2023 New Year’s Resolutions

Can’t have just one.

There’s at least one for every avenue of life.

College Classes – Get straight ‘A’s this sem. I’m a good student, 3.9 G.P.A., and since 9th grade haven’t gotten a single C as a final grade. But while “B” does not stand for “bad”, and having mostly “A”s throughout my high school and college careers with a “B” sprinkled in once in a while doesn’t bother me, I always aim for all “A”s. Gotta spend less time in my room and more time literally anywhere else. And I say this because I have zero motivation to do work in my dorm. All I feel like doing is Netflixing and… other enjoyable things that don’t involve a lot of thinking on my part. I have a feeling though that I’ll do better this Spring sem because I know the ins and outs of where my brain works best and where I am most productive and at what times on my new campus so… Testing phase done. Next sem, I’ll have a better idea of what to do so I actually feel like working instead of Netflixing.

Tutoring Job – I have an on-campus tutoring job that I love. I’m technically certified to tutor for English, Math, and French. No one comes in for French. But I have a lot of essays to review and math exams to help students prep for. It’s fun. I like teaching and I like English and Math. And if I get to help people with that and make some cash while I do it, all the better. I want to work at least 10 Hours/Week this semester. And for the remaining two I have at this university as well.

Magazine Internship – I have an internship with a magazine for Spring. Unpaid but I strongly believe that money isn’t the only thing our time is worth.

Actually, here’s are direct quote from the email I wrote my employer which landed me the position that perfectly reflects my views on what our time is worth: “It also does not deter me that this internship won’t pay me with $$$. While I don’t believe in doing anything free of charge because time is precious and anything we invest our time in must be worth something, I don’t believe monetary gains are always the most important or the only payment. The four listed reasons above [(1) LEARNING OPPORTUNITY (2) RÉSUMÉ BUILDER (3) LOCAL ADVENTURE OPPORTUNITY (4) WRITING OPPORTUNITY] for why I’m interested in this internship are exactly why I believe it’s worth my time. Any opportunity that allows one to grow into and beyond themselves is worth the time.”

I plan to make the most of this opportunity. And since for me, the most important aspect of the job is that I get to leave with some published content, I’m keeping a goal for how many articles I want to write before the semester’s over. I’m aiming to get at least 5 done.

Campus Paper – I’m going to continue writing for the same campus paper I was writing for last semester. Here too, I want to get at least 5 articles published by the end of the semester. I have one in-progress that I’m planning on emailing in before the sem starts. As for the other four, I have ideas. We’ll see how things go and what does and what doesn’t work out.

Swimming – Before winter really picked up where I am, I hit the on-campus pool as often as I could. Once it got cold, I got scared of catching a cold and stopped. And then I caught a cold anyway so I’m realizing not swimming isn’t gonna protect me from getting sick anyway so… might as well. As soon as I get back to campus, I want to hit the pool at least once a week. And when I get home for the summer, I’m gonna use my family’s YMCA membership to keep that up.

Yoga – I’m gonna try to do this once a week, too. Probably in the evenings while watching Netflix.

Running – This is for the summer. Back in 11th and 12th grade, I used to use fitness center every visit as an opportunity to get on the treadmill and build up my endurance for the half mile without stopping and getting my time to come down from six minutes to a little over three. This summer, after I’m home, I plan on getting back on the treadmill. And it has to be the treadmill. I think it’s cause of the Fight or Flight principle but while I’m great on the treadmill, I can’t run nearly as fast or for as long without stopping on the ground… And it has to be on the treadmill at home because I like that treadmill and I can run while blasting music loudly on the TV at 7 A.M. and no one will complain.

HitaRocks – 4 Songs. I want to get at least four songs up on my YouTube channel, HitaRocks! by Samhi C. by the end of this year. Say, 1/Every3Months? I think I already know which songs. One Telugu, one Hindi, two English. But let’s see what happens.

Painting – 4 Paintings. 1/Every3Months. And when I say “paintings”, I mean acrylic, water color, oils, charcoal, pastels, anything that goes on a flat canvas.

Clothes Making – Clothes are also art. Well, the clothes I make are. Not sure how often I actually wear the dresses I make by hand but they’re still fun to make, great stress relief, and beautiful to look at. I want to make 3 New Outfits this year. One in the Spring sem. One in the Summer. One in the Fall sem.

MML – I have some specific ideas for future posts that I want to make sure I write. For example, I want to do a post on whether ‘The One’ exists or if love really lasts forever or if it’s all pipe dreams. I also want to do one about the idea of ‘Promises’. I want to write “Hot & Spicy: 40s Edition”. What else? Oh, just a little earlier, I thought of doing a post on my top ten favorite TV/Movie ships. Maybe in different categories? One for American film+shows, one for Telugu, one for Hindi, one for Korean? Or maybe tropes? Age-gap relationships, forbidden romances, young adult couples? We’ll see…

I also have a goal in mind for my 2023 View Count.

If you follow my Insta (SamhiC8LovesToWrite which you should follow if you don’t), you would’ve seen that I posted:

I mentioned in the caption that “The math and reasoning behind this can be found in my next MidnightMochaLatte.wordpress.com post ‘2023 New Year’s Resolutions’ which will be up later today.” So here it is: I want to top my highest yearly count which was 3758 views in 2021. So I thought, okay if I want at least 4000 views next year, how many do I need per month.

And this is definitely do-able as long as I do one thing: Keep up with posting. As long as I don’t take a three-month-ish long break again, we’ll be just fine.

Whitestone Veil Series & When You Saved Me – I’ll be starting the year off by updating the eBook version of my novel When You Saved Me on Amazon. It’ll be at the same link as before. People who already purchased it will be entitled to a free new, updated download. I’ll send out an announcement here and on my Insta once this is done. As soon as this is done, my next venture for this series will be to approve the release of the HARD COPY version of this book.

I just received the proof copy last week:

While the eBook will remain at $9, the Paperback will be sold for $15. Average price for new paperback releases and considering the current printing prices, I believe it’s a reasonable amount.

Once this is done, then comes writing the sequel. My head’s been a scattered mess for this specific story but I’ve finally gathered enough pieces and stitched together enough storylines that I know how the Chapter 1 of Book 2 is going to go. By the end of 2023, I want to release Book 2 as an eBook and Paperback.

21 Days – Back in September 2022, I participated in a competition with BookLeaf Publishing and via that I’ve finished writing and putting together a poetry collection called 21 Days.

I’m just waiting on the BookLeaf people to get my book up now. (This, on the other hand, isn’t doing good things for my Type-A tendencies. No one’s fault. Just how it is. I get anxious handing off my writing projects to be handled by someone else who isn’t sitting right next to me.) Last I checked, as of 12/12/2022, according to my point person there, my data has been handed off to the Listing Team who are “responsible for getting your book online”. I’m gonna email them and do another check-in some time this week. Maybe today, after I finish this post.

Another Poetry Collection – I want to get together another poetry collection published this year. Most probably going to get it up on Amazon. Or I might try this one publishing option that a prof recommended, Lulu.com. I checked it out earlier this year and it seems promising. They can get my book up on several markets, Amazon and beyond. In any case, one poetry collection per year is now a mandate I’m assigning for my career.

Other Writing Projects – I have so many other stories and ideas in mind. I want to get a little more organized and see what else I can get done this year. Maybe I can get another book published?