End of Year Reflections
I hope all of you who celebrate Christmas had a good one yesterday. For those who don't, I hope you at least had a day of rest and relaxation. If you had to work, thank you for keeping the light on for those who needed you. The end of the year is always a good time to reflect on what we've done, as well as to plan for the future and decide what we hope to accomplish in the New Year. So here are some things I am proud of in 2018, planning for 2019, and looking forward to experiencing.
2018 Accomplishments
Heading for the Top On a professional level, my biggest 2018 accomplishment was taking on a new role at work, going from Program Director to Executive Director. While I'd been in a leadership role for quite some time, there's a big shift in the level of responsibility between the two roles - from being someone who makes suggestions about the strategic direction the organization is headed to being the person who bears the weight of the final decision. Overall, I feel like I've risen to the challenge, but one year in I'm still learning and growing a lot.
Bigger and Better As a member of the Ladies, there are several moments that stand out. Of course, one of the top was the third LadiesCon. The first time you do something, there's nothing to compare it to - it's both the biggest success and the absolute basement for how well it could possibly go. In the case of LadiesCon, it was a big enough success that we knew we should keep offering it, and such a weird, experimental format that year two was, in some ways, like starting all over again. So this year, our third, was really exciting because it took a formula we know works, and made it bigger and better. A thousand people came to our tiny show! People wrote articles and made videos about it! I feel like we really hit our stride and I'm looking forward to even better things in 2019.
Stronger Together In other Ladies accomplishments, I'm so proud and excited of the way our little band of pop culture analyzing women grew this year. We have Christina, who's been bringing you the very popular K-Pop posts here at the blog. We have Phoebe, Fan Fiction Theater alum and a curious, critical voice as part of our regular podcast contributors. And of course, Tracey and Savannah, our ELS Game Day Ladies, who provide gaming expertise in all facets of our work - on the blog, the podcast, and running their monthly game day under our banner. All of four of these women help advance our mission of promoting the validity and worth of women creating and consuming pop culture, and I've enjoyed seeing their work and getting to know them this year.
2019 Hopes
I'm not one for resolutions per se, but I do believe in constant improvement. So here are a few things I hope for both me and the Ladies in 2019.
More Time While it's impossible to jam more hours into a day (to my eternal sorrow) I'd like to work on getting a bit more balance in the hours I do have. Work is a major priority, of course, but I'd like to work on more quality time with my husband and family. It might be necessary to say no to more things, but I also think it will be key to fully commit myself to whatever I'm doing at the moment, rather than dividing my attention. We might not be able to have MORE hours, but I suspect we can have BETTER ones.
More Movement I'm a runner, and while I didn't give it up in 2018, I also didn't give it my all. I'd like to dedicate a bit more time and effort to my physical activity in 2019, because I always feel the most myself when I do. Luckily, the year starts with the Winter Warrior Challenge, a fine way to kick things off.
More People The Ladies are getting so much more accomplished thanks to our friends - I want to see our influence grow even more! Different perspectives and voices are so important to the message we're trying to spread, so I hope we have even more opportunities to showcase them in 2019. (If you want to get involved, let us know!)
What are all of you most proud of this year? What are you looking forward to in the year ahead?