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2017 Year in Review
Jan. 9th, 2018 09:27 pmThis is 10 days late, but I've been doing these for 15 years now, so it's sort of wrong to skip a year due to illness. ::FAITO:: As you know, the way these work is that I kind of do a freeform "year in review", and then do a more structured New Year's resolutions. I don't look at last year's resolutions until after I finish the year in review, though, so that I don't get influenced.
Anyway, 2017.
A lot happened? I think? The early part of 2017 feels like a hazy blur now, but ... April was when I was looking for a teaching job. May was when the 3 people we hired at the beginning of the year decided to implode, and then we had to re-onboard new people in July. And then August was the new job, new school, new people. There were two comics conventions somewhere in there, Rutabaga started daycare, and I drew some pictures, too. Oh, and made a fan anthology and a comics anthology.
It's been a busy year. Teaching, Chinese School, comics, taiko, fandom, baby...
And I've been making it work by outsourcing a lot of my responsibilities. Parents have basically been free child care on call, and also taking over a lot of the Chinese School work. There are other adults at comics and taiko who step in to man comics conventions or teach taiko kids class. Hoosband has taken over the majority of the household chores and night time feedings. Rutabaga who is growing up in daycare.
I've been thinking about a post I'd read about how much support from others it takes to be a full time author. The author of the post talked about how, when she was a single mom working a full time job, she *couldn't* carve out the time to write and the energy to be creative. It is a luxury, to have supportive family members to take over the child care, or the making of dinner, or whatever else, so that there is time and energy to devote to creativity. The author of the post got that when she married a wealthy, supportive husband.
So I've been thinking both about my pursuits, and also whether I've been too selfish and demanding of my family members' support. Whether I should be more supportive of *their* spiritual and creative needs.
In terms of my pursuits, I know two things:
1) God I love teaching so much. I love the colleagues, I love the students, I love the energy of the day-to-day. I don't love grading and the meetings, but eh, comes with the territory.
2) I need to art. Drawing keeps me sane. Something Will Out, it can't stay cooped up for long. And whether that something is a ficlet or a fanart or something original -- in the end what matters more is that I'm doing *something*. Of course, fanart is easier when I'm low on energy. That is its own curse/blessing.
I like my comics peeps. I like my taiko peeps. And of course, my family. I love spending time with Hoosband, and Rutabaga is getting easier to take care of.
It's a full life, and I don't want to hoard all of it.
Anyway, 2017.
A lot happened? I think? The early part of 2017 feels like a hazy blur now, but ... April was when I was looking for a teaching job. May was when the 3 people we hired at the beginning of the year decided to implode, and then we had to re-onboard new people in July. And then August was the new job, new school, new people. There were two comics conventions somewhere in there, Rutabaga started daycare, and I drew some pictures, too. Oh, and made a fan anthology and a comics anthology.
It's been a busy year. Teaching, Chinese School, comics, taiko, fandom, baby...
And I've been making it work by outsourcing a lot of my responsibilities. Parents have basically been free child care on call, and also taking over a lot of the Chinese School work. There are other adults at comics and taiko who step in to man comics conventions or teach taiko kids class. Hoosband has taken over the majority of the household chores and night time feedings. Rutabaga who is growing up in daycare.
I've been thinking about a post I'd read about how much support from others it takes to be a full time author. The author of the post talked about how, when she was a single mom working a full time job, she *couldn't* carve out the time to write and the energy to be creative. It is a luxury, to have supportive family members to take over the child care, or the making of dinner, or whatever else, so that there is time and energy to devote to creativity. The author of the post got that when she married a wealthy, supportive husband.
So I've been thinking both about my pursuits, and also whether I've been too selfish and demanding of my family members' support. Whether I should be more supportive of *their* spiritual and creative needs.
In terms of my pursuits, I know two things:
1) God I love teaching so much. I love the colleagues, I love the students, I love the energy of the day-to-day. I don't love grading and the meetings, but eh, comes with the territory.
2) I need to art. Drawing keeps me sane. Something Will Out, it can't stay cooped up for long. And whether that something is a ficlet or a fanart or something original -- in the end what matters more is that I'm doing *something*. Of course, fanart is easier when I'm low on energy. That is its own curse/blessing.
I like my comics peeps. I like my taiko peeps. And of course, my family. I love spending time with Hoosband, and Rutabaga is getting easier to take care of.
It's a full life, and I don't want to hoard all of it.
