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Hey handsome cats in top hats! New year, new you. It’s happening. We want to know all about your new year’s resolutions! What do you want to accomplish in 2015? What’s going to be different about 2015? Let us know!
Yvonne, Senior Editor
I can’t wait for the new year! I’m ready to hit refresh on different aspects of my life. Here’s what I’m going to do in 2015:
I want to take more selfies — seriously. I’m a casual selfie-taker but I want to step up my game. I want to unabashedly take selfies and not give one single f*ck what anyone thinks. The end.
One of the best things that happened to me this year was being brought on full-time at Autostraddle! Yay! I’m now a lot more financially stable than I have been in the past two years so for the new year I want to be better at managing my finances. It’s not like I’m really bad at managing my finances but I just want to have a solid plan rather than eyeballing numbers, praying to the Virgen and going with the flow. My partner is really good at budgeting and managing her finances so I can learn a thing or two from her. Hey, maybe I can actually save some money this year!
This year I tried yoga and I loved it! I want to continue doing it in the new year in addition to eating healthier and working out with my partner. It sounds like a tall order but omg y’all I ate too many tamales this holiday season so I’m ready to work out and eat vegetables. I work from home and stare at a computer all day so it’s pretty necessary to my health and well-being.
I think I’ve been saying this since I was in elementary school but I want to write more. In 2015 specifically, I want to write more personal essays for Autostraddle. I have lots of ideas so I need to make sure I make writing a priority.
Carmen, Feminism and Straddleverse Editor
I’m turning 25 this July, and for me that ain’t no fuckin’ around. As far as I’m concerned, It’s time to buckle down and make some shit happen.
In 2015, I’ll of course say goodbye to some things. Goodbye to certain. Goodbye to safe. Goodbye to worrying what will happen if I write it down. Goodbye to worrying about what will happen if I say it out loud. Goodbye to waiting for it to fall together. Goodbye to comparing myself to other people. Goodbye to second-guessing. Goodbye to appeasement. Goodbye to fear. Goodbye to going it alone. (And good fucking riddance to the snooze button.)
It’s time to start making plans and schemes, time to roll up my sleeves and get dirty, time to hustle even harder, time to take some risks. I wanna become someone. I wanna spend more time with my dog. I wanna spend a lot more time in my pajamas. I wanna feel like I made it.
I’m going full-steam ahead just like Danielle LaPorte would want me to. (And I’m rereading The Desire Map, too.)
When I was drafting my resolutions on Tumblr, I closed them out with these seven words: get real, get ready, and get free. I hope those stick, and I hope this year I can make them come true.
Carolyn, NSFW Editor
In 2013 I got rid of many things and in 2014 I kept many things but in 2015 I am going to go after many things, even though those things are far or hard or wrapped in red tape and even though not getting them would feel devastating.
I mean there are a bunch of scary things I’m going to do but they all feel good scary. I have never torn my life up by the roots and hopefully I will get to. I should probably feel a little freaked out but all I feel is excited.
Also I would like to finish the elk leather flogger I started early last year (turns out the problem with making your own flogger with an activity partner is, um, getting distracted during the process), floss even more and admit to myself I’m happiest when I’m reading books every day and working on too many things at once.
Laura M, Contributing Editor
Goals for 2015:
Write a love letter.
Use up the remaining dance class passes on that membership card I paid good money for last spring.
Make homemade mozzarella.
Write at least five personal essays. Even if they only stay on my computer.
Make a man cry.
Chelsey, Editorial Assistant
My goals for 2015 are to be less reactive, to write more things even if it scares me or if I think it sounds stupid, to stop fucking procrastinating, and to keep in better touch with the people I love most.
Kaitlyn, Contributing Editor
I want 2015 to be the year I reconnect with the people who are important to me, no matter how far away they are. I want to improve my Spanish so I can actually participate in the family gossip sessions next Christmas. As always, I want to write more. I want to publish one of the endless personal essays sitting on my computer, no matter how scary that feels. And I want to get a job with benefits (Hi, mom!) so I can officially call myself an independent adult. Oh, and I’m gonna save up to go to Camp!
Laneia, Executive Editor
In 2015 I’m gonna lighten my fucking load and give myself enthusiastic consent to do whatever the fuck I’ve been wanting to do. I’m taking the line “Decide what to be and go be it” all the way to heart. I’m growing a fucking herb garden and I’m going to fertilize it with menstrual blood meal. I’m going to write thank you cards and call my grandmother on Sundays. I’m going to get back to the only version of spirituality that ever made sense to me, even though I’m scared it won’t make sense anymore. I’m going to wear a bikini at Bonnaroo and visit every national forest and park within reasonable driving distance from my home. I’m going to get eight fucking hours of sleep a night and buy more palazzo pants. FUCK YEAH 2015.
