2010 Blogswap: Action!

I am a member of 20-something bloggers and every year there is a blogswap...when two bloggers post on each other's page. The following post is from JUSTIN BARLOW. Check him out at: http://rroarm.com and http://www.justin-barlow.com.
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On the 20-something bloggers website, we were given a prompt as part of a 'blog swap' idea. The prompt was to write about action, and what we're going to do in 2011 that we've been putting off for a while. It took some time for me to think about it, but I've decided what I'm going to do.

I'm going to (finally) live for myself, for a while.

At the end of 2008, my stepdad passed and left his estate in turmoil due to the machinations of his greedy family. When January 2009 came around two months later, I broke the lease on the nice studio apartment I was living at, and moved in with my mother, into the house my stepdad had owned, to support her emotionally and financially. Since then I've spent every dime I had, depleting my account and ended up living from paycheck to paycheck, to keep the bills up to date and food on the table. At 24, I've become the patriarch, the provider, setting aside a lot of things that I wanted to do so that I could put the money where it needed to go.

In 2011, I'm going to do my best to live a little bit more for myself. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to afford the trip I want to take in April, for a convention with two of my friends (followed by a concert in New York City before I come home), but I decided that I'm going to MAKE it work. I've been sinking into Depression, and could use a Big Change, so I'm making that happen. I'm going to the east coast for a couple weeks, and I'm going to have a hell of a time with some awesome people.

I'm hoping for another change in 2011, but I won't know for a couple of days yet if that is a certainty. I've been working for the same company for over four years now, barely being paid a dollar above minimum wage, and essentially being shit-on by my work. I get passed over for promotions in favor of people who just started, I get no benefits, and I keep getting scheduled for shifts that my boss KNOWS are very hard for me to get to. Tomorrow (Tuesday), I've got an interview at another, better job. The pay-per-hour is better, and it's day shift from Monday through Friday. I've been working for the same place for four years now, and feel like a Change is needed, so it would be amazing to get this job in time for the start of the new year.

Combine that with the fact that I'm very close to making money from my blog, and that I'm working on my first novel, and 2011 is shaping up to be a good year. If everything works out, I'll have a new job, more time to pursue my passion (writing), and I'll be doing something FUN rather than passing it up to be The Responsible One. That is my plan of action for 2011, and what I'm going to be doing that I've put off for too long: changing my life.