Reflections in bulleted form

Things I did for the first time this year:
-Visited the West Coast (Seattle and its surrounding areas for Intaglio's brother's wedding)
-Took Step 1
-Did a mini-rotation in the hospital
-Started graduate school
-Spent Christmas without my family here in Madison
-Settled into cohabitation
-This would be as good a space as any to mention the fact that Intaglio and I got engaged over Christmas
-Voted in a presidential election

Accomplishments that made me proud:
 -Passed Step 1
-Ran a half-marathon
-Maintained a good GPA the first semester of grad school
-Taking better care of my physical health: Exercise, vitamins, flossing, skin cancer screenings...it's like I'm an adult or something.

Things I learned this year:
-Exercise does wonders for my mental health.
-So does RuPaul's Drag Race.
-Keeping a good lab notebook is both essential and not too taxing.
(I harp on the notebook a lot, but it's been a thorn in my side, as I've alluded to in the past.  Even now, it's far from ideal.  I'll think I've written down everything I possibly could, and then a week later I'll try to repeat the experiment and realize that, you know, I didn't write down how much LPS I added per well or something infuriating.)
-Reading for pleasure is both a delight and a necessity
-I am not a social butterfly, but I need to be around people.  The friends I've made during the course of the MSTP have become more important to me than I could ever imagine. 
-"Collect data today like your machine will break tomorrow."

Things I have learned, but am slow to act on:
-Sugar is not good for me.  It causes horrible mood swings and depression the following day.  Regardless of whether or not this is psychosomatic (and yes, it likely is), my life is simpler when it's removed or heavily restricted.
-It's very easy for me to get sucked into repetitive internet surfing.  Checking facebook every four minutes, that sort of thing.
-One must do the thing that is frightening.  I've been dragging my feet finding a preceptor for the shadowing program during my PhD years, because I'm afraid of my PI's response, time constraints, research constraints, etc.  None of my reluctance changes the fact that I need to find one, and soon.  I'm just making it harder on myself.
-Change is most effective in incremental bits.  Write this paper for an hour a day!  Exercise every morning!  Take notes on M3/M4 stuff so you don't lose it all before you re-enter med school!  One life coach, trying to motivate a woman to go to the gym, told her to put on her gym shoes every morning for a week.  That was it.  The next week, she exercised for five minutes after putting on the shoes.  Change is much less aversive and much more sustainable when broken into small chunks, and yet I consistently try to dive in head-first.

Resolutions for 2012:
-Keep a gratitude journal (very Oprah-like, but I've found that it does tend to stabilize my mood)
-Eat one dessert a week.  This will be the most challenging resolution, and the one I'm most likely to break.  It goes against my last point about not diving in head-first, but as far as sugar is concerned, for me it's pretty much all or nothing.
-Lose 10 lbs, keep it off
-Keep the apartment tidy by not slipping into laziness: eg, washing dishes before the food dries on them, folding laundry right after it's done in the drier, disposing of junk mail immediately.  Likewise, do homework <48 hours after it is assigned.
-Via the bit-by-bit approach, start writing every day.  
-Figure out what my goals are.  I don't really view resolutions as goals--they reflect my desire to stop falling short.  In terms of longer-term goals that extend beyond "stop the self-sabotage"....I don't really have a clear picture yet.  I'd like some goals.

Happy New Year's!  Despite my somewhat melancholy-sounding introspection, it has been a great year, and I am hugely grateful for all that I got to experience and learn.  Here's to a wonderful 2013!