Long Time, No Blog!

Wow, it's been awhile since I've updated or even thought about my blog. I just didn't feel I had the time for it anymore and was sure nobody really read it anymore, so why bother. But, recently I experienced some things in my life that has made me question some of my choices, beliefs, and priorities in life. And with facing these, I was encouraged to start my blog back up. Even if it seems no one is reading, maybe there is and maybe it will help them, or at least me to get things out and off my chest. So with that said, what better way to start back, then to pick up where I left off. My last post was New Years Eve of 2009. It was 1 yr after setting "Five-Year Goals" for myself. My five year period was set to end December 2013... that's this year! Where does the time go?! I am 4 months away from the ending of that five year period, and sooo much has changed. I'll use this post as a way of updating you on the progress that's been made with those goals and a brief summary of the time we've missed. Below should be the last post, which was 1 year into the 5 yr period. And within that should be a link to the original post. Here's the August 2013 update on each goal.

Goal 1: 'To obtain a Master's degree in my field of study.'
--> Update: I did enroll in a Master's program and was set to obtain my degree in the Spring of 2011. However, I did not complete the necessary course work required and subsequently, did not earn a degree. Long story short, I got sick in 2010, had to go into the hospital for 6 weeks, had double hip surgery, and became depressed. I lost my desire to pursue the degree and began to lose interest in my career because of the physical and emotional demands it required. I eventually worked through the physical set back and considered the possibility of trying again. Each time talking myself out of it. As of today, I have no intentions of moving forward with this goal, as I am considering a total career revamp which doesn't require it. As time moves on, maybe things will change and this will come back on the table, for now, its a dream deferred.

Goal 2: 'Become an active part of my community and church.'
--> Update: I have become active in my church. I am now one of the Sunday School teachers for the Preschool age group. It took some bouncing around and trying different areas to find a home, but I absolutely love working with those 3 and 4 yr olds and helping them learn about and encounter God on there own level. I am not very active in my community just yet, but I have been doing some volunteer work. I have made several trips volunteering at the local rescue mission and food bank and more recently, donating and delivering household goods to the elderly. So it's still a continued work in progress.

Goal 3: 'Adopting a healthy lifestyle'
--> Update: This is a constant work in progress and will forever be that way. I have made strides and I have had set backs. At one time I was exercising regularly, then I stopped. Food choices and learning what is REALLY healthy and right for you is an everyday trial and error situation, so there's always going to be room for improvement. This will forever be a constant goal and a daily battle.

Goal 4: 'Buying A House'
--> Update: I became a homeowner in October 2011. I thought house hunting would be one of the most fun and joyous events of my life. Boy was I in for a surprise. It was actually one of the most stressful processes I've ever gone through. But once the process is over and it's yours, there is no better feeling. Next step, trying not to go broke furnishing it! LOL.

Goal 5: 'Paying Off School Loan Debt'
--> Update: All of my undergraduate loans are officially paid in full! I still owe on my graduate school loans, but its still a work in progress. (I'll explain in later post). Just know, its not done, but that goal is definitely still active!

Final thoughts: So this post is really long. Who knew I had so much to say? lol. So I'll end it with the goals update. I'll give the summary of the past 5 years in another post. Until then, what are your goals? Are you working on them? Have you achieved some? Leave your updates in the comments section!

1 down, 4 to go...

"By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be. Put your future in good hands — your own." --Mark Victor Hansen

Last year about this time I set goals for my life that I wished to accomplish in the next 5 years. In May of last year, I finally put them on paper (or weblog) as a way to "make them real" and to keep track of them. Now that a year has gone by, I wanted to see what type of progress I've made on those goals... For those that missed the original post, Click here

-Goal #1 was to obtain my master's degree; as of September 1st, 2009, I was accepted and became officially enrolled into the University of Nebraska's Distance Learning Masters of Physician Assistant Program. So goal 1, ...progress made!

-Goal #2 was to become an active member of both my church community as well as my residential community.; church community - check! I joined the health ministry, though it seems nothing much has come of it thus far :-/... I'm still working on it! I've done some little things here and there that's really hard to quantitate, so its coming along. The community thing however -- a no go! But hey, I have 4 more years right?!

-Goal #3 was to establish a regular exercise regimen and healthy lifestyle; As my twitter friends would say, #fail. I'm so trying. I have the desire and watching the Biggest Loser has encouraged me a lot, but finding the time with my 12hr work days is difficult. I'll try harder!

-Goal #4 was to buy my own house; this one I sorta put on hold for now... still wanna do it, but wanna do it differently than before... let's just leave it at that for now. Maybe I'll explain later.

