My Life in Five Years (52 Weeks)

Five years ago, I was very pregnant with my daughter. I was finishing up my first year of marriage--an incredible, exhilarating time--and was working part-time as a church secretary. My husband and I had gone so crazy with church service that we were getting scolded by family about it. So crazy that, at 8 months pregnant, I found myself in a canoe in the middle of a lake with a bunch of hyper teenagers (long story).

Would I have guessed that five years later I would be very pregnant with number two (oh, did I not mention that yet!), about to celebrate six years of marriage (having spent our fifth anniversary apart--he was in the monastery), and... I would be a tasoni?!

Five years is a long time. Five years from now, I hope to feel like a good tasoni instead of a lousy one (real assessment or pregnancy hormones talking, I have yet to determine). I hope to still hold on to a few friends (even those I push away).

I hope I'm settled in a house, and the church is settled in a permanent location. I hope that the house is organized and clean all the time. I hope I'm working as a teacher at least part time or running something. Because I'm not half-bad at running things if given the chance.

I googled "how to write a five-year plan" and found very little that was useful. Probably because I was really looking for someone to tell me what I would be doing in five years. Or to tell me how to find out what I would want to be doing in five years.

I did find a sample month-by-month chart for academics (grad students and tenure-track professors) to help them get papers published and courses out of the way. I liked it and made a blank one of my own. Until I realized I still have no idea what to fill it with... except "take care of my babies 24/7." Knowing me, that gets draining very quickly.

So I have decided to focus on writing, both in this blog and fiction writing. And other than that, I'll have to get back to you... when I figure out what I want to do with my life.