2015: A Year in Resolutions

I love the concept of New Years’ resolutions. I like using the beginning of anything – years, semesters, weeks – as a chance to review what I’ve accomplished and what I want going forward. Here’s what I’m hoping to do in 2015:

1. School: Choose a topic for my honors thesis, which I’ll be starting in the fall. Take more awesome classes for my majors and minor. Learn cool stuff. Write a lot of papers. Read a lot of articles. Get good grades. Repeat.  
2. Digital Humanities: Attend a 5CollDH Speaker Series (because I couldn’t this semester.) Discover more awesome DH projects. Finish my own. Start another one. Meet more DH enthusiasts. Pick up more skills and explore using tools. Read more into the debates of new media. Push for more undergraduate DH education.  Educate myself.
3. Museums: Finish visiting the Museums10 in Western MA. Go to small, weird museums. Go to large, famous ones. Check out online exhibitions and digital museums, and experience the interactive options these places have to offer.
4. Visit a Presidential Library: Somewhat random, but I’ve visited two so far (George W. Bush’s library in Dallas and Bill Clinton’s library in Little Rock), one each year for the past two years, so I might as well keep the streak going.
5. Read: Read the stack of history books by my bedside at home about the height of a nightstand. Read the bookshelf of non-history books that is overflowing onto the floor. Read the bookshelf dedicated to fiction. Read the list of books I would like to reread. That should keep me busy in my spare time.
6. Adventures: In addition to visiting museums and libraries, I hope to go on some sort of exciting non-history related adventures as well. Go to events. Go on vacation. Visit new places. Revisit old places. Take lots of pictures and document the journey.  
7. Social Media: Keep it going. Use Twitter to learn more about what’s going on in the world. Use Tumblr to share what I learn. But also spend less time on it? I am obsessed with the world of the Internet, and I should probably take a step back every once in awhile. Or, you know, everyday.
8. Watch: Keep watching YouTube. Watch Ken Burns’ documentaries (like all of them). Watch history shows like TURN or Sons of Liberty. Watch movies like In The Heart of the Sea. Finally watch Lincoln. Watch all those Netflix movies in queue instead of rewatching HIMYM to find out where it all went wrong.
9. Public History: Read about it. Talk about it. Write about it. Follow it. Engage in it. Participate in it. Look into local projects. Look into digital projects. Look into the work in the UMass department. Basically, work hard to make myself an expert on the subject.
10. Events: Try and see Hamilton on Broadway. Attend conferences? Go to the Paper Towns early release. Go to shows. Go to openings. Go to events.  
11. Write: Write short papers. Write long papers. Write articles. Write blog posts. Write to be published. Write for fun. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write. Write.
12. Friends and Family: Spend time with them. Make time for them. Keep in touch with home as often as possible. Check in on my siblings. Check in on my friends. Comfort friends and family. Support them.
13. Me, Myself, and I: As always,New Years’ is a time to focus on one’s health and overall well-being. So: Schedule workouts. Go to the gym. Eat well. Eat clean. Take care of myself. Work hard without overworking. Meditate. Alleviate stress. Be happy.
14. Future: As always, I’ll be thinking about my career. Complete an internship. Start another one. Investigate summer opportunities. Have a great summer doing something I love. Look into grad school programs. Apply to grad school? Keep moving forward.
15. Blog: Of course, no matter what I do this year, I plan to keep blogging about my experiences or what I’m learning or whatever happens to be on my mind. Blogging is self-indulgent, but I love it. In the past year, I’ve discovered so many new historical tidbits as well as how to I’m not quite sure what 2015 will bring, but I know that She Is Historic will be a part of it.