2012 in Hindsight

So, about a year ago, I wrote a blog post about goals and things I hoped to do for the 2012 year. That year has come and passed, so let's see how I graded out.

2012 Goals:

Make no lower than a B in all of my classes.

-I didn't do too badly in the spring, missed with a B- in microbio lab and a C+ in my microbio class because I did quite terribly on the last test. The A in my second semester of Polish was nice though since it was 5 hours of credit. 

-Summer was meh. Got a B- in evolution, B+ in o-chem lab, and C+ in Vertebrate Physiology. That first session was pretty killer since I was in all three of those at that point.

-Fall was not that great either. I made 3 C's unfortunately, but I managed to pull off an A in my 3rd and last semester of Polish! Two of those C's could easily have been D's or F's, so it was definitely better than it could have been. And the other C was originally a C- that I bumped up a bit by taking the final. I probably could have done a lot better had I not been working part-time. It was tough balancing both work and school. More on that below. I pulled off a B+ in my immunology lab as well, but unfortunately it was only 1 hour of credit for oh so much more work.

Get a job.

-I was an after-school teacher with Side by Side Kids for first graders at J.J. Pickle Elementary this past fall! Oh man. I don't think I'm meant to work with little kids in large groups. They have such short attention spans. It was quite challenging and tiring most of the time, but there was definitely a lot of growth during my time there. And I wasn't going crazy the whole time. The people I worked with were pretty great, and the kids were really endearing and there were many great moments with them despite their affinity for trouble. It was also nice having a bit of money to spend on things every now and then such as computer upgrades, and I finally had a little bit of money to buy some nice presents for some special people! Also, I was really excited about being able to tithe my income and give back to various places and organizations that have helped me grow spiritually over the past few years.

Spend time studying.

-I did a fairly good job with this, I think. At least, I spent a heck of a lot more time at coffee shops than I ever have previously.  I also did a heck of a lot more note re-writing in the fall which I think helped a lot. I think I would have done a lot better grade-wise had I not been working, but I guess that's the trade off there. I still have a lot more work to do as far as my level of focus while I'm studying, but it's progress.

Monthly (at least) confession.

- I think I've been pretty good with this one. I don't know if I ever let it go much longer than a month between confessions. It's nice having the UCC and St. Austin's nearby. Also, the Cathedral has confession an hour before mass during the weekdays. Pretty legit. I tried to stick with this one especially through the fall since I was giving the Reconciliation talk on Awakening. I plan to stick with this one for life. One thing I need to be better about is making sure I prepare with a more thorough examination of conscience though.

Spend more time in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.
-I haven't really improved that much in this area. Still did weekly adoration as usual, but I didn't go out of my way that often to go to the Blessed Sacrament Chapel or anything. Maybe I can work that in more this upcoming semester since I only have 10 hours of classes. And with Awakening, I'm sure I'll need it haha.

Be more involved with Schoenstatt and my life group.

-I think this went alright in the spring. However, most of my life group graduated in May, so that kind of fell away after that. I haven't really been too involved in SUM this fall aside from helping out with music at adoration, but I still hang around the guys a lot. Also, the remaining members of my life group seem to be plenty busy themselves. With the graduated guys, Harry spent the night at my apartment once this semester though when he was in town, and we grabbed dinner another time he was here for work. That was nice. John calls every now and then to check in. It's always good to hear his voice. And his laugh. We even got lunch when I was driving through Round Rock on my way home, so that was really nice as well. 

-It's really cool seeing all of the guys in Schoenstatt that are younger than me and how they've grown over the past year or so that I've known them.

Prioritize/Balance life.

- Ha.Work screwed up that plan. It added a new thing to the plate while reducing my time for both studying and a social life. oh well.

Move on.

-well... more on that later.

Hope to do:

Read more.

- I kind of did this! Didn't really get too much done in the spring, but throughout the fall semester, I managed to read 1984 in my spare time. I just read through a cool little book about the Latin (Extraordinary Form) mass (They have this form of the mass at 3:30pm on Sundays at St. Mary's Cathedral if you want to check it out sometime, but it might confuse you). Also, I had started reading The Hobbit last January apparently, but I restarted it again over this break and have made it further than when I had previously stopped! The Lamb's Supper is next on the list.

Get back in the choir.

- lol. no. I'm ok with that though.

Dress better.

- This kind of went away once summer came around. I'm not going to wear jeans when it's 90+ degrees outside. I dress up when it's called for though!

Get better at socializing.

- I think I'm better at this. I still don't really do well with small talk though. Mingling with kids at STRONG retreats still makes me nervous though. Talking with the little kids at work is fun though.

Not worry about having a girlfriend.

- You're probably laughing right now. It's ok. I did too. 

-This was a tough one, no doubt. I struggled with this a lot. I don't know if I can adequately explain what happened anyways, but basically, I got a second chance to re-cultivate a friendship that had not been properly rooted before, chance to re-center our relationship on Whom we could not center it upon before, an opportunity to ask God to help me to love this person in the way that He's calling me.

-Things look good so far. Much better than good. We're actually happy now.We build each other's soul up rather than causing destruction. We're far from perfect, but our compasses are better calibrated to get us back on track when we veer off.

- Still lots of time before anything cray-cray though. Lots of discerning left to be done. Lots of events to occur, and God likes to play funny games sometimes. Not much to do besides trust and pray, right?

Fiat voluntas Tua, sicut in caelo et in terra.

And now, it's 3:11A.M. I think I'm gonna go to bed, but I plan on posting my goals/predictions for this 2013 year.

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