I love this blog. It has been a constant pleasure to write and share all of these posts. It’s not going anywhere, but it will probably change in some ways, as have I.
Last year I got married. And while I spoke about it with my wife Stefanie on two consecutive episodes of The Palmer Files podcast retracing our relationship from meeting to wedding, I haven’t mentioned it here. Why not?
I wasn’t sure there was a need to, but it was something that has changed in my life. Yet this blog continues chugging along with all of its warp speed velocity and with no breaks.
Are there more changes coming? I don’t know, but it’s statistically more likely than not. I am always on the lookout for opportunities and I’m doing my best to take as many of them as I can. On the podcast in episodes that will air within the next few months AND in my real life, I’ve been talking more about careers being less linear for myself and those in my generation and younger.
For us, there is no longer a guarantee of a job, a series of promotions, or even retirement in the linear phases our parents and grandparents knew. It would look more like, job, promotion, a series of seemingly disconnected jobs with a promotion thrown in here or there, and the hope for enough to retire. Why? The Bureau of Labor Statistics median employee tenure was just about four years. Four years?! I know some people who can’t figure out a new phone system in four years! Permanence in the workplace is fleeting, and if you find yourself reading this having been employed in the same place for MORE than four years, congratulations, you’ve beaten the bell curve!
Anyway, I’m looking for opportunities and not just for employment. Last year, I completed a two-term stint on the Board of Directors for my local public radio station. This year, I have some feelers out. I’m not sure where I’ll end up, but I know I want to help.
Most of the time, these opportunities, especially to help, happen on an individual basis. Sometimes they get invoiced, and sometimes it’s just me giving back, but it’s always fulfilling. And I don’t intend to stop.
How will this impact my ability to write? I doubt that it will. How will it impact what I choose to write and share? Well, that I don’t know at this time. I could walk into a room or digital meeting and be presented with a real employment opportunity, or get another Board of Directors invitation, or just learn the name of someone I should talk to. At this point, I’m open to anything.
I would say that I’m currently as likely to find opportunities through my podcast guests as I am in real life, and whether or not that’s a positive is not for me to know right now. But there are things out there and there are things right here.
Last year, I shot a short film. It hasn’t been edited. That’s on me.
Last year, I also made a note to write a few more personal-style posts like this one. I wrote none. That’s also on me.
Last year, life came at me pretty fast and, as a result, I did not write an equal amount of non-book review posts as I did posts about books. That’s much to the dismay of my Trusty Editor Chris, who years ago warned me that this blog teetered on the edge of becoming only book reviews. Out of the 52 posts published last year on this blog, 34 of them were about books. That’s on me.
I should edit the short film, I should check-in in a more personal way with you my readers, and I should easily be able to make at least half of these posts about something other than books.
Also last year, I bought one of those large KitchenAid mixers and became a baker of bread! Yeah, you read that right. Thirty-one total loaves of bread have been baked by yours truly. Four honey wheat, six dill, one cinnamon, one cinnamon raisin, three Swedish rye, two egg, and 14 maple wheat loaves came fresh from my kitchen. Maple wheat was my personal favorite and the bread turned me from a no-breakfast guy to a one-buttered-slice-of-maple-wheat-toast-with-my-morning-coffee person.
Is that enough of a change? I don’t know that you’ll really notice notes of breakfast in my writing. More certain, however, is that as I’ve gotten older, my perspective has changed. Perhaps you’ve noticed it, perhaps not. I like to think that I’ve been pretty consistent in who I am throughout the blog’s run thus far, but of course, I always seem like me, so it’s hard to tell.
Anyway, I have my marching orders. I’ll try to make my dive into video this year, I’ll make attempts to be a little more personal (the note from last year just said a “quarterly personal post”, which means this is one of four), and, of course, I’ll get my book review ratio back in check.
Here’s to opportunities and the only real constant in life: change! Happy New Year to you and yours from me and mine!