My seventeen resolutions for the year (sort of!)

Happy 2021! 

As I wrote a few weeks ago, I am planning to wrap up A Catalog of Curiosity by the end of 2021, and to do that, I am cutting the list off at 75 things rather than 100. That leaves seventeen to-do list items for the year -- when I call them goals or resolutions, it sounds lofty, especially at a time when we all know that we don't know for certain what the external circumstances of the year will be. Thank you, readers, for your votes in the last post and helping me choose these "resolutions." Here's the final list!

• Take an American Sign Language Class. This one got the most votes of any of the items I polled you on, and I snagged the last spot in an ASL class at my local adult education program before it filled up! (Of course, since they're all online right now anyway, I could have done a non-local one if the local classes had filled, but it was still satisfying.) The class starts in a few weeks and runs through mid-March, so I'll update you then.

• Phoebe R. recommended the 31 Plays in 31 Days challenge, which is like NaNoWriMo except for very short (1-page?) plays, and it traditionally takes place in August.

• Meet with an elected representative as part of a state or national museums advocacy day (it’s online this year). This is scheduled for late February.

• Watch "Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North." This documentary follows a family of white Americans researching and confronting the history of their ancestors who were the largest slave-trading family in United States history.

• Attend a meeting of a local community development board, zoning board, or something similar. I want to know more about how decisions are made in my community.

• I'd like to do a walk that follows a historic route.

• Andrew K.R. suggested “Learn to code, if you haven’t already.” I have a bit of a background in both Java and C, but I’ve been meaning to expand my skills.

• Revise a paper I wrote in college or grad school to submit for publication.

• Do a genealogy project -- another favorite among the polled options!

• Do some work for the History Unfolded: US Newspapers and the Holocaust project.

The rest of the goals on the list are things to read. You don't have to tell me twice.

• Read Queer Matters: Queer Representation in Museums, by Xander Karkfruff, recommended for the blog list by Margaret M.

• Tom L. recommended the book The Slave's Cause: A History of Abolition, by Manisha Sinha.

• Read a book that was a bestseller 100 years before I was born.

• Two items in one: Sarah J. suggested I read Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Friere and Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks.

• Kara H. suggested reading The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (I'll note that I started soliciting suggestions for the blog long enough ago that it hadn't yet been made into a TV show, and I haven't read or seen it!)

• Read Maus: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman. I haven't read many serious graphic novels, and this award-winning holocaust story is one of the most famous.

Thank you all for being on this blog journey with me! Onward into what will likely be a complicated year, but at least the blog is planned out.

Image from Pixy.com