Ok, sike, but I couldn’t resist that headline, because the subject of the world ending in 2012 has been a hotly debated subject in my house for the past three or more years, ever since my daughter (now 15) saw the trailer for the movie 2012 on YouTube and became obsessed and freaked out. Did I mention she’s a little OCD? All I know is that the world BETTER NOT end in December, or I’m going to have hell to pay for assuring her, time and time again, that she has nothing to worry about.
So enough beating around the bush–I was really, really hoping to hide from this meme about what I’m going to do to change the world in 2012 because I had no idea how I’d respond if tagged. I figured, ok, if I do get tagged I’ll just write that I’m not going to change the world. But then Jeffrey Cufaude scooped me (awesomely, I might add) so there went that option. Then Elizabeth Weaver Engel tagged me and here I am, racking my brains to come up with some way that I’m going to change the world in 2012.
Somehow lists seem to help when I can’t think of anything to say, so let’s try the “three things” thing and see what bubbles up:
In 2012 I’m going to:
- Take it offline. In case you haven’t noticed, I tend to spend a lot of time online. A LOT of time. Which obviously can interfere with the rest of life that takes place offline. If the world does happen to end in December, I don’t want to have missed friendships or opportunities because I was busy blogging, playing Plants vs. Zombies, or sitting on Facebook. So I’m going to work hard to foster relationships offline. Call my sister more than once every many months. Finally arrange that monthly movie club with neighborhood friends that I’ve been thinking about for two years now. Make the trip down to DC for various social or professional events.
- Be a stigma buster about mental illness. 2011 seemed rife with cries for help within the social media bubble–the suicide of someone in the social media big-wig bubble, several instances of other social media types using their Facebook pages or Twitter accounts to announce, in essence, “goodbye cruel world”–thankfully usually met with an outpouring of support from friends and family to get the person the care they needed. And of course The Bloggess’s recent post about her ongoing battle with depression and self-harm–a beautiful, heartbreaking post. She points out “When cancer sufferers fight, recover, and go into remission we laud their bravery. We call them survivors. Because they are,” but that those who battle depression mostly battle alone because of the stigma associated with mental illness. I know I do, and I know that there are many others out there who do too. I’m a veteran at this battle–I’ve been fighting for over 20 years now, yet mostly people don’t know that about me. So I’m putting it out there, just as I’d put it out there if I were a cancer survivor or victim of some other disease–if you are depressed and don’t have anyone to talk to or don’t know where to turn, feel free to connect with me. I’m not a shrink, obviously, but if you feel like you’re the only one who has ever not known how you’ll make it through another day or not known where to turn for help, you’re not. Sadly, there are plenty of us out here, fighting with you, and it sucks–but having to suffer in silence only makes it suck worse.
- Embrace change–or at least shake hands with it. It’s hard to make changes, especially when a situation is comfortable and works well enough. But sometimes comfortable isn’t actually comfortable. It may work and it may pay the bills, but is that really all we want to ask of life? Is ok good enough, or is amazing out there waiting to be had? And how will you know if you don’t try something different? So this year I’m going to go beyond my comfort zone and see if I can’t find amazing, or at least beyond comfortable.
Ok, there went my Saturday morning….now it’s someone else’s turn to grapple with this meme–I’m tagging these five people (and ducking their ire at being tagged):
- Jessica Smith— who said she wants to get her blogging mojo back–what better way to start? 😉
- Cassie Soofi— my sister, who hasn’t blogged in ages, but who is an awesome writer and, as a speech language pathologist, is doing a lot more to change the world than I am.
- Janet McNichol— my friend and coworker, as well as fellow association person.
- Mandy Stahl— I know she doesn’t have a blog (or maybe she does and we don’t know about it?) but maybe she can do a post on Acronym–or a guest post here?
- Kem Foley— another association peep who is active with a very underappreciated set of professionals, in my opinion–administrative professionals.
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