Here are my goals and how I will meet them:
Number 1: (and most immediate) Find a job in student affairs after I graduate (by May 2010) that will allow me to grow professionally. I would like to work in residence life and also have the time to collaborate with other offices. I hope to also engage in work with women, any way that I have an outlet to help empower and mentor college women. Also, I would like to work in leadership, advising and helping students to realize their leadership potential. I have already begun to meet this goal as I recently attended a job placement conference and continue to submit applications.
Number 2: I would like to continue the work that I have done with my thesis on student activists. Right now I can see writing an article on how to serve students who want to make a change in the world or on their campuses (by January 2011). I will meet this goal by composing an article after the completion of my thesis, utilizing resources for assistance that will allow me to meet that goal.
Number 3: I would like to grow a strong network of friends, professional colleagues and mentors. Because connection and care is important to me, I want to be able to have a tight knit support of people that I can help and can be for me as well. I am going to meet this goal by continued participation with professional organizations and will make sure to join local professional organizations and committees on and off campus.
Number 4: I would like to be more active and take care of my self more. My ultimate goal in the next couple years is to become a vegetarian, I am not ready for it quite yet, but I am working on it. I need to concentrate on treating my body better than I did in graduate school. It is a temple :) I am going to meet this goal by taking steps to utilize resources that will assist me. I have already met with a dietician and am in the process of meeting with a health coach. I will also be a workout buddy with my friend and collegue next term. My goal is to establish a healthier lifestyle and sustain it by the end of June.
Number 5: I would like to find my hobbies again. Right now I don't have a place for much more than school work and so I have little time to do things that I love. One of them being writing; also singing, dancing and drawing. I have also promised that as a graduation present to myself I will buy a guitar and learn to play it, something I have always wanted to do. In addition, you bet that I will be continuing to express my creativity in the kitchen by making dinner for my family at least once a week. Right now I will meet this goal by first making sure that music is present in everything that I am doing, and then investigating this goal again when I have completed my thesis.
Number 6: Continue to build a stronger relationship with my husband and partner. We are newlyweds and have spent a lot of time apart while I've been deep in my studies. I am looking forward to going on more dates and eating breakfast together on Sunday mornings. I have started meeting this goal by making sure that I am living a healthier lifestyle, giving me more energy to get things done in the day so that I can be with him more in the evenings and on weekends.
Number 7: Get my drivers license. Enough said. (By August 2010) I will meet this goal by allowing others to help me, as many have offered recently.
Number 8: Devote more time to the friends that have been around for over a decade. We live apart and I don't do enough to keep in touch. I will meet this goal by calling them once a week on Sunday next term.
