january in review
vignettes, ideas, progress reports, and a playlist
This year I’m attempting to make monthly posts about all the little things I’m Swimming Pool Thinking about. Here’s #1.
“January is a great month,” I tell Maria as I pack up my swim bag. I’m talking too loudly again and every woman in the locker room can hear me but I decide that I don’t care. Maybe one of them needs to hear this. “The shortest day of the year is December 21st. That was 35 days ago. That means today we had as much Sun as we did in the middle of November. January is cold— but it’s so sunny. People don’t appreciate it enough.”
“I think you’re right,” she says. She’s from a country with harsh winters so she doesn’t really mind the cold. “I like it, actually,” she tells me.
What Maria doesn’t know is that I've made this exact same argument to everyone I came across today. I’m just convinced that January is a wonderful month, and not enough people have noticed.
***
I organize my life into several categories: physical, relational, spiritual, professional, personal, and creative. Obviously even the name of this Substack is evidence that these categories often overlap— but I find that they’re helpful for color-coding my calendar, setting goals for upcoming seasons of my life, and making sure I’m appropriately prioritizing the things that matter to me.
I’ll probably structure these little updates in different ways each month, but it seemed natural to start with organizing this post the same way I organize everything else in my life.
Physical
The Yale pool has been closed a lot recently. Most university pools are open for around 70 hours a week— The Yale pool is only open 16 hours a week and I have conflicts with at least 10 of them. Which is unfortunate, but I’m actually really grateful that I’ve been lifting and running more regularly because I love those activities too!
Circumstances led to me taking two consecutive rest days, but then when I did get back to the gym I had an AMAZING workout and have now learned the benefit of rest days.
Relational
Adult relationships with siblings: My sister spent a few days with me in New Haven before school started. This is the second time we’ve stayed with each other outside of our parents’ home, and it was really special to remember that our adult relationship is different from our child relationship—and to be honest, I like it a lot more.
Even though we’re adults, we can still atrophy back into our teenage selves when we go home. But when we’re out in the real world together, just the two of us, we get to experience the kind, witty, and wise women we’ve each become. I actually just really enjoy my sister. I was laughing for the entire weekend. Our adult relationship is a friendship our child relationship could never become—and it’s a comfort to know that this adult friendship will long outlive our childhood rivalries. Her visit was simultaneously like meeting a new person and reuniting with a best friend.Watching Jane Eyre with two of my best friends from college. It was really really nice to spend time with them again and I hope we watch a movie together again soon <3
New Years Day
I wake up late and I am all alone. Even as I lay in bed in the winter sunlight I can feel that the house is completely still.
I go downstairs in my pajamas, looking for the people I love and not wanting to waste a moment without them—but still have no clue where everyone else could be. The emptiness is intriguing, but not concerning; there is too much peace in the air for me to be worried. I am confident that the whole world knows this year is new and beautiful.
I look out the back window as I fill a glass of water, and as I study the birds fluttering through leafless winter trees I hear the familiar thud of an axe flying through wood and realize that I know exactly where the men must be.
I tiptoe through the garage and stand at the back door for a moment, tying a fuzzy robe around my waist and watching as My Love lines his axe up with the center of the log. He raises the axe and then CHOP as metal splinters through wood, splitting into the two perfectly symmetrical half-logs he hands to my father.
“Good morning!” I say, opening the back door and joining them outdoors.
They both worry over my bare feet in the cold damp earth and I protest that it’s fine. I don’t mind the cold, I just want to be part of their beautiful togetherness. But my dad begins rummaging through his workshop and neither of them picks up an axe again until I’m standing on an old towel.
My toes were a little chilly, I admit.
And so I stand on that little towel, giggling and taking pictures, watching the men work until all the wood is chopped and it’s time to go make second breakfast.
Spiritual
I joined my housemate for Shred: a 30-day plan for reading the entire Bible —all 66 books, all 700,000 or so words, all 1200-1600 pages. It’s intense, and I love it. I’m waking up to Genesis and falling asleep to Psalms, showering as I listen Judges, working out with 2 Chronicles, sautéing broccoli through Ecclesiastes. (We started in the middle of January so I haven’t gotten to the New Testament yet.) Over the last few weeks the Bible has been the first thing I reach for in the morning and the last thing I think about at night. And consuming the entire book in such a short amount of time means it’s been so cool to actually see the story of the Bible play out!
In the first week of January I went to SALT, a conference for all the Chi Alpha groups in the Northeast. So many amazing takeaways from this event— but the most literal one, and the one I probably talk about the most, is this incredible playlist from the songs we sang during worship sessions:
Professional
SALT registration
I’m helping with registration for a conference, and while the rest of the crew sorts names into three different categories (and alphabetizes within each) I’m responsible for running down to the front desk to get new key cards as they’re made— a task the hotel should have done hours ago. Probably one out of every ten key cards doesn’t work, or there’s some problem. It’s chaotic… and I love it.
After a dozen or more trips down to the front desk, I’m friends with the hotel staff. By the end of the day I know their names, have offered opinions on their workplace drama, become part of the banter.
So as we wait for Derrick to finish making key cards Nisha asks me how my day is going, and I say, “It’s great!” I explain how much I love my job and my team and this conference and how much I enjoy the role I get to play. “I’m thriving.” I summarize. “I can tell,” she replies. “That’s why I asked. You’re just glowing. Your eyes light up when you talk about your work.”
“I love my job,” I say, sighing and smiling like a Victorian socialite finally confessing a secret romance.
I love getting to run around and make friends and be part of a team bringing order to chaos. I like going to bed exhausted because I know I worked hard, physically and mentally. But I really really love spreadsheets and emails and google docs. Just give me a computer and let me write things and do math for a morning. This has been part of my life for the entire last semester, but I’ve been thinking a lot about how my job does allow me to use a lot of Google Sheets for things (like budgeting for missions trips) and it’s such a blessing to have work I love!
speaking & teaching: on January 25th I taught about expanding the Kingdom of God through work at Thriving After Yale (a course we do for graduating seniors) and for our Discipleship Training Course I’m teaching about Spiritual Friendships. I’m really excited for this one because it’s basically just an excuse to talk about people I really love and the good memories we made in college!
Creative
I’ve been working on editing a video, which will hopefully be a Swimming Pool Thoughts post in the near future! It’s an ambitious project for the level of experience I actually have so I’m learning a lot and gaining skills I’ll be able to use in other projects going forward!
I helped make cake pops for a friend’s gender reveal party. I don’t have pictures but they were a lot of fun to make and I’m totally going to do this again!
please comment/let me know if my January resonated with your January, or if you’re hoping to make any of the moments of my January part of your February :)
