Reflect, Record, Renew

Happy New Beginnings, everyone. As with the start of 2017, I'm sharing highlights from last year. There are a few missing that I want to keep to myself. I'm also keeping my missed opportunities to myself. Private moments are good. 

Highlights:

• Got two readings for my play How to Hide Your Monster in NYC
• Walked in the NYC Women's March with my dearest love
• Worked on Rajpurr: Tale of a Tiger at a playwright's retreat at 9,000 feet
• Had a staged reading for Rajpurr at Boise Contemporary Theater (BCT)
• Taught and directed my first BCT Theater Lab touring show
• Participated in a healing reading with Megan Williams at Poetry Speakeasy
• Hired to teach for Boise State University's Theatre Arts Department
• Reclaimed heartache places in Morro Bay, Cambria and San Luis Obispo
• Camped between two landslides near Big Sur with my favorite person
• Taught and learned at a summer camp for adults in Puget Sound
• Created for Migration Theory in trucks, hotel rooms, theater spaces
• Healed from a car/bike accident in time to attend SITI Company workshop
• Also healed enough to attend my first vinyasa classes
• Connected with Ellen Lauren at SITI Boise; reconnected with J.Ed Araiza
• Got Ways Not to Drown produced at 8 in 48 Idaho
• Got a staged reading for New Eden at Campfire Theatre Festival
• Got a reading for a new one act, CloudMelt through HomeGrown Theatre
• Got a new play commissioned for BCT'S Children's Reading Series in 2018
• Made progress on my screenplay and read sections at Scaryfort
• Read and talked on Daphne Stanford's Poetry Show
• How to Hide Your Monster accepted at National Winter Playwrights Workshop
• Taught my first semester at Boise State: three Intro to Theatre classes
• Gathered 15 playwrights to pair with spring semester's Dramaturgy students
• Earned enough to get insured and out of Idaho's ACA health care gap
• Celebrated my mom's 70th birthday in a party with her 70 closest friends

I do find it helpful to make note of wins, losses and contacts gained each year. Do you do something like this? How does it work for you? What is your process?

Here are three big goals for 2018 and 19:

3 Big Goals for the Next Two Years:

• Plan/embark on overseas travel with my favorite person 
• Write the next full length play
• Send 100 submissions in 2018, 200 in 2019​

I smiled to see that one of my big goals listed last year, teach a college class, has now been checked three times over, with two more courses set to start Tuesday. My goal of "getting an agent" I replaced with the more active plan to beyond double my number of submissions this year, and then double that in 2019. I let my work sharing drop significantly while pursuing my MFA, and that number did not grow much in 2017. These submissions may include agencies as well, but more important to get my work out consistently. And even though I have other projects on the front burner now, it's time to start the next big play. As for traveling overseas, my partner and I now have our passports renewed. We'll see about the next steps...

Somersault to tomorrow with me. Photo by Ashley Bean on Unsplash.

​Overall, I intend to cultivate a larger sense of spaciousness and joy in every act and moment this year, as much as possible. I aim to let go of worry, judgment and shoulds in order to make more room for growth, connection and breath. This moment is a backwards leap into next.

And to you all, an awake and bright new year with time for reflection.