I've decided to close out the 33 lessons from 33 years of life leading up to my 33rd birthday with 2 lessons that I have high hopes for in 2023.
Hometown is loving where you're from and where you're at.
Whether big or small, where you grew up is a fundamental part of who you are. While I don't plan on moving back any time soon, I have a deep appreciation for the edge of the pine woods I started making memories in.
I acknowledge not everyone has the same fond experience for their own hometown and hope that even your negative experiences can be converted into positive, creative energy.
Hometown is life expressed via community.
Being grateful for its skyscrapers and cemeteries.
I haven't lived in many different places, so there may be some places much better than where I am, but I tend to believe the grass is greenest where you water it.
On this New Years Eve-'Earl', (as my mom likes to call the day before the eve of a holiday) I'm reflecting on 2023 and thinking about my goals for next year.
One of them is to take more meaningful actions in the service of my Longview community. Living here for over a year, completing Leadership Longview and our class project at New Gate Mission, and recently purchasing a home has inspired greater meaning to what it means to Grow Roots and Level Up.
So as I take inventory of all I am and all I'm not, consider the company I keep, I'm creating an objective.
In 2023, I resolved to start Hometown Heroism.
I'll break down what I mean by Heroism tomorrow, in the 33rd Life Lesson (🥳!) and further explain this evolution of what I understand to be a part of my purpose, and how I plan to make it manifest moving forward.
The writing process helps clarify and build the idea, so here's a first draft:
I envision a podcast/newsletter/resource for people and organizations doing things that create pride in a hometown, serve others, and exemplify virtuous leadership
A part of the fun of having a birthday on New Years Eve is that the anticipation everyone feels about the holiday fuels the enthusiasm! There's always a party on my birthday and I never have to host it! 😆
But it also makes the end of a calendar year and a birth year the grand beginning of a new one, and everyone in town is invited.
I'm excited to start and develop the conversation about how communities can encourage, enrich, and empower each other throughout 2023.
Are you in? Have questions? Let's hear it!
