When I posted on my Facebook page that my Word of the Year for 2018 was ‘transform,’ a friend immediately posted a GIF of Optimus Prime and asked, ‘Like this?’ I chuckled at first and then I thought, ‘Wait. Yes. Exactly like that.’ While I’m not totally sure of all of the details of who Optimus Prime is, I know that he’s a Transformer with a capital T, that he’s the leader (right?), and that he’s a badass. I like him. And I like thinking of Optimus Prime when I think of my Word of 2018 because here’s what I’m going for: a bad-ass transformation. Not because life isn’t amazing as it is, but because I’m really ready to push myself out of my comfort zone and accomplish some things that have always been attached to ‘someday.’
Here’s how I plan to Optimus Prime the sh*t out of 2018 (yes, I made ‘Optimus Prime’ a verb):
- Transform our house into a home. Cheesy and trite and cliché, I know, but nevertheless, this is still incredibly important to me this year. As we work room by room to infiltrate our space with the things that we love, we’re building a space that I crave being nestled in. A safe space. A safe space that’s ours, wholly and fully. With books in every crevice and art that gets traced back to someone we know as the creator. Having lived in an apartment for four years that was only ever meant to be temporary, where we never really cared about the space (besides the balcony with the amazing view), I’m ready to be an adult homeowner again in a neighborhood with trees and a park and restaurants and coffee shops and dogs and trails.
- Transform my relationship with alcohol. Oh, to get old—ahem… I mean older. I just can’t drink like I used to, dammit. (And really, nor should I.) As much as I want to plug my ears and deny this, the fact of the matter is, alcohol isn’t doing me any favors whatsoever these days. Instead, it keeps me from sleeping, it throws my blood sugar out of whack for at least two days, and it makes me order French fries. Sometimes it even makes me snippy and nasty to the people that I’m with. Yuck. It’s been a long time coming but alcohol and I are breaking up for a while. After 30 days or so we’ll re-evaluate to see if we can be friends again or not. If we do decide to be friends, there will be some boundaries set up for sure.
- Transform my writing. I just applied to a low-residency MFA program here in Denver (!!!!!) and I wake up every morning thinking about that fact. The notion of going back to school both excites me and terrifies me. Pushing myself to fi-nal-ly become the writer that my childhood self dreamed of becoming feels badass. And scary. And awesome. And intimidating. And wonderful.
- Transform my eating (again). Do I want to lose 15-20 pounds? Yes. Am I sick of saying that I want to lose 15-20 pounds? Yes. Do I want to focus on how I feel rather than what I weigh? Yes. Did I transform my diet over the past two years? Yes. Did I let some old habits slip back in? Yes. Am I ready to be done with those bad habits? Yes. Am I done talking about this and ready to just do it? Yes.
- Transform my work. This is the year that I have two books coming out within four months of one another and as I check off the days until their release, I’m also thinking about how I can transform my work around these books even further… A Podcast? A newsletter? A retreat? Some Facebook Live sessions? These books are mine—they’re my passion projects, and I want to watch my babies grow into something that transforms the world of education in some way—starting in 2018.
