Normally, on New Year’s Day, I post a wrap up of the previous year and take a hopeful look ahead at the coming year. Frankly, this New Year’s Day, I have very little for which to be hopeful. In addition to the political climate, I’m facing several health concerns, and a very bleak economic outlook.
I’m once again training for a new profession which may or may not yield tangible results and waiting around for assignments from what I once thought would be a reliable source of employment. In the meantime, I’m getting zero responses to job applications (strange how reaching a certain age seems to have made me less qualified for jobs in the eyes of employers). Jobs for which I’m qualified and experienced seem few and far between these days.
I’m also facing several health problems that have been plaguing me for most of the past year and will most likely be undergoing surgery in the near future to correct them. Because of these difficulties, I haven’t been exercising as diligently as before and my fitness level has suffered as a result. Walking has been both my primary source of exercise and stress relief, so falling out of the habit has been doubly frustrating.
While I am getting some writing done, it’s mostly editing and revising work that’s mostly completed rather than developing new stories. I guess I’m just frustrated that nothing seems to be working out right now and I can’t imagine how things will get better, given the major changes coming up in a few weeks in the US. I think the graphic below pretty well sums up the new year for me.
Regardless of what the future holds for me, I wish you all a happy and prosperous year and I do hope that my initial apprehensions prove to be overly pessimistic. We shall see.
Have a Happy New Year!