-Goal #5 was the most ambitious, to pay off all my undergraduate and graduate/professional school loans; I knew this was a big undertaking when I first thought of it, but didn't realize how difficult it would be. Plus, no one counted on the recession to have such drastic and lasting effects. However, when I totaled up the numbers, I did reduce the owed amount by 8.61%! Not the 20% I'd hope for, but not too shabby. Oh, and I did pay off and get the title to my car... so that makes up the other missing percentage in my book!

If I had to grade myself on progress so far, I'd give me a C+. (We are our toughest critic!) ...What grade would you give me?

Remembering 2009...

The year I started my very first job in my new career -- a roller coaster of triumph and struggle with it, but in the end I've learned so much. Not just about medicine, but also about me. * The year I found love -- or should I say love found me. Though it was there all along, it took 2009 for it to manifest and it has been great thus far... It makes me think of the saying "God's timing is not our timing". So true! My timing would have been 3-4 years ago, but would it have been the same?! I'm sooooooooooo not the person I was then and am happy about that. I'm better, much better! And God, well, he knew what he was doing! Can't wait to live out the rest of the story! * The year I would lose control. I'm not happy at all the blow ups I've had at work and I ask for forgiveness of any disrespect that was felt and for the mishandling of my tone -- but please believe, I meant what I said!!! Just meant it in a nicer tone :o) * The year I vowed to forget the hurts of the past, and move forward. I forgive everyone of any wrong they did towards me and I ask you to forgive me of anything I did to hurt you. * 2009, thank you for all the lessons learned! So excited about 2010...

Somebody In Here, It's Your Birthday!!!

HAPPY BiRTHDAY to ME!!!!!!!!!

I Need Suggestions!!!

It is officially 15 days til my birthday and if you know me, I don't just celebrate my birthday, I celebrate my birth MONTH! And this year I'm behind on the planning! I need suggestions for activities... Last year, I went Indoor Skydiving! I need something just as fun and exciting to do this year that I haven't done before. I've already had one fun, new activity and it was great!(yes, even BEFORE October got here!) Thanks Boo! ;)I think the best part was who I got to share the experience with. A truly amazing and special person whom I'm grateful to have in my life. So, I need you guys (if any of you still read this blog) to give me suggestions of things to do. Just leave it in the comments section!

Fantasy Football 2009

Well, I figured it's about time for a new blog post and since fantasy has started back, might as well start with that. Time to post MVPs for weeks 1 and 2.

Week 1 is always a tough week. Its the first game of the season, new team, new players, new competition, and you don't know what to expect. So the fact that we won I feel like the whole team deserves a recognition. I had alot of breakout stars and some, not so good starts, but overall, the team seems to be pretty solid. We'll work it out! However, since I have to award an MVP, week 1 will go to my defense, the Eagles DEF. Thanks to their efforts against the Panthers (and Jake Delhomme's cluelessness), they racked up 5 sacks, 5 interceptions, 2 fumble recoveries, and 2 TDs while allowing only 10 scoring points for the Panthers. This earned them 37 fantasy points and my week 1 MVP award!

Week 2 was not so good for me. We lost! And that's not something that occurs alot. But like I said, new team, new season, expanded league, so new competition. I still want to award an MVP though. B/c one player put it down for us Monday night and tried to help us come back from a 25pt deficit after Sundays games. He earned 21.20 fantasy points with his 24 rushing attempts for 136 yards and 2 TDs bringing us within 3 pts of our opponent. So week 2 MVP goes to Miami running back and one of my fave running backs Ronnie Brown!

So, the fantasy team is 1-1... for now!

My Five Year Plan

So, this is something I established back at the beginning of this year. I did this because since high school people would always ask, "What's your plans for the future?" and my answer would always be "To finish college and become a PA". It became my default answer so that I really didn't have to think about making plans for the future. Everything I did up until that point was in some way, shape, or form related to achieving that one goal. As of August 8th, 2008, the day I officially received my PA degree, that statement was no longer valid. And when people asked, now what's your plans for the future? I had to scramble for an answer. I had never thought about what I would do after becoming a PA. I'd always assumed I'd figure something else out by then. So my quick response was "Get a job and start working!" Though I started working in December of 2008, my "official" start date and the day I actually could say, "I'm a practicing Certified Physician Assistant" happened on January 26th, 2009. As happy and excited as I was ( and a little scared), I realized, I no longer have this "plan" for my life. Now that I've made it this far, what do I do? I happened to stumble across the following quotes and it got me to thinking...

