Monday, August 15, 2011

Rebecca, Day 1: Taking Stock

72 Ideas in 72 Days? I'm up for a challenge! Count me in.

Day 1: My 4-5 most important things. Okay, let's see. I'd say my priorities have been clear for some time, especially following my son's birth in 2008. Having a child forced me to prioritize how I spend my time. Let's have a look at my bios on facebook and twitter; they're little lists.
  • From facebook: "She sings, she writes, she crafts things." (That's my riff on Jason Mraz.)

  • From twitter: "Professor. Singer. Writer. Mom."

So, tweaked and restated, these are my 5 most important things (and not necessarily in one particular order):
  1. Family (particularly spending quality time with my toddler) and close friends.

  2. Writing--academic writing, to be exact, which involves reading and research.

  3. Teaching. I'm so glad I work at a teaching university, where our class sizes are small and I can enjoy working closely with my students.

  4. Singing. I'm a classical singer; music is really important to me.

  5. Crafting, which I readily abandon when 1-4 don't leave me any time to spare. My craftiness is always changing, e.g., from crochet to knitting to cross-stitching to needlepoint. This summer, it's taken the form of a lot of canning (mostly with friends--see #1, above).

Is all that too specific? I'm not sure--I guess we'll see. But I'm looking forward to seeing other people's lists this week!

2 comments:

  1. I envy you for having your priorities so straight! I feel like mine jump around from day to day, and what I want changes. I *think* that my list is reflective of what doesn't change - obviously Tedd and P. are at the top - but everything else, who knows!

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  2. Christa, I think flexibility is a good thing! I think when it comes to priorities, though, I'm just a typical academic. Academics learn to develop tunnel vision because otherwise, they may never finish the Ph.D. It's largely a degree in focus and persistence. :)

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