Merry Mondays #25 – 2016 New Year New Me Update

Posted December 26, 2016 by Lillian in Features, Merry Mondays / 2 Comments

Merry Mondays is a weekly meme hosted here @ Mom With a Reading Problem during the month of December to celebrate Christmas and the holiday season. Each week a different topic centered around the holidays will be discussed.

Merry Monday y’all! Can you believe that 2016 is almost over?! I can honestly say that I’m not sad to see it go. This year is one I’m happy to put in the books. I’ve seen several memes like this one:

And I have to agree with it! 2016 was rough. First the division in the US is awful and the media perpetuates it by focusing on the white on black crime. Please don’t get me wrong. I understand that some of these crimes could have been prevented, were maybe a judgement call gone bad. But then there are others that the media portrays as hate crimes while reporting data before all the facts are in because they want to be the first with the breaking news. Honestly you cannot trust anything you read or see!

Then there is the Black Lives Matter movement. The idea behind this movement in its inception was great, but now there is such stigma with it, again thanks to the media. I’m a white, Southern girl who the media would have you believe to be racist simply because of the area I grew up in. Before 2016, I never saw color. I grew up with black and hispanic friends and never thought that the color of my skin or theirs mattered in the grand scheme of things. We are all God’s children. THAT is how I was raised. BUT thanks to the media’s coverage of BLM and the riots that seem to follow them everywhere and the protests against policemen (who by the way in my town make national news for this!), there are areas I no longer feel safe to go alone. I feel judged because of my social status as a white girl. Who cares that I was poor growing up? Who cares that I worked hard to get to where I am today? That’s all because of my skin color ? Really?! Is this what my son is going to grow up in?!

And then the election….really as if 2016 couldn’t get worse the election took place, further dividing this country. Personally I didn’t vote for either candidate. I voted for a lesser known, independent and I’m proud of my vote. I purposely do not post political things on here as I want the blog to be focused on books, but on my personal Facebook page I did share a few news articles about the candidate I chose to vote for. I was attacked by someone I barely know through a family member. The person basically told me I was stupid and could explain to their child why I let this nation crumble if the candidate he/she was voting for didn’t win. Really, this happened. I was dumbfounded. But then on election night when it was obvious that Clinton was losing, an ABC news anchor called all the people who voted for 3rd party or independent “lazy, stupid, and uncaring.” She said we should choose one party or the other and vote instead of throwing our vote away. She was applauded which blew me away! Why should I (or anyone for that matter) be forced to chose between two candidates that neither party wanted?! Regardless that my candidate didn’t win, the election is now over and while I’m just as concerned as many of you about president-elect Trump, I’ll remember how I was raised: to pray for the leader of my country.

I say all this to say I’m glad 2016 is over so that we can start fresh in 2017. This year was rough, but we can move past it. Since it is almost the new year, this week’s topic is fitting: “End of 2016….time to check up on those New Year’s Resolutions….How did you do?.” Honestly, not so good 😉

I started 2016 with 10 semi-doable goals. If you need a refresher, you can click here to see what they were. I broke them into three categories and have done the same here: book, blog, and personal.

Bookish Resolutions

I had four goals: read 125 new-to-me books, read The Mortal Instruments series, make half my reads be from my TBR pile, and participate in some reading challenges. I read something like 175 books this year so I met the 125 goal easy. I only read half of TMI, moving threw me off my goal of finishing it this year. I did not make half my reads be from my TBR unfortunately which means I’ve only added to it! I did participate in some reading challenges, meeting my goals in two of them and failing the other two miserably.

Blogging Resolutions

I had three goals here: blog every day, blog ahead, and finish the year with NO carry-over ARCs. I have blogged pretty much every day with the exception of around the time we moved. I missed some then due to no internet service. I also blog ahead MOST of the year. I was even a full month ahead at one point, but then I slacked off and now I’m not ahead at all. No carry-over ARCs…..yeah that didn’t happen. I’m still trying to catch up from 2015!

Personal Resolutions

Again three goals here: lose weight, run a 5k, read the Bible cover to cover. Ummm I failed these! I gained weight (thanks hormones!!!), I did not run a foot much less a 5k, and I only managed to read a portion of the Bible….I’m getting there though!