Keep travel a part of my life.
1. Live in Buenos Aires (and maybe another city later in the year—CDMX?) with a traveler’s perspective. How? Explore new restaurants, theaters, museums, neighborhoods; don’t get complacent, do make new friends with locals and other travelers there.
Hmm. This is a win; I finished up my last month in Buenos Aires with plenty of exploring. Being on the road for two months has meant lots of dabbling in new culture, too, though it also meant not focusing on the finding-the-next-city part of this goal. That’ll be the goal of Q3, and building a base there will be the focus of Q4.
2. Get back out on the road. How? Spend at least four months of the year backpacking / seeing new places.
Win! Two and a half months in, with plans to continue for the next week or so in the States before setting off on a few months in Mexico. On track to hit this.
3. Be confident about my fluency in Spanish and continue to improve it. How? Continue to communicate in Spanish with potential clients, read one long article or short story in Spanish/week, get back to regularly writing in Spanish a little every week.
Again, a potential win in the spirit of the law but definitely a fail in the letter of the law. My discipline for things like this—things that are important but not urgent—is disappointing. I do speak Spanish all the time, as it’s the language Diego and I communicate in and the aforementioned 24-hours-a-day I’m spending with him mean lots of chat time, and I do think my fluency is there. But my reading/writing comprehension probably hasn’t improved much since I’ve done literally none of the things under “how.” Maybe in Mexico I’ll work on writing more in Spanish (proposals for local clients, maybe?).
4. Keep my reading up. How? Read at least three books/month, and try to have one of them be something other than a novel, to improve diversity of my library.
A win. I’m getting better at diversifying the medium without bemoaning it. This quarter has seen memoirs, short story collections, political essays, and music essays join my shelves. I realize I’m reading less now that I’m traveling with Diego than I did when I was on my own—I more often chat or listen to music or play games with him when we have free time in transit, and I’ll join him to take pictures all over a beach or park versus find a stretch of sand or an overturned log to read from. I’m going to make an effort this next quarter to eke out more of my own time to read, as I miss it.
5. Maintain a healthy level of normal activity. How? Hit 10,000 steps/day or above for all of 2019. Any extra working out is great.
A win so far. Average is above 10,000, and the West especially has included lots of hikes. We are eating like shit on a regular basis, though, so though I have met this part of the goal, I haven’t supported it well with a varied and colorful diet. If I never see another gas station sandwich again, I will count myself a lucky woman indeed. Can’t wait to get back to hostels and/or cheap long-term lodging with regular access to cheap, fresh produce.
6. Get and stay outside. How? Be outside for minimum of 15 minutes every day and never fall into vitamin D deficiency again!
Win. Lots of sunshine, all the time. Definitely struggling with the “but sunscreen, though” update to this goal from last quarter. Why do I do this to myself? I know better.
Write.
7. Keep writing my blog. How? Write a minimum of 2,000 words/month in blog posts.
On track—this is a win. I’m not publishing as often as I’d like, but I am publishing lengthy pieces, which I’m glad I’ve prioritized along with my paid work.
8. Keep writing for others. How? Get at least onesix pieces of writing published under my name in some kind of publication in 2019, and get paid for at least three other pieces of writingfive of them.
On track to be a win! I have three paid pieces at two different publications up, halfway through the year, and another four that are in and accepted but yet to hit the presses. So this whole goal should be accomplished in a few weeks, which is exciting and rewarding. I don’t think I’ll rewrite the parameters of success here yet again, but just because I’ve finished these seven pieces doesn’t mean I will stop pitching. I’ve actually come to really enjoy the pitching process—the research, the ideation, the synthesis, the selling of yourself and your hypotheses, even the rejection. It’s a beautiful exercise in malleability, creativity, and marketability.
Money, money, money (must be funny / in a rich man’s world).
9. Support my life in Buenos Aires and later on the road by writing and editing, and make enough to supplement the $5,000 I have saved for travel later in 2019. How? Pull in $800/month with freelancing work and continue to live by my BsAs budget. Make minimum $1,000/month freelancing, save anything additional (and pay taxes with it appropriately), and live in line with a travel budget of about $30/day once on the road.
HA. Big fail, what with that last phrase I snuck in there. Let’s break it down.
Making money: this is going well. This quarter, I’ve averaged about $2,000/month from writing and editing projects, while working less (I’d put my average around 15-20 hours/week).
Saving money and earmarking money for taxes: this is going very poorly. I know I have a responsibility to pay the very high self-employment tax just like I know I have a responsibility to put on sunscreen, and I ignore the first every time I pay my credit card bill with the entirety of my freelance direct deposit and the second every time I go outside for “just a bit” without slathering up first. It will make for a very unpleasant next April if I don’t start socking away money now to deal with this. Yes, it’s more irritating than ever, knowing my carefully-acquired, scraped-together money will be going to pay bigoted border guards and underwrite egomaniacal parades, but I need to swallow that and do it.
Live within budget: this has been recently made so improbable as to be impossible. Diego and I had decided I’d throw in $30/day to our budget and him, $15; we were actually close to that budget for the first month and a half of our trip, coming in at a daily average of $55. Then we got to Utah, realized we could never see all the National Parks on our find-rides-off-Craiglist-and-Rome2Rio approach, and blew up the budget to rent a car, reserve hotel rooms, and become one with the earth (and/or the National Park trailheads). With that indulgence + our decision to do it again for California, our daily average has ballooned up to $75/day. Not bad for two people in the States, and only that low because of our 60 days of free lodging on friends’ couches, but still, far above what we wanted to spend. I’ve been able to cover the difference, but we’ll need some serious time in Mexico spending the bare minimum to make me feel better about this last month of expenditure.
10. Make sure I have enough money to move back to the States when/if the time comes. How? Do not further touch that fund.
Win. Haven’t dipped into those savings (and hopefully won’t for this month’s credit card bill, once I get paid for the pieces I’ve placed). Having it there is a serious balm against worries.
11. Make giving money to people and causes I care about a real part of my life. How? Donate 10% of my income. Even if it feels harder now that I have less. If I get in the habit of doing it now, one day when I have more, it’ll be easier to continue.
Poor, poor, poor. Fail. There are no excuses, there is just failure. My contributions in this column this quarter have come in at a cool $250, which is not 10% of what I have made in this period; it’s less than 5%. I am tight-fisted and that is a very ugly characteristic, indeed.
That number is higher than the first quarter, since focusing on people I know or causes they are directly raising money for has been easier than sending money off into the ether, but this still isn’t anywhere near where I’d like it to be.
Looking Forward
Halfway through one year does feel a bit early to start thinking about the next, but I always have been and always will be someone who loves living in future tense. I’ve been thinking about some of the things I want to accomplish next year. So far, my 2020 goals will include:
- trying new things & enjoying the learning curve—I found my way into taking a few ceramics classes this year and loved it; I’m thinking about continuing that, and I also want to try piano lessons and maybe more dance lessons
- seeing more sunsets—they are by far my favorite part of the day and any time I get to glimpse one, it makes me happy, so I’m going to set out to see as many as I can
- starting therapy—I feel like talking about issues and communication strategies can only be a good thing; so many people I love get so much out of therapy that I feel like I would, too
Q3, Coming at You
I wrote last quarter that I wasn’t sure where I’d when it came time to do this check-in. I knew I wouldn’t know my exact coordinates, but I didn’t realize how impossible it would’ve been to imagine all that I’ve seen in the three months since we last met, me and my accountability and my list of goals. That is a quarter well-lived, don’t you think?
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