New Year’s resolutions I’m actually going to keep next year

I most certainly am not one of these 8 percent percent of people I don’t think actually exist. I’ve never kept a resolution much longer than February or March, but I make them every year, and this time around it’s all about Charlotte for me.

2016 is going to be about liking Charlotte more than I did in 2015. Since coming back home after graduation, I felt a lot like I was on autopilot. I didn’t really try anything new or step out of my comfort zone, and I certainly didn’t find the thing that would make Charlotte excite me.

But the drive is there. I want to wake up in Charlotte and be excited to be here. Here’s how I’m going to try to do it.

(1) Drink the (metaphorical) Kool-Aid. 

It’s local beer.

(2) …also, try a new brewery.

Despite the fact that there are 14 at my fingertips, I end up at the same three every time.

(3) Take the segway tour that I’ve always made fun of.

Even though nobody I know will sign up with me.

(4) Quit pretending to like the same things about Charlotte that (I think) everybody else likes.

Even if they tell me they do, I hereby resolve to find my own thing and not be sorry for it.

(5) Spend more time outside. 

Charlotte makes it easy and yet I spend most of my days inside. Gotta learn to get out and take a ride on a B-Cycle or walk the greenways. Or do both at once.

(6) Use my library card for things other than checking out books. 

Like learning how to code or discovering who’s hanging all over the branches of my family tree.

(7) Master the roads.

Know which Queens I’m on, where the number is going to take me (74, 85, etc.), if I’m about to turn down a one-way street (looking at you, Uptown), and when to avoid which intersections. After four years, I’m still struggling with this.

photo via Google Maps

(8) Don’t be a fairweather fan. 

100% guilty of, most of the time, not being able to care less. Sorry, guys. Panthers, Hornets, Checkers, Knights, Hounds and Independence, this is my promise to you that I’ll try to stick with you through the good (12 and 0, what’s up?) and the bad.

Photo via Queen City Gear

(9) Love where I live.

No, I don’t mean love Charlotte (because I think I already should). I mean love where I lay my head at night. Find what’s unique about my neighborhood – hi, Cotswold! – and form an indestructible bond with it, the way Katie did with Plaza Midwood. Or, if I can’t do that, find things to lovingly question about it.

(10) Love where I live. 

Now I mean Charlotte. Love it, for the things it gets wrong and the things it does right, to the point that my friends aren’t sure if I’m talking about a city or a girlfriend.