2015 vs 2016
The story of 2015
Well, 2015 has gone, and 2016 is here. For those of you that don’t know me, my name’s Austin Caldwell, and I’m a fourth-year student studying Marketing at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. I have 21 years of life under my belt, and I feel as if its just getting started.
Well, I hope so, at least.
2015 was a rough year. I struggled academically. I struggled with internships. I struggled with friendships. If you’re not seeing the bigger picture, I struggled. A lot. But looking back at the person I was a year ago today, I wouldn’t change a thing. I pushed myself harder than I thought possible, forged incredible friendships, and found myself as one half of an incredible relationship that I would have never expected. Happy ending to 2015, right? Well, sure?
That’s not the point of this post, though.
I’m not necessarily sure where to start with writing, but I figured this was the most appropriate start with Medium. I’m writing this to hold myself accountable for the year ahead — to live up to & be the person that I aspire to be starting today. I’m going to use Medium to keep track of my life, and start living a little bit more publicly and honestly.
My expectations for this year are fluid — honestly — but I want to start by writing them here. I’ve never had more hope for a year ahead like I do for 2016, and here’s just a few things I hope to accomplish this year. Sure, you can think of this as my “New Years Resolutions,” if you wish, but that’s not my goal — I just am moving towards living a more positive, public life, and I want to hold myself publicly accountable.
What I hope 2016 has in store for me:
- Fitness. I’d like to run a half-marathon by the end of 2016 as well as become more “in-shape,” whatever that means. I’m planning on purchasing another Jawbone (third one yet) or FitBit soon to help me keep a daily log of fitness activities.
- Health. Particularly healthy eating. No more ungodly amount of carbs like I used to eat in 2015 (and lets face it, every year before). I’m going to finally learn how to use my kitchen, and learn to keep a balanced, healthy diet. This ties in with fitness.
- Travel. I have a reason to travel, now — my goal is to travel abroad for the first time in my life, and experience the world. First step is securing a passport, which I really need to do as soon as possible. Here’s to you, Belgium, France, Netherlands, and Denmark. You’re the very minimum — lets see what happens next?
- Writing. That’s also part of the reason why I started utilizing Medium — I want to write more. I don’t have an agenda or topics specifically that I plan on writing about, but I’d like to post something new to this space at least once every two weeks. My passions include technology, music, and people — I’m sure those will be the three I rotate between, but we’ll see. :)
- Transparency. This is something I’ve always struggled with, and there’s not really something I want to accomplish regarding this, but I want to overall be more open with the people around me. I want to trust more, and learn to allow myself to be vulnerable. I’ve always been terrible at this, but I’m thinking that even writing something this in public is a step in the right direction.
In conclusion, I’m looking forward to 2016. I’ve learned through my experiences that I shouldn’t set blanket expectations and should learn to accept things as they come, so that’s why I’m comfortable with saying these resolutions are fluid. Yes, they might be generic, but as I grow, I’m sure I’ll accomplish resolutions that I never really thought I had. And I look forward to those moments.