Twenty-Something Renaissance This is me growing into myself.

When the ball dropped in Times Square marking the beginning of 2011, I was a few blocks away dancing to Yeezy with a bunch of Howard grads. The DJ spent the 30 minutes leading up to midnight playing all West Coast everything. The clock struck 12, we spazzed to "All of the Lights." Then came the Jay set starting with "Empire State of Mind." I was excited. Could I pretend that this set list was a sign? Could I call it foreshadowing? Of all the times my mother told me "Wherever you spend your New Year is where you'll be for the rest of the year," would this be the time she was right?

Maybe the DJs mood and family superstitions weren't a good indicator of things to come. So I put it on my vision board and made a promise to myself.

Nine months later I woke up to tweets from folks wondering where the year had gone. "It's September. Is 2011 your year yet?" I laughed and tried to figure out why the looming end of summer suddenly had folks questioning their year. Shouldn't all of the "what happened to your  New Years resolutions" chatter start in December?

And then it hit me. Fourth Quarter. Damn.

I reached for my phone and pulled up a picture of my vision board.

Is it my year yet?

I made it back to  New York. I made it back to the magazine world. I completed my second fitness bootcamp ...

I was feeling quite nice as I went through my check list. Then I went back to one of my first posts of the year:

When I made my board I was in a zone. It wasn't about what made sense, what was "feasible", or what people would think. It was about what I wanted and how I felt.  Yet, I found a way to shut myself down...

...If I could live in the same manner that I created my vision board, grabbing pieces that moved me, not limiting myself, and not getting in my own way, things would be great.


Has 2011 been a good year? Yes.
Have I accomplished a lot of my goals? Yes
Have I been living "in the same manner that I created my vision board?" Not quite.

Good thing I've got the fourth quarter.