Maddie, Contributing Editor
Not to be a New Years killjoy, but for me, historical precedent indicates that making a New Years Resolution seems to be the best guarantee that whatever it is I’m resolving to do won’t happen. I have many thoughts for things I want to do differently and new and braver and bolder in 2015, but I need to keep them to myself in the context of Resolutions in this Official Capacity. And I’m saying so here to validate your keeping your resolutions to yourself, if that’s how you roll.
Mey, Trans Editor
I really love writing personal essays and sharing my life that way on Autostraddle. But I’m also terrified of doing it. Because of that, I wrote a lot of articles for Autostraddle in 2014 but only a couple of personal essays. I’d like to change that in 2015. My resolution for the new year is to do more personal writing about my own experiences and my own life. I want to be more open and share more things with the Autostraddle readers. I’m not going to pledge a certain number of words or number of essays, I’m just going to pledge to be more bold and open with my writing and hope that leads to more essays.
Riese, Editor-in-Chief and CEO
I’ve been so busy with Autostraddle for so long that I got into the habit of avoiding even the simplest, quickest social exchanges — like responding to a tweet! responding to a g-chat! — out of fear that any kind of reciprocation will set the recipient up for inevitable disappointment when next time I’m too busy to hit them back in return, or when I’m not able to take the leap from a g-chat to, say, an actual in-person get-together or a phone call. But this left me very lonely, ultimately, and estranged from my family and friends. I’ve been doing much better at this over the past few months and I want to keep at it.
Also my girlfriend and I have resolved to be better at planning meals ahead of time and grocery shopping on a strict budget so that we spend less money on burritos at Whole Foods and inevitably shitty GrubHub. I’m sure we can maintain this for at least 2-3 months, right?
Perhaps also to own the fact that I disagree with 75% of the opinions on my queer-as-hell tumblr feed.
Oh yes, and get some of that personal writing out of my hard drive and onto the internet.
Rachel, Managing Editor
I feel weird about the concept of New Year’s Resolutions for a few reasons, and have habitually avoided making them. I guess I feel like if I really want to do something, I should just start doing it no matter what time of year it is, and also that making a bunch of frenziedly optimistic goals all at once is a good recipe for not achieving them and therefore feeling shitty about myself in the new year.
With all that said, I do want to work on my attitude for 2015 and/or the rest of my life. Despite being a generally anxious person who is usually more focused on avoiding unhappiness than pursuing good things, I want to work on living up to Kanye’s example and his assertion that “My life is dope, and I do dope shit.” That’s the mantra for 2015; write it down.
Also though my one official goal for the new year is to make a doctor’s appointment and get a physical, maybe even go to the dentist, because now that I have good health insurance I’m just being an idiot by avoiding it.
KaeLyn, Contributing Editor
This is the year when everything changes. In my baby-making parts, at least. After a little over a year of thinking, writing about, and discussing the path from “childfree-by-choice-forever” to “ready-to-get-knocked-up,” I am so certain this is what is right for my spousal unit and me, right now in our lives. It is exciting. It is terrifying. It is possibly sad and disappointing. There is the sobering reality that I have put all these feelings out on the internet about future kid and future kid may not ever come to exist. I’m going to have to be OK with that. I’m OK with it. I’m OK with being honest with you. We need to be more honest with each other about parenting decisions as feminists, as queers, as real life human people with complicated lives and emotions. I won’t be afraid to be truthful or to be bold. I’m going to try to quiet that part of my brain that cares what other people think. When and if it gets hard, I’m going to try to remember how lucky and privileged I am to be able to afford this, financially and socially and culturally. I am going to embrace my support network, even though I’m awful at asking for help. I am going to keep focusing on my sense of self and who I am, regardless of what happens in 2015. And by 2016, everything will be different, whether there is a new small human in my arms or not. I’m ready.
