I was fortunate to enter Blog Swap 2010 from the 20 Something Bloggers club, and also fortunate enough to meet Loren, a 20-something from Texas who teaches third grade and kicks ass in her spare time. Here is a long and luxurious link to her blog (where you can also read my entry on her blog), and here is her wonderful blog post for my humble blog. Thanks Loren!

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When I got the e-mail from 20SB about blog swapping, I thought it was a great idea! So I signed up!

Then, a few days later, while I was at a Christmas party indulging in some yummy red wine, when what to my wondering eyes appeared, but a red blinking light on my blackberry, and a message from my blog swap partner for this year. (If I was cool enough I would keep this thing going to the rhyme or tune of “Twas the night for Christmas – yes, professed Christmas enthusiast, right here, but I digress…)

I received an e-mail from Josh, and in my wine-induced state felt it necessary to write him back and tell him that I was drinking wine and would write him more the next day. And that I did. I kept my promise. I wrote him a quick response back the next morning as my students were pouring into the classroom. I also took a brief look at his blog, and was pretty interested to see how completely and utterly different we are – an actor musician and a 3rd grade teacher. Could our lives be more different?

So the mission for this blog swap is to answer the following question:
What will you do next year that you’ve been putting off for too long?
But before I indulge, Josh and I decided to throw in 5 original questions for each other to answer. These were the ones proposed to me (To see the ones I sent him, gotta check out his post back on my blog

1. What made you decide to become a teacher? Junior year in college, after I had changed my major 3 times already (from psychology to broadcast journalism to communication studies – weird I know!), I heard a sermon that talked about how we should work in the areas we are passionate in. So I came up with 3 things: I’m passionate about my faith (but I don’t feel called into the ministry), I’m passionate about fashion (but I don’t want to be a designer, just really good at shopping), and I like working with kids. The more I pondered this, I decided being a teacher sounded pretty great, and so I changed my major to being a special education teacher, and my heart has been content every since.

2. How has the slumping economy affected your life, if at all? Slumping economy hasn’t really affected me. The economy in Texas is still pretty great, and I’m a teacher, and a pretty good one if I do say so myself, so it hasn’t been difficult to find and keep my job!

3. What’s your favorite type of wine? I honestly like most wine! But the best one I’ve had thus far in life is a Jordan Cab.

4. Who is the most important person in your life right now? This is a tough one, but I would have to say my friend Adrianne. She has been a mentor figure to me for almost 10 years now. I have watched her get married, start a family, and she is one of the most Godly, loving women I have ever known. Same goes to Kym Carter – a woman I babysat for when I was in middle school but we still keep in touch. It’s a toss up between those two people, and of course my mom, but that’s a given!

5. 2012: End of the world, or what? Hogwash.

*Disclaimer: while I am an elementary English teacher, I reserve every right as a writer to write however I want, excluding grammar, spelling, ya know, stream of consciousness, if you will. So before you begin to bash a comma or a capital letter, well, uh, don’t. Thanks I worry enough about grammar in my day to day life that I reserve the right not to worry about it when I’m writing.

Moving On: When I first read this prompt, I was overwhelmed. And then, simultaneously let down. What have I been putting off? I mean isn’t this bland? You wanna know what I’ve been putting off – everything! Working out, eating right, grad school, being in a relationship, paying off debt, joining a church, ya know, the usual stuff – for me at least. So then, yes since this is the day I’m supposed to be finished writing about this, I went back to the blogswap for 20SB to try to get some ideas from other people’s posts, and was left saying, “oh.” There weren’t many interesting ideas. I mean most people seem to be working on the same thing they were working on the previous year. Some went a little out of the box saying things like they were going to “delve deeper” into themselves, which I personally don’t relate to or get, but I mean, whatever floats your boat. Also, many seemed to lament the idea that they hate resolutions, blah blah blah. Well I know most people don’t end up keeping them, but come on, it’s all in jest! Set some goals for the year, make yourself feel good, no harm in that. I guess all that to say that, I wasn’t really inspired to any new thoughts.

So here I am, 2 weeks off from school, doing God knows what kind of errands today since I never get days to myself, and it’s also the day I’m supposed to send this little writing over to good ‘ol Joshua, and I don’t really have an inspiring idea. But regardless, I will now make the honorable decision of picking just what exactly it is that I am not going to put off any longer in 2011 (And mainly cause I told Josh I’d send it to him by today . In the spirit of Christmas, I have narrowed it down to 12 things, and if I had time, I would have even put it in a 12 days of Christmas song, but we will save that for another date. And it is, wait for it (2 finger drum roll please, just like I tell my students):

1. Get a new blog design (had the same one for 3 years – ready for something new)
2. Get a dog or a boyfriend – still deciding
3. Go to grad school
4. Have days filled with absolutely nothing to do and not feel guilty AKA Stop being a workaholic!
5. Take the next steps in video editing, maybe try a new program like final cut?
6. Do a triathlon or marathon – depending on how my knee holds up
7. Become a better swimmer
8. Learn how to “clip-in” and ride a road bike
9. Save money-THIS is probably the most novel idea on this list
10. Volunteer more
11. Learn to say no (this doesn’t mean to drugs, because I don’t do drugs, but to things like being on every freaking committee at my school – in the words of Ms. Bakintas, I have got to stop being a “pointless overachiever”)
12. Learn to take cool photos with a cool camera (I don’t know the technical term for doing these things – lo siento – but you catch my drift – I think)

Things I did want to say but I know I won’t do – start playing the violin again, take ballet dance class, become a rapper, become a DJ, go on a reality TV show, dress up as more characters in my classroom (wait, I’ve actually done a pretty good job with this this year – take it back?) take another conversational spanish class (see above lo siento reference – I at least gave a concerted effort!), clean out my “keepsakes” aka CRAP in the attic, read all the books I wanna read (because who ever really has time to be caught up on this?), read the newspaper more (again, when do I have time for this?), work out & eat right (probably won’t ever fully master the art of these entities until potentially married to one who is diligent in these areas, but this would require a boyfriend of which see predicament #2 in the list as I am not sure whether I want a boyfriend or dog-decision pending). Now why I picked the latter as priority over this non-committal list, I’m not sure, other than I guess they are what seem feasible to accomplish in the next year. I guess this “things I’m not going to put off” anymore list has turned more into “things I want to get done before I die/bucketlist” type thing. Also, before I wrap this up, I’m absolutely shocked that I was able to create an entire list that hardly has anything to do with teaching. I think that’s a first for me!

Either way, if you take anything away from this, as I try to do with most of my writing, you know, create some type of purpose, take away, whatever. Take away this: Set crazy high goals, make lists, cross things off, add to them, make new years resolutions, dream big, because it’s fun to do, makes life a little more crazy cool, and could make for an interesting 2011! Cheers! (And yes, I know I do a lot of smileys, it’s the teacher in me!!)