2015 in Bullet Points

best-nine-instagram-photos-2015Not every year has to be awesome. It’s inevitable that some years won’t be. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that, especially when everyone on Twitter is all “2015 was flawless!” and “Saying goodbye to a stellar year!” Frankly, I couldn’t be happier that 2015 has seen its way out, may the door hit it.

But now a blank slate lays before us, even if it is an arbitrary one. Maybe the hope and potential of a blank notebook, an unmarred landscape, is why people get so excited about NYE. I guess I can get behind that.

Even after years like this one, where the things I wanted most were both totally out of my reach and totally out of my control, it helps me to go over the highlights so I know that it wasn’t a total wash. I did some cool things, even though they are sometimes overshadowed by the stuff that didn’t happen the way I’d anticipated. And I accomplished some things I hadn’t planned to at the beginning, which always feels great. So here it is, my year in bullet points. But only the good ones.

 

speaking at alt summit

Events Where I Spoke, Taught, or Organized:

Conferences I Attended (not including those in which I spoke):

  • Alt Summit Winter
  • Philly ETE
  • WordCamp US

It seems that most of the events I attended this year were because I was speaking, teaching, or organizing them. I want to come up with a couple topics that I can focus on developing talks for this year to do more speaking, and I also want to attend more educational events where I can focus on being a sponge and learning a ton. I was so excited to get accepted to speak at Alt Summit this summer. It was definitely a highlight of the year and I really hope I can speak there again soon.

seattle space needle

Places I Went:

  • Seattle
  • Salt Lake City for Alt Summit x2
  • Austin for Texas Style Council — I really want to go back and get a sense for the actual city of Austin and catch up with the rad ladies I met there.
  • Carrboro x2 — Once for a visit, once for a wedding celebration
  • Camped near Ricketts Glen
  • Asbury Park Day Trip
  • Alabama for my sister-in-law’s wedding tea
  • New York for SPARK Union
  • Spent our sixth wedding anniversary weekend at the Lancaster Arts Hotel and started scoping out what it’d look like to live in Lancaster City
  • Camped in the Catskills with some of my favorite Philly people
  • Staunton, VA to see The Winter’s Tale at the Black Friar’s Playhouse

This was definitely not my most exciting travel year (there were good reasons for that), but we did a lot of little trips. We have some plans in the works already for 2016 to be a more interesting year of travel.

 

All About Love by bell hooks

Books I read:

I’m pretty sure there were more, but this is what I can remember off the top of my head. I want to keep better track of what I’m reading in 2016.

 

Iron and WineShows I Saw:

  • Kishi Bashi
  • Jose Gonzalez
  • Sufjan Stevens
  • Sam Beam and Ben Bridwell
  • Joanna Newsom
  • Over the Rhine

hammock in carrboro

Miscellaneous fun stuff:

  • Started watching The West Wing. Man, do I love Aaron Sorkin. I can’t even help it. When I caught episodes as they aired when I was in middle school, I always felt so smart and informed when I understood the banter. I was so sad about the end of The Newsroom that The West Wing became my new go-to.
  • Started feeling comfortable and awesome in red lipstick. This was kind of an unofficial aspiration of mine for a number of years. I had this rad AF instructor when I studied in Spain a million years ago who 1) I had a big girl crush on and 2) always excelled in the lip color department. I feel like I’d do her proud these days.
  • Attended a rad Galentine’s Day Party hosted by my friend, Corinne. I’m really hoping she does it again this year (Nudge, nudge, Corinne. Let me know if you want help.)
  • Wrote a mini city guide to Philadelphia for The Collaboreat
  • Landed my biggest freelance contract ever
  • Chad and I both got accepted to, and then chose to decline, the first and second Remote Year trips. I had planned to write a blog post on why we declined, but that never happened.
  • Took a sewing class from Rachel Ford at MADE Studio.

Like I mentioned earlier, the things I wanted most this year didn’t happen, and I failed at a lot of my goals. There were a lot of unfortunate and upsetting surprises that threw me way off, but I’m glad I took the time to list the good stuff that happened anyway.

This weekend, I’m planning to sit down with some fancy takeout and Susannah Conway’s Unravelling the Year Ahead 2016. Even though most of the shitty things that happened this year were way beyond my control, I want to analyze how I could have been more prepared to respond to them better. I’ll be sharing a new list of goals here soon — this year, holding them more loosely and being open to new surprises (hopefully better ones than 2015 had in store) and trying to be both flexible and hopeful for what lies ahead.


Comments

5 responses to “2015 in Bullet Points”

  1. […] Check theirs out: LeeAnn Kinney, Juliana Reyes, and Lisa Yoder. […]

  2. Lisa! Wow lady, you accomplished a lot of awesome, awesome stuff in 2015. Congrats on your biggest freelance contract, that is so exciting! I also want to keep better track of what I’m reading this year, so I am going to try to use Goodreads diligently now. Sorry some of 2015 was shitty, but yay for focusing on the positives.

    1. Thanks, Jenn! That means a lot coming from you. I feel like you’re always churning out new projects.

      I’ve been toying with getting back on the Goodreads bandwagon… I’ll have to look you up!

      I’m hoping that listing out the positives for 2015 will help 2016 not suck quite so hard. 😉

  3. Holy crap, that is quite the list of places you spoke and taught. I love that teaching means so much to you. Learning to teach would be a cool thing. Mostly I just plan. And I like that you have such a long list of shows, I didn’t see quite as many as I thought last year. Hopefully 2016! Also, hopefully you’re able to get back to Austin soon, you’ll love it.

    1. I’m always impressed at how much stuff you’re planning!

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