2013: The year yet to be

I don’t call them resolution. I call them goals, but that is mainly to get around the implied permission one has to disregard resolutions after January 15th. I post them here so that I can evaluate my progress on fulfilling them each December. I didn’t do this last year, and it showed that I do indeed need the accountability of writing it down for the world to see.

Professional

As I mentioned in my year-end post, I had hoped to begin the process of becoming a licensed Social Worker. I discovered that step one is to reinstate my membership in the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and that will cost me about $200. Once that is in place, I will be able to access the list of “approved” supervisors whom I shall work under for approximately two years, which depending upon the particular supervisor I find will cost an additional fee. Supervision in needed so that the licensing body knows that you have the skills and knowledge to justify the responsibility that comes with licensure.

Of course, the obstacle here is finances (also mentioned in the previous post). So I will also be looking for a way to augment my budget. A colleague of mine has got herself into quite a deal working with an online college. I have been searching through the internets for similar opportunities that fit with my skills, with no leads thus far. But New Year optimism is fresh.

Personal

While the new years goals to work on becoming more healthy are a dime a dozen, my doctor has been pointing out that I’ll me turning 44 this year and running on luck is becoming dangerous. The thing that frustrates me is that I’ve done it before and was unable to sustain it. If you look at my old blog you will wee the progress I made 2006-08 as I lost 160 lbs. The picture at right shows the progress after losing 70 lbs. What this picture doesn’t show is that I started at 412 lbs and made it to 245 before it started reversing when I went to graduate school and separated from my wife of 15 years. You might be surprised to hear that university and divorce has an adverse effect on your eating habits, especially when one has a tendency toward self-medicating with food. I am currently in the early stages of a relationship, so I have some motivation to not die. Watch this space as I track my progress.

Community

2013 will be my second year of serving as Board Chair for Umatilla – Morrow Alternatives. I have some ideas on how to grow the organization in order to move it to a stated goal of building a combination homeless shelter and drop in center for LGBT friends and allies. If the organization doesn’t like my ideas, then we’ll just continue doing the fine work we’ve been doing for years. But if I can get buy-in, it could be a beginning of something great. I just need to find a way of conveying my passion for what needs to be done. It will take a group effort to make it work.

Cheers to 2013!