I will start off by saying that as I expected...the Dallas Cowboys lost. Congratulations to the Washington Redskins. You were the better team...this year. Back to the main reason I'm posting. This is obviously an excellent time for reflection. I am going to write a brief synopsis of something that happened on each of the 366 days this year. Just kidding! I can't remember what I did yesterday, yet along what I did on January 1st of this year. Only one person I know can remember everything little thing that was said, when it was said, and in what context it was said...crazy! I do remember that this year on January 1st I suffered through a Cowboys loss. That was the game I wrote about yesterday that would have brought them to the playoffs. Maybe next year, as 20 other teams are saying at this point today.
I will say that I had an amazing 2011. 2012 was not as good, but still a great year. My goal with this post is just to reflect, and not bore you to tears. That's my goal with all of my writing: never bore the readers or they will stop reading. I cannot think of any significant events that stand out in my mind the first few months of the year. However in February, I tried lent for the first time. I gave up soda successfully for 40 days! I normally drink a can or glass of soda everyday. That was a big deal for me to not drink any soda for 40 straight days. In April, something changed my life dramatically for the better. It was Easter weekend. I'm not sure exactly how I got onto this page on Amazon. I must have been looking for free kindle books. Anyway, I found an author that had two kindle books for free. Her name is Rachel Thompson. I read her books, loved them, then found out she has a book on publishing. I bought and read some of that. Somehow, she is the one that motivated me to continue my search for publishers and find a better way to publish my book. I got on to Twitter and off I went. At that time, I had no cover, besides the one for my Kindle version. I was selling a hard copy of book one on lulu.com and it sold I think 2 copies. My kindle version was priced at $5.99 and would not come off until June 7 because I was under contract with someone else. Somehow, I found CreateSpace and decided to publish my book through there because it cost me very little. I used the same cover that was used for the kindle version. I made a ton of edits from the original version that I "published" in July 2011. As of the end of April, the hard copy of book one was for sale on Amazon. I got the kindle formatted by someone as soon as the contract was up and put that on sale for $0.99 in mid July. At that point, I started seriously writing book 2. On April 13, I started this blog, but started writing everyday as of May 24. I have had almost 3,000 views up until this point! Maybe 10,000 by the end of 2013? Who knows!? I had an outline for book 2 for awhile, but never had time to write. At the end of July, I went to my third Nickelback concert with my friends and loved it. I went on my cruise to Grand Cayman and Cozumel in August and of course loved it! (see August blog posts) I had family come over and we went to the track and did a ton of stuff together. I then went to a Yankee game against the Toronto Bluejays and Yankees won. At the end of September, book two was published in hard copy form and then in mid October the kindle version went for sale. My friends got married in October in a beautiful, yet freezing wedding at Hunter Mountain. I had the kindle version of both books for sale for free for 5 days each and sold 885 copies. This month alone, I have sold over 50 paid copies of my book. I have started working on my grocery store book. I also started the newspaper club at my school. Thanks for the idea, mom! I will take absolutely no credit for the idea, but will take credit for talking to my principal and getting that started. I cannot tell you how proud of the kids I am. I love showing them my love of writing and I love seeing their love of writing! This year, as with every year, there have certainly been ups and downs. The world has seen its share of tragedy, especially the last month. We all just do the best that we can to succeed. With this, I say good bye to 2012 and now, an outline of events to hopefully take place in 2013.
I do not believe in New Years resolutions. Of course everyone has goals. Unfortunately, I have had the same goal now for the third year in a row. That goal is to get a teaching job. I don't live my life by looking at resolutions or goals. I live each day and do whatever I have to do in order to be successful that day and in the future. I try to be productive, keep busy, and stay motivated. We all know that some days are easier than others to do this. If you give your all in everything you do, you are bound to be successful. It takes time and patience. It takes perseverance. I tell my students all of the time that school is very hard work. If they put in the effort and push themselves, they can do whatever they want. You need to take risks, know your limits, seek help when needed, and never ever give up on your dream(s). I know who I am inside. I know what I want and I will never stop pushing to achieve what I want. That's what I think life is all about. You can never stop shooting for your dreams. With that said, below is a list of tentative plans for 2013.
-Atlantic City for 2 nights, 3 days during my February vacation.
-Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio in late June or Early July
-7-day cruise to Port Canaveral, Nassau, and Freeport in August
-LESS trips to Turning Stone
-More trips to the gym and hopefully less food consumed overall...
-More focus on reading, writing, and being productive at nights after work
-My grocery store book will be published sometime this year
-Pushing harder than ever to get a teaching job anywhere
-To live life without thinking about, "What if I did (such and such) differently?"
As I said earlier, I hope that this post didn't bore you, and got you thinking about your dreams for the future. Never give up and always keep pushing. The higher the dreams and the more you push, the more successful you will become. Enjoy 2013, stay safe and healthy and keep pushing because you never know how you will do in something until you try!
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