Feliz año nuevo! (part one)

 By Anci CL

I'm writing this on January first of 2015, in a Starbucks (but not the same one as before, so we have some variety.)

Last night was blissfully free of chaos, and as a result I am neither hungover, nor baggy eyed.  (Actually my tolerance is such, that one glass of red wine gets me to my happy place.)

Well that, and a round of settlers of Catan: which is how we rung the new year in.

But the point isn't to talk about how hard I (didn't) party/ied

I wanted to say a couple thoughtful things about this past year...  The turning point of which, was definitely going to Croatia and deciding to focus on my wellbeing and fitness (emotional and physical) -- which in turn has cut down on my depression, sluggishness and irritability, and endowed me with an angelic halo of hair twirling pulchritude

la la la

So yes,  I'm proud of that change i made--which consists of one hour a day (nothing less) of intense cardio. and guys?  I've never slipped up, never missed a day, never phoned a work-out in-- (and never gotten anything less than A in school either)

whiiiich shows that you don't need to be rich in order to be committed to fitness AND work/school. (contrary to millenial folklore)

The result of this physical odyssey was a ten pound slimmer frame, and an agile, more athletic physique that can outrun, out-manuever,  out-arm-wrestle most people my height.  And what's more feminist than that? (Other than Laverne Cox's morning breath.)

The other big change I made, which I settled on, while summering on the Adriatic, was to let go of the toxic, angry, militant people in my life (I get too influenced by that shit.) I don't want my feminism to compromise my humanity, and warmth. Because I get angry when people are sexist and i get angry when people are racist, but I don't want it to color my attitude, and rewrite my demeanor... 

Like, I'm already almost too passionate to function, anyway.

So I decided to take a breath, and voice my objections to extreme leftism. (because extremism is bad) and continue living my life firmly to the left of center, and in opposition to white supremacist patriarchy... without letting the ensuing anger consume me. I can't let it. I want to live peacefully, and dammit, I deserve some happiness. We all do.

The final turning point of 2014 was deciding to go into education-- it was a tough decision, and a tough semester, complete with a 2 (and sometimes 3) hour  daily commute. (back and forth)
It meant getting up at 6:30 AM, and coming home at 8 PM, some days.  It also meant navigating a very rural community, and it meant explaining what a cappuccino is to a very befuddled barista. (Which. seriously?)