Thinking about 2017 feels as overwhelming as trying to drink from a fire hose.

The amount of feelings I felt this year alone were a roller coaster. January and December seem separated by more than just ten months. I feel that who I was at the beginning and end of 2017 are two separate people.

I live at a new address (of a house that I solely own).

I am now a pet owner.

I went to four weddings.

I traveled.

Friends visited.

Friends left.

I danced.

I picked apples for the first time.

I did a lot of introspection.

I saw family.

I went through a lot of my belongings and threw most of it out.

I dyed my hair.

All in all, a good year that was overshadowed by a lot of news and events that felt monumental at the time but just eventually amalgamated into one gigantic ball of stress.

Now I stand very firmly, ankle deep in 2018 looking out and it feels like the kind of fog where you can’t see your hand directly in front of your face.

In some ways, it’s incredibly exciting. There’s so much potential in a year like this.

In other ways, it’s almost debilitating how terrifying it is. It feels like you’re about to jump off a cliff where you can’t see the bottom and you’re fifty/fifty on whether your parachute actually works.

But enough of that existential stuff, why am I here save to proclaim my intentions for 2018?

I have a few goals (not resolutions, but goals), and one of them includes this blog.

Last year, my friend Jeff Liu-Leyco made a 17 of 2017 goal: to read 17 books over the course of the year, and it worked out so well for him, that he’s doing an 18 of 2018–something to do with movies I think.

I’ve decided to shamelessly steal his idea. So this year, I am going to write 18 blog posts. I’m not putting any qualifiers on it. No word count, no set topics. I just have to make 18 posts hear before 11:59 PM on December 31, 2018.

(Who knows? I might even do a video blog.)*

That comes out to 1.5 posts per month over the course of the year. I have a few ideas on what to talk about (maybe talk about my other goals for the year). But for now, this is my first post of 2018. But not my last.

Thanks for reading.

xoxo,
Gossip Gir–I mean, Nicole

* – Not likely.