Alley Hector, Contributing Editor
This year I’m going to:
Make bad decisions
Make the best decisions
Sometimes know the difference
Ride my bike
Ride my bike in the rain
Ride my bike in the sun
Write more
Be lazy/relax
Not call myself lazy
Dress up
Get better at my job and maybe quit it
Travel, maybe to Mexico, maybe to Asia, maybe more
Take risks
Trust myself
Drink less
But drink whenever I want to
Be excellent
Be excellent to each other
Do things the easy way just once
Not take myself too seriously
Figure out what matters
Robin, Contributing Editor
I’m bad at keeping track of resolutions, but I willfully find patterns in everything, so upon reflection, my 2014 was, unintentionally, the year of “next time I’ll do better,” and then never reaching the next time where I did do better. For various external and internal reasons, 2015 has to be the year where I do better. It has to be the year where I follow through, where I show up on time, where I’m mindful of people before I open my mouth, where I don’t lose my debit card three times in one month.
If my personal 2014 mantra to the world was, “I reject your binary,” 2015’s is “fuck your narrative.” it took me some time to figure out what narratives were just Not For Me, and now I’m finally ready to dismantle and take down the worst of the bunch.
And, of course, I’d like to finish more writing, bike more, craft more, make more friends, do more better, etc
Heather Hogan, Senior Editor
I have three goals for 2015.
1) Read 100 books. I tried this in 2013 and 2014 but only clocked in at 55 and 64, respectively. I like physical books. I like the heft and the smell and the way the pages sound when I turn them. I read a neat idea yesterday and it was to always keep three books stacked on your nightstand, putting a new one at the bottom of the stack when you finish the top one — and to hurl across the room any book that isn’t worth your time (metaphorically, at least). That way you’ve always got something in the queue and won’t get distracted. So I’m going to try that idea. Probably it means less video games, but honestly, I created a Skyrim character who could punch a dragon out of the air this year. Maybe it’s time for a break.
2) Get outside more. I moved to New York full-time this year and while I’ve gotten pretty okay at riding my bike (around Queens and that tourist-filled loop in Central Park, at least), I miss being surrounded by nature. I miss mountain biking. I miss hiking. I miss sitting still in the woods and feeling connected to the ancient things. Which is silly. I don’t need to miss that stuff. I can hop a train at Grand Central and be out of the city in half an hour. I want to do a lot more of that this year.
3) Stay more connected to the people I love. My inbox is overflowing at all times always with one hundred billion things. I want to get better at managing the noise so I can connect with the people I really care about and be the kind of word sunshine they deserve.
Helen McDonald, Contributing Editor
I never really create New Year’s resolutions until I’m asked. My resistance to make resolutions is not really because I have a strong stance in the great To Resolve or Not To Resolve debate, but simply because I don’t really know what I want until the middle of year. My spiritual upheavals are as unpredictable as Demi Lovato’s hair styles. However, I do like a challenge and publicly sharing my feelings so here are my New Year’s aspirations as they come to me.
1) I was stalking my fellow writers’ resolutions for inspiration because these amazing, funny, profound, beautiful humans inspire me on the daily. So I’m gonna borrow one of Heather’s resolutions and commit to reading 100 books in 2015. Let the record show that college broke my bibliophile heart and I have read a grand total of maybe one book since graduation. Womp womp womp. But I miss my love affair with fiction, and those WHAT THE FUCK I DIDN’T KNOW THAT moments I get when I read non-fiction. As much as binge watching Gossip Girl has a special place in my heart, I want to be a reader again.
2) I love to travel, but I also love this new feeling I have of being “settled”. I have an apartment I love with radtastic people, in a town that’s just weird enough for me to call home. But I want to find the balance between wandering and settling; I no longer feel like a misguided soul, but I don’t think I want to put down all of my roots just yet. This new year, I am committing to seeing the world in different ways. I am committing to exploration and adventure.
3) I love the feeling of falling in love. I know exactly when I’m falling love with a new friend, a potential bae, a pet, or even a bus driver. I want to fall in love a little bit every day with people who are ready and willing to fall in love with me.
4) I want to get at least three new tattoos. I only have two planned out, but I’m constantly finding new words I want to keep with me always on my body.
5) I resolve to fall in love with cooking. I can cook for my health now, but I would like to get to a place where I can cook for my soul. I’m a foodie and revel in eating times. I’ve fought very hard to have a good relationship with consuming food. Now I want to fight just as hard for a relationship with cooking food.
6) Along with reading, my relationship to writing has actually suffered. Either I write for work, or I write for fun. I need to introduce balance into the prose and poetic aspects of my life by re-dedicating myself to my art.
7) Punctuality. As much as I love CPT (Colored People Time), I realize that I’m an “adult” now and need to get my shit together. No more being late for lateness sake. I probably won’t be 15 minutes early but at least limiting my lateness to only 5 minutes late would be a great start.
Your turn! What do you want to see yourself do in 2015?
