New Year’s Eve 2018

South Of Someplace is my blog for recording thoughts and ideas that don’t fit anywhere else. I write poetry here. I journalize things that happen in my day to day life and ponder larger issues such as politics, inspiration, and interpersonal relationships.

In recent years, I have posted to this blog between two hundred and two hundred fifty entries per year. At the beginning of 2018, I decided to push myself to write a bit more each month in an attempt to reach 365 posts for the year. I kept myself on pace by writing posts equal to the number of days in the month, 31 in January, 28 on February, etc.

I reached my goal of 365 posts a couple of days after Christmas. Since then, I have added more for good measure. Some of the posts are as brief as a single haiku, and some are much longer, but I tried to make each one interesting and worthwhile, not just words to fill space and meet a monthly quota.

This exercise has been demanding at times. For that reason, I am not going to undertake it again next year. There were stressful days when I was scrambling to meet monthly quotas. I would rather not deal with that kind of pressure again next year. 

But I’m glad that I took on the challenge and stuck with it throughout the year. I had been a very rewarding project. I wrote a number of pieces that never would have seen the light of day, and indeed that I never would have thought of at all, had I not imposed monthly writing quotas. 

And now, it’s finished. New Year’s Eve seems like a good time to celebrate accomplishments and look to the future. I am grateful this productive year, and I look forward to new challenges for 2019 and beyond. There are several that I am considering, but I have not committed to anything just yet. This is a good time to relax be thankful for what has been accomplished. I think that we would do well to defer all thoughts of the future until, say, next year.

New Year’s Eve 2018

New York City