"Everybody Wants to Rule the World"

Here they are, kiddos: my resolutions for 2010. Feel free to yell at me to keep me accountable for any of these at any point during the year. There are a couple more that I've decided to keep a secret, but I'll be sure to let you know if I've kept them at the end of the year. I doubt that I'll forget what they are.

1. 3.7 Semesters. - It's time to take my academics to a new level. Or rather the old level that I know I'm capable of. I'd like to graduate with departmental honors, which may not be possible thanks to some questionable decision-making on my part in the last few years, but I'm willing to work to make it happen. So my goal is to have a 3.7 GPA for both the spring and fall semesters this year.
2. Take care of myself. - This should cover everything: take care of my knee and get it back to working at 100% (heck, I'll take 85% right now), lose weight, eat healthier, and replace my Diet Coke intake with water.
3. Run a 5k or 10k. - This is entirely dependent on item A in the above resolution, but if my knee is back to its old self, this would be a perfect culmination of my taking-care-of-myself resolution.
4. Be smarter with my money. - I started to do that this year, but I really need to focus more on not spending money on frivolous things. I spend a lot of money on books and video games that I just don't read, so rather than buying new things I need to just use what I have. That should take a couple years to get through...
5. Give back. - I'm not exactly living the hard life, but I'm surrounded by people that do. Whether it's volunteering or donating money or goods, I'd like to give back to my communities.
6. Be a more informed citizen. - Like most(?) Americans, I don't really have a clue what's going on in my own backyard, let alone what's going on globally. A ton of my time is spent on the Internet just looking at Facebook when I could be browsing news websites and learning more about the world.
7. Waste less time. - I could accomplish so much more if I just used my time wisely, which is the one thing I've completely let go of since high school. This may or may not include another Facebook hiatus.
8. Make new friends. - I avoid awkward situations like the plague, but I really need to get out there and meet new people. Plus, I think most people are just as ready to make new friends but also just as afraid of awkward situations, so it's just a matter of taking the initiative. I hope.
9. Further my career. - I've wasted a lot of time in college without getting anywhere, so it's time to get involved in different projects outside of class and get an internship going. ASAP.
10. Find a church home. - I think one of the biggest things missing from my college experience is a community of people who want to get to know God better. A lot of that is because I'm too lazy to get up on Sunday mornings and I'm too scared to talk to people. But if the initial conversation goes badly, that's not the kind of community I'm looking to be a part of anyway.
11. Read the entire Bible. - As long as I'm not forced to drop R220, I'll be reading the entire New Testament front to back, but I've still got a good chunk to go. I'm partially through the Old Testament from my resolution last year, but I'd like to complete this one, hopefully be the end of the semester.
12. Pick up guitar again. - Pretty self-explanatory. I started playing in fourth grade, and I never really pursued it like I wanted to.
13. Be a better man. - I've gone through quite a few periods of my life where I wanted to give up being metrosexual to stop everyone from calling me gay, but in the end I realized that being myself is more important than what everyone else thinks. On the other hand, being able to carry on a conversation can come in handy... Particularly with the in-laws.
14. Clean up my potty mouth. - I won't say that I should give up swearing altogether, but there's a time and a place for everything and I definitely think I've lost my perception for when it's appropriate and when it isn't. I'll still argue that no word should be more or less offensive than another (because really, when you say "darn it" we all know exactly what you mean, so what on earth is the difference between the two?) but I will concede that there is a difference in the outside world, whether or not I choose to agree with it.
15. Update this more regularly. - I say this all the time, but if I want to pursue journalism or English or any form of writing, I need practice. Plus, I think it's fun to look back at all my (mis)adventures, and what better place to do that than right here? Hopefully ten years from now, my charitable, guitar-playing, successfully-graduated-with-honors-and-holding-an-incredible-and-high-paying-job self will be able to laugh at all of these resolutions.