What have I done??
This is what happens when you are too online and read other people’s goals lists: you feel left out and write your own even though you said this was the year you were going to bob on the water.
Seasonal lists, reading lists, bucket lists, I cannot escape the list-making impulse and maybe I don’t want to! So without further ado…25 items for 2025.
- Eat a serving of fruits and vegetables (both) every day. Or most days. I’m aiming small with this goal because it’s not something I already do and I know it’s incredibly important for me to increase my produce intake. I can do “easy” produce: blueberries, baby peppers, apples, cherry tomatoes, radishes…This article includes a helpful list with serving sizes to help me hit this goal.
- Go to Pita Bar for dinner after work one day. I had the sabich and loved it and I’ve been wanting to go back.
- Have a burger, fries, and milkshake (pareve, obv) meal. I have been craving this for the longest time and I think it’s because some character in a book I read was fond of this meal and I cannot remember for the life of me which book. Henry Reed? One of The Three Investigators? I guess I’m feeling like this was a teenaged boy?
- Get some good old-fashioned Chinese takeout with a friend (lo mein, sesame chicken, beef and broccoli, egg rolls, dumplings, you know what I mean).
- Visit my grandmother, shetichyeh. This was a goal in 2023 and it was such a special experience to visit my grandmother in her home (as opposed to in mine or at a relative’s). I hope I can do it again this year.
- Visit Storm King Art Center with a friend. Recently a friend suggested we go together so I’m hopeful that we’ll make it happen.
- Give away 20 articles of clothing. At least!
- Shred my huuuuuge bag of papers that need to be shredded.
- Finish one jar of 5000 IU vitamin D supplements. There are 240 capsules in this jar so this comes out to 4-5 per week.
- Find a holistic dietician or similar to help me with a thyroid issue (hypothyroidism/Hashimoto’s). I take thyroid medication like practically half the population but I feel I can be doing more from a holistic perspective to help myself.
- Aim for a 20 minute walk most days.
- Do that scavenger hunt at the Met. I’m migrating this item from my winter fun list because I think it deserves more attention.
- Find a ballet class. You’d think this would be no problem at all seeing as I am in Manhattan twice a week but I haven’t yet found a basic beginner class that lines up with my days and times. Will work on this.
- Walk the High Line. I did this exactly once before and it is a classic New York experience that I plan to have again.
- Have four nature experiences relating to the four elements. I got this oddly satisfying idea awhile ago and fed it as a prompt to ChatGPT and received fun suggestions. The four experiences I have sort of settled on are visiting a waterfall (maybe even Niagara Falls at last?), sitting around a campfire (someone else will have to build it), birdwatching, and hiking (good luck to me).
- Watch five classic children’s movies. My parents were reminiscing about the Home Alone movies the other night, which I have never seen, for example.
- Watch season 5 of All Creatures Great and Small. And hopefully season 6. Ah, the simple joys.
- Visit Paris. I am tentatively planning a short solo trip for this winter; reason being that I recently dated someone after a very long time not dating, and it was a bit of an emotional experience, and I promised myself I would go on a special trip if it didn’t work out. As it happens, Paris in February is quite affordable. (I had wanted to go on a longer trip there as mentioned, but that isn’t practical at the moment and as a friend put it, a short trip is a huge step up from no trip!).
- I’m gonna go wild here and say that I hope this is the year I visit the Yorkshire Dales! I have no idea when I would do this and with who, but I dream of it!
- See my first private practice clients. Now that I have my LCSW, I am in the process of getting set up with a therapy platform that will allow me to accept insurance and once that is worked out I will reach out to potential supervisors and hopefully start to see clients on a very, very part-time basis iy”H.
- Teach an MSW course. I have taught several semesters in an undergraduate program but I would like to land an adjunct position in an MSW program.
- Do a big therapy training, like MBSR or Somatic Intervention or Journal to the Self Instructor Certification Training.
- Finish the literature review for my dissertation proposal. This is something I will “have” to do next fall semester but I am including it because it is a big project/big deal for me!
- Publish two articles anywhere. Three would be even more awesome.
- Liquidate the medical supplies gemach that I am currently hosting. I inherited this gemach and it’s overtaken my apartment and I need to get the items out the door into the hands of people who need them!
And that’s a wrap! Now to post this list in a place where I can see it and start checking things off! Let’s have a fantastic 2025 together, friends. I am looking forward to sharing it with you.
Thanks for sharing your list. It’s making me want to write one of my own.
About #3, I think you’re remembering Benny (the youngest one – is that his name?) from the Boxcar Children. I think he’s the boy who liked to eat a lot and, if I recall correctly, the family enjoyed milkshakes with their fleishig suppers.
I love writing these lists and I love reading other people’s lists so if you do it, I’d be so excited if you shared it here! And that can totally be, I read many of the Boxcar Children books back in the day!