Do Little Things

Hard to believe it, but the end of 2016 is fast approaching. For one reason or another, the end of a calendar year always jars me a bit. I think it reminds me of how quickly time goes by. Society surely likes to put on the pressure with all this talk about "New Year Resolutions". I've never been one for things like this, however at this current point in my life there are some things I'd like to change/improve upon. So world, it looks like I'll be joining you in these "resolutions". In some ways it is like I'm dooming myself to fail. The number of these New Year Resolutions that go uncompleted is through the roof, but I feel that I just need to be realistic. Bigger is not always better. That is why I am setting some small goals for myself this year to help improve my life.

Here they are:

1. Blog about things other than Israel. No need to worry. Israel and I are still madly in love, but I realize that I have so many thoughts about other things and I need a venue for that. The solution to this: Amy & The World: A peak into my brain. This is a separate blog for posts about anything else I feel like writing about.

2. Call my parents and email both of my grandmothers at least once a week. You'd think with all this modern-day technology that easily facilitates long-distance communication I'd be in touch with my family all the time. Wrong. Life gets in the way, I am tired, I am distracted. <--Those are all excuses. I want to do a better job at keeping up with the people I love. (Tim, if you are reading this, we can also have a weekly call...)

3. Reinvigorate my social activity. To be honest, to me this feels like a big thing, but that is half the problem. I need to address the issue of my dying (already dead?) social life in small bites. I've tried a lot of things in the last year, so I'm really not even sure what exactly I'm going to do in this category. Whatever I end up doing, I'm at least going to put it in my awareness as something I need to solve.

4. Be outside more. I have a great apartment with a large, comfy bed. It is tempting, especially when I'm tired, to just hole up in there all day, every day. But this is unhealthy! I live in a country that is generally full of sunshine; and sunshine equals happiness! Mindy is sure to appreciate this one.

5. Improve my Hebrew. No, I'm not going to do another Ulpan. I simply don't have the time/resources for that. But it doesn't matter! I LIVE IN ISRAEL! The world is my Ulpan. I am going to make an effort to "break my teeth" in Hebrew more often instead of giving up and switching to English, because practice makes perfect.

Good luck to anyone thinking about taking on a New Year's Resolution! My advice? Think smaller.