Goals from 2015: How Did I Do?

I'm one of those people that makes New Year's resolutions. I took it a lot more seriously last year than I ever have before, and I wanted to look back on the goals I set this time last year to see how I did.
1. Get a Job

This is the first thing I wrote down on my list of resolutions/goals for 2015, which I think is interesting. As I mentioned in a recent post, I have been balancing three jobs for the past semester. I am very happy that I not only got a job, but got multiple jobs. I really like all of them, and I like all the people I work with, so I am just so pleased at how everything turned out, especially after six months of job searching.

I think I really learned the importance of networking and following up. Two of the jobs I got because of the people I know, which I am so grateful for. The advice I always give to people looking for a job is to tell everyone in your network that you are looking for a job. You never know what might turn up. Also, one of the jobs is with someone from my network who connected me with my now-boss. I actually wouldn't have gotten the job if I hadn't sent a follow-up email a month after not hearing anything, so I tell people that story as well, because that's the job that is most similar to what I would like to be doing after I graduate.

2. Go to 5 Foreign Countries

I did this, and again I think I exceeded my goal. I went to Italy, which was a dream (read about that here, here, and here).

I went to Spain twice. Once to Andalucia (read more here, here, and here), and once to Barcelona (read more).

I went to Finland (read more).

I went to Sweden and Estonia very briefly (read more).

I am also going to Dublin again at the end of December, which will go up on the blog in January.

3. Read 20 Books

This is the first of my goals I did not reach. I am reading my 9th book of the year. I will say, this does not count any reading I did for my courses or the 5 or so books I started and never finished. I think the main things I've learned is that I do not read as much as I want and that I read far too many language books (6 of the books I read were about linguistics or language learning). I will tweak my reading goals for 2016, which I will write about later.

These are the 8 books I have finished. I am currently reading Amy Poehler's "Yes Please."

4. Redesign the Blog

I did this recently, right before I went back and looked at my resolutions, which is pretty funny. I just added a different header and reorganized the tabs and tags. I really like the header. I think I'd like to change it to something even cooler, but that picture was taken in Glencoe, which is my favorite place on Earth. So it only seems fair that it be the header on my blog!

5. Run a 5k

I will probably do a whole post on this, but basically I was training for a 5k (and was so close to being ready), when I injured my leg. After many months, a doctor's visit, and a lots of training, I'm still nowhere near being able to run that far. I still intend to try, but every once in a while, it hurts to run and I have to stop running. It's very frustrating, but I'm not giving up!

6. Have a Guest Post on My Blog

Done! Check it out here. I'd really like to do more of these, so hopefully I will work on that in the future.

7. Learn About New Things

This isn't actually how I worded the goal. I wanted to read books about art or history or whatever. The thing is, I don't really want to learn things in an academic way in my free time. My brain just can't handle that. I think I've learned a lot about art and history through travel, but I've also learned a lot about the things I'm studying. It's hard to realize how much you've learned in a year, because it's so gradual, but I recently sent my mom an essay to see if it was clear enough for anyone to understand. She couldn't help me because all the linguistics vocabulary was over her head. I take for granted the fact that someone would know what a voiced alveolar fricative is. So I think it's better to focus on all the things I did actually learn this year about linguistics, the various languages I studied this year (Chinese, Italian, German, and Swahili), and some of the real-world skills I developed.

8. Take Better Pictures

This was a bad goal. It's not measurable. How is anyone supposed to objectively decide if their photography skills have improved? There's also a lot of factors. I found places like Scotland and Italy are very easy to photograph, because they're so beautiful it's hard to take a bad picture there. 

What I can do is compare a few of my favorite pictures from 2014 with my favorites from 2015. Now, you have to take into consideration that in 2014 I was using an iPhone 4s and a point and shoot camera and in 2015 I was only using an iPhone 6 and a DSLR. The image quality definitely improved, but that doesn't mean the pictures were better. I mean, I think my pictures are better, but not because of that. 

So below are some of my favorite pictures from 2014:

To compare, here are some of my favorite pictures from 2015:

9. Language Goals

I am definitely going to have to do a whole post about this as well. Basically I wanted to improve my level in every language I'd started by the end of 2014. It was unrealistic the amount I wanted to improve in each language. It was unrealistic to think I could improve in 5 languages while also studying at university.

I also know that I am not very likely to study any language other than Spanish in my free time, because I have the highest level in Spanish. I know I will continue to study Chinese, because it's part of my degree. I definitely have a lot of thinking to do about what languages I'm going to focus on in 2016.

10. Try 52 New Recipes

I can say without counting that I probably didn't make 52 new recipes this year. I think the purpose of this goal was to have a measurable goal about trying to cook new things. I definitely did that, but was really bad about writing down recipes I tried. I think I did improve in confidence and ability this year as a cook. I can make some fairly complicated foods, and I am getting a lot better at cooking without a recipe, or cooking only using the ingredients list. I think that's a more interesting skill - cooking without recipes - because it requires a lot more knowledge and understanding about the ingredients you're using and the methods you're using to prepare them.

I would definitely list cooking as one of my hobbies, especially cooking for other people. I really enjoyed hosting Thanksgiving this year, which I think was a huge success. Me and my friends made really great food that tasted American, even though we're all in the UK. I think cooking for so many people (20 people!) and cooking very specific and traditional foods that had to stand up to my memories of them was a challenge. I think I did a very good job with that and the other meals I made this year. I hope to keep cooking new things, especially if I can make them a bit healthier and with a bit more protein (vegetarian problems).

One of my crowd favorites: bean and cheese enchilada casserole made 100% from scratch. Especially important in a country that doesn't understand good Mexican food.

So I think overall my goals were a success. I'm really happy about how I did with them, given that I forgot about them most of the year. I think they were all things I was probably going to work at with or without the resolutions, because they are things I care about. I think there were probably a few too many resolutions, but I don't know if I'd change that given my inability to focus on a reasonable number of things to do in my life.