Another srs bzness 5 Fandom Friday, whoa! I can dig this. What chances am I going to take in 2016? First let me get this earworm out of my head...
#SorryNotSorry
1. Promote my jewelry more.
I've been selling nerdy jewelry on Etsy since 2008, and do you know how many blogs I've asked for a feature? One. One! What is that? Well, my photography has improved since 2008, and so has my craft, so now that looking at my shop doesn't make me cringe, it's time to put my work out there for people to find. I already have one deal done and dusted; since then I've found another blog and a vendor that are really relevant to STEM and steminism (that I also think are really interesting and cool in their own right!). Plus, there are a lot of great museums here in Stockholm that I could pitch to (though that might mean doing something unpleasant with my tax status). But the long and the short of it is, I have enough of a range now, in terms of skills, that I can start to bring Kokoba Jewelry out into the spotlight. A little bit.
2. Take more classes.
They're free (all hail the socialist nanny state!) and I can mostly survive on my editing work. This is maybe the best chance I'll ever have to finally study everything I've ever been interested in. Right now I'm in a distance Russian course, but there's certainly room in my schedule for one or two more. Arabic? Korean? Chinese? Finish trigonometry on Kahn academy?
3. Get serious about careers.
There are a number of careers I'm interested in and want to fall back on if it turns out I can't feasibly be a ninja tutor-editor-jeweler for the rest of my life. Those careers require official training and certification. Even being a ninja tutor-editor-jeweler means having a professional web presence and having to promote myself. Either way, I need to be less of a lump.
4. People more.
I am by nature an anxious, passive person. So are most people that I get along best with and want to be friends with. So we sit alone, never daring to suggest a fika or a movie or Netflix and chill (am I using that expression right? probably not), because we're afraid that the other person is actually too cool for us, or that we're annoying, or that the other person doesn't really like us as much as we like them, and never get to know each other better. So in 2016 I'm going to try to be more social (outside of NaNoWriMo).
5. Freak out less about my independence.
This is kind of counterintuitive, but I should put it like this: I'm an American and I have really strong, internalized ideas about BOOTSTRAPS!! and SELF-SUFFICIENCY!! that are not helpful at this stage in my life. Letting people help me and take care of things for me is, weird as it sounds, a risk for me. It's a chance; it's outside my comfort zone. But human beings are social creatures; after all, if all of my loved ones never wanted my help with anything, how would I feel? Frustrated. unappreciated, useless.
What chances are you going to take this year?
I love this post Katherine, it's definitely good to set goals for yourself, so you can look back to see whether you've achieved them. It's really cool that you have classes and everything that you can take. Good luck with them all!
ReplyDeleteThank you! It's a little scary, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?
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