Kimberlee K.

One of my favorite parts of the year is setting goals for the next year.

It gets me excited for what is to come and helps center me in the impending unknown. It gives me a list of go-to answers to the question that comes up hundreds if not thousands of times every year: what should I do now?

For 2025, here’s what I’m hoping to do:

1) Take a ceramics class

I took ceramics in both high school and college and loved it. As a craft person, I just love making things with my hands, and I like the challenge of a new medium. There are a few ceramics studios around me that offer 4–6-week courses, so I’m hoping to join one and see what I can make!

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2) Do my writing capstone

I didn’t end up getting to take my last writing class in 2024, but all that’s left to earn my certificate is one class and my capstone, so I’m putting this on here to encourage myself to take both. Wish me luck! And time!

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3) Go to an aquarium

The last time I went to a full aquarium I was about twelve. I can still remember the picture my friends and I took in front of the metallic jellyfish. Maybe I’ll get a new picture in front of the jellyfish, or maybe I’ll just stare at the actual jellyfish blobbing their way around the tank. Either way, it sounds like a cozy way to spend a day.

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4) Do a new Bible study

In the back half of 2024, I got into a pretty good habit of reading my Bible, so I’m hoping that will continue into the new year. I have my eye on this study guide, which has two editions, but I’m setting a goal to finish one.

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5) Have longer mornings

I love the quiet stillness of the mornings, that slow yawning stretch of time where you’re slouched on the couch and your mind is buffering itself into the day. And while sometimes I love sleeping in, I’ve found value in going to bed early and waking up early in order to make mornings last longer. So I’m hoping for longer, slower mornings in 2025.

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6) Try strength training

I like to have variety in my workout routine, both because I can get bored and because I can get stubborn. I like to have options! And in working out pretty consistently this year, I found that I’m the weakest when it comes to weights. Now, I don’t need to be a weightlifter but I’d like my body to stop instantly panicking whenever I pick up a handweight. Like, oh no!! That’s hard!! Shutdown!!! So this year I want to look up workouts geared towards getting stronger!

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7) Read a book in a day

As an avid reader of book themed newsletters, I hear people talk about reading a book in one sitting or over the course of one day often, but I’ve never done it myself! I think it will take a special book, and a clear calendar for me to accomplish it, but I like the challenge!

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8) Watch all of Nora Ephron’s movies

This past year I made my way through (most of) Julie Roberts’ movies and it was truly so fun. So in looking to set a similar goal for next year, I pivoted to writer, director, producer Nora Ephron. When Harry Met Sally is high on my list of favorite movies of all time, so I was surprised to find that I haven’t seen very many of her other movies. In fact, looking at this list, I really only know her work with Meg Ryan, so I want to know more.

• Silkwood
• Heartburn
• When Harry Met Sally…
• Cookie
• My Blue Heaven
• The Super
• This is My Life
• Sleepless in Seattle
• Mixed Nuts
• Michael
• All I Wanna Do
• You’ve Got Mail
• Hanging Up
• Lucky Numbers
• Bewitched
• Julia & Julia

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9) Get a facial once a season

This year I got my first ever facial and I loved it! It made my skin feel so clean and healthy and I’d love to be able to invest in that feeling more in the new year. Facials aren’t cheap, but I think I could manage to do one for each season, and what away to usher them in!

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10) Stop reading the comments

Recently I realized how habitual it is to watch a video or read a post and then instantly refer to the comments, both curious if people agree with me and what other opinions are out there. But alongside the positive, funny, and clever comments that can make social media fun, are so many mean ones. There are things that I think about long after reading them, and things that weigh on me just to know people are thinking them. So I want to stop automatically reading the comments, I think it’s healthier.

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11) Fill in old journals

One Saturday afternoon while cleaning, I found a shelf full of guided journals that I started, got halfway through, and then never finished. It feels wrong to throw them away, especially because I still like the format and the goal of the prompts, but then, it also feels seemingly strange to jump back into them three, four, five years later. I’m an entirely different person than the girl who started those journals. But that, I’ve realized, is why I think it might be fun to go back in and finish them. They are all dated, and it will be interesting to see how my writing, opinions, attitude, and perspective have changed. And, if I’m being honest, I just like it when things are finished, and it realllllly irked me that they were unfinished.

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12) Read Ann Patchett’s Books

At the end of last year, I read Tom Lake and fell in love with Ann Patchett’s style of writing. Then, this year, I read Bel Canto on a recommendation from a podcast, and was again taken with the writing, it just sparks something in me and makes me want to be a better writer. So this year I want to read more of her work.

• The Patron Saint of Liars
• Taft
• The Magician’s Assistant
• Run
• State of Wonder
• Commonwealth
• The Dutch House

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13) Do Monthly Reflections

My friends and I went through the 40 Day Joy Devotional together this year, and one thing it encouraged me to do was monthly reflections. To take a breather after each month and notice what happened rather than rush straight through to the next month. I made a sheet (that I’ll link below) that was inspired by topics in the book that I might use, or I might find my own rhythm. Either way, I think it will be a healthy new habit.

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14) Take a writer’s retreat

I had a very meaningful conversation with a friend I met in Spain about what it means to call yourself a writer. For a long time, I’ve seen writers I admire talk about “writer’s retreats” that allow them to dedicate extended periods of time to their work and allow them to feel refreshed. As a result, I’ve always wanted to take one, but thought I needed to “earn” the title of writer before I did. In having that conversation, I was reminded how writing is the thing that makes you a writer, not the accolades that may or may not come with it. So I’m planning to go somewhere fun, somewhere new, and just be a writer! To feel that refreshment and spend hours just getting words onto a page. I can’t wait!

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15) Make the rules

A big lesson I’ve been learning over the last few years is that I make the rules in my own life. Sure, there are rules, laws, abiding principles of the world at large, but much of adult life is figuring out what works for you. And it has been quite a shock to realize how much of my life I’d curated based on what I assumed was “correct” rather than what felt comfortable and natural. So this year I’m hoping to untie more of those knots—the things that might be holding me hostage because I’ve convinced myself I have to do them a certain way, rather than learning what is my way.  

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16) Figure out my favorite kind of apple

If someone told me I HAD to tell them my favorite kind of apple, I think I would say it’s a Pink Lady. But there are a handful I know I’ve never tried, and what’s more, a handful that I’ve bought without paying attention to the name and struggled through eating. So this year I’m going to methodically circle the apple display at my grocery store (in a less creepy way than that sounded). I’m going to take note of the kinds I buy and the kinds I love. I might even try multiple grocery stores to try different kinds. I am going on an apple journey this year, folks, because why not?!  

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17) Go on a “color walk” for every color

Recently, I’ve seen a trend on social media where people go on “color walks”, which is when you look for a specific color out on your walk. It tunes you into your surroundings and makes the colors of the world around you a little more vivid. I want to do one for the standard rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple, and then also do pink, turquoise, brown, black and white.

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Wishing you well on any and all goals you might be setting for 2025!