I've figured it out

For me, 2012 started a few days early. I had a nice long vacation where I had a lot of time to plant some seeds for thought. A few weeks later, those seeds have made their way deep into what I can only hope to be a bed of fertile soil and not some soggy mess in the corner of my mind.

While I returned home to Rio Rancho for the holidays, with my boyfriend Luke in tow, I couldn't help but think about whether I am supposed to return to New Mexico in my near future or if there really is somewhere else I need to be. Having moved around a few times and lived in almost all of the nation's time zones in my adult life, I am used to uprooting my life and moving onto something else. I avoid saying better, because who really knows if that is ever the case.

Moving to Victoria has been a wild adventure. It has been a roller coaster ride with loops and dips and those nosedives that put your stomach in your throat and I still haven't come to a stop yet. I'm strapped in and I am making the most of it. The question is, where does it end? Or does it. I was reading this post, that Luke emailed me and it got me thinking.

At the end of his post, the author asks readers, how are you going to change the world? And I thought to myself, do I have to? Do I have to change the world? It got me thinking about what the things I am passionate about, and I started scribbling things down on paper.

What do I love? Food! Duh.

But what about it? I love everything about it. I love to learn about where it comes from, how it's produced, who eats it. I ask questions about why people eat, why is it packaged that way, what are the beliefs that go hand-and-hand with that food, etc. I love food.

Than it hit me. This is what I wrote.

I want to work with food. I want to feed hungry people healthy food. I want them to have happy memories about food and forget about being hungry. I want to solve some problems about food supplies, child obesity and misinformation. Children should know where food comes from and how to make good eating decisions. I'm going to become a member of a community garden. I am going to educate kids about healthy, but tasty food. I want to share my love of food with other people.

I know it sounds like a lot, but I think I can do it starting with babe steps. I think the first thing to do, is to start my own garden and learn what it takes to feed myself on a budget and make health food choices. I hope I can do it. I know there'll be more loops and turns, but I'm already strapped in. If the ride stops, I can get back in line and do it all over again, right?

Cheers to 2012

I hope I can beat last year's record of only three posts. Really? That is horrible. I haven't even made it to the 50 posts mark yet.

Alas, this is a new year, and as most people do when the ball drops in Times Square, we pledge to make a change in our habits – whether they be to improve good ones or to abolish the bad ones. I, Jessica Rodrigo, make this pledge on this day of Sunday, Jan. 1, 2012, to write an entry on my blog at least once a week. I think I can do that. And if I don't then I challenge you, whoever you might be, to jump on my back about it. Send me a topic, at my email address, jess.rodrigo.26@gmail.com, or those that have my cell phone number, text me ideas. I would be more than glad to write about them. No topic is too taboo.

So, here is to 2012.

P.S. This doesn't count as number one, either.