"The tragedy in life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach." --Benjamin Mays

"By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be. Put your future in good hands — your own." --Mark Victor Hansen

"In life, as in football, you won't go far unless you know where the goalposts are."
--Arnold H. Glasgow

"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals."
--Sydney Smith

"If you're bored with life -- you don't get up every morning with a burning desire to do things -- you don't have enough goals."
--Lou Holtz

"The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score."
--Bill Copeland

"You can't hit a home run unless you step up to the plate. You can't catch a fish unless you put your line in the water. You can't reach your goals if you don't try."
--Kathy Seligman

"The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going." --Ralph Waldo Emereson

"The unfortunate aspect about living life without your own goals is that you may very well reach a point in your life where you will wonder, 'what would have happened if I had only done..."
--Catherine Pulsifer

After reading I decided I would make a set of short term (5yr) goals and long-term (10yr+) goals in order to help give my life some direction.

Though this list was established back in January, I felt like telling someone and making them public made them more real and that it would motivate me to begin working towards these goals. So that 5yrs from now, I can say "I reached another goal and milestone in my life." So in no particular order of importance, my 5 yr goals (to be completed by the end of 2013) consists of these five things:

Though, my PA degree program was a professional program and the work as challenging as the Master's level programs, at the time my school was not offering master's degrees in my field of study. (That has since changed, they now offer a master's level degree); Though I completed the extra post-graduate study, on paper I can't "technically" claim to have a graduate level degree. This is something that is important to me and something I've always wanted. My dad went back to school to receive his master's (MBA) while I was in middle school. I remember cause I typed up all his papers! :) He was so excited and proud and I wanted to be just like him (scary huh?!), and I wanted him to be just as proud of me as I was of him. This is the inspiration behind goal number 1.

Goal #1- To obtain my Master's Degree

As I was growing up, going to church was a big part of my life. And I remember being real active in sunday school, the youth group, usher board, and the youth choir. After going away for college (Twice!), I got out of the habit of attending church regularly and being an ACTIVE member of my church community. *makes shameful face* So, now that I'm back and have settled in to my new life, career, etc. I feel I should get back to that more active role I had in serving God, spreading His word, and working in His will. And this I feel goes beyond the "church" environment and out into the community. It's only right to help another realize their dreams and to support them in their journey. Therefore, serving in the community is just as important. This brings about goal number 2

Goal #2- To be an active member of both my church community as well as my residential community. (that is the Charlotte/Metro area, not just my subdvision!)

As a health care provider, I teach people how to be healthy and lead active lifestyles in order to extend their quality (and sometimes length) of life; however I can't help but think of the old saying, "Look at the pot calling the kettle black". I try to make healthy decisions and be active when I can, but in all honesty, that doesn't happen very much. I use all the excuses my patient's give me, "I don't have time to exercise", "Work is too exhausting to do anything else", and "I don't have time to plan healthy meals and cook". So, in an effort to "practice what I preach", I came up with goal number 3

Goal #3- To establish a regular exercise regimen and healthy lifestyle.

This next goal is a biggie. I've gone back and forth debating this for sometime now. Commitment is definitely not my strong suit. But for the last 9 and 1/2 years since I moved out of my parent's house, I have moved in and out of 5 dorm rooms and 4 apartments. I'm currently staying in my 5th apartment. And if there's one thing I've learned during all that time its... I really hate moving!!! Though I've become quite the expert, I really just want some consistency in my life. I've moved about every 13 months and it never gets any easier. I would really like to just be somewhere and stay! (Plus, its a great investment and tax credit being single!) So that's the story behind goal number 4

Goal #4- To buy my own house! (Still a little scared about this one)

The last goal is a bit ambitious. But, you can't just set easy goals... cause what would be the point?! The more ambitious the goal, the more rewarding the feeling of accomplishment is! And if you know me, you know the one thing I hate the most when it comes to money is owing somebody! I absolutely hate it! I hate debt! This is the reason why I know only own 3 credit cards, 2 of which are completely paid off and one is only for emergencies! (like that $551 DEA registration bill I just paid!) Anyhoo... if there's anything I see in a store or whereever that I want, I pay cash (well okay, debit!), but I don't do credit. If I can't afford it, then I won't have it! So that brings about my crazy goal number 5

Goal #5- To pay off all my undergraduate and graduate/professional school loans! (I realize this is generally a 10yr+ thing to do, but I wanna get it done in 5!)

So, there you have it, my 5 year plan. Notice there were no "fall in love by", "get married by", or "have a baby" type goals on here. One, because those things I can't control anyway. And if there's any lesson I've learned in my 26 and 1/2 yrs of being on this planet... "Stop worrying and trying to control things you can't control, because the burden will eat you alive" (not literally, or at least I hope not! :)) Anyhoo... those are things that will happen in God's timing and whether they happen in His 5yr plan for me, we shall see. My goals for myself are meant to be personal goals and will all help me to achieve and grow as a person.

I have started a 10yr and lifetime goal list... but that's too much too soon and this post is already long enough! So pray for me and keep me encouraged and I'll try and update on my progress!