2020 Inspirational Poem: I will be a Narwhal

2019 was an interesting year. Minnesota interesting, which means, for those of you from Not-Minnesota, something not necessarily good that makes you think and might give concern. Many good things happened, and many interesting things happened. From my tiny corner of the earth, humanity appeared in upheaval. I found myself asking from a world-view and daily-view, "which way is up?" Upon reflecting on my 2019, I think I spent the year like an ostrich. My head buried in the sand or peering around with bewildered eyes ready to run away with my useless wings spread and trailing behind me. I deliberately avoided the news. I spent countless hours with my nose in a book consuming fictional worlds with no bearing on my reality. I followed every whim and spread myself more thinly so on occasion I showed up with only a sliver of my presence and attention. According to my amazon kindle account, I read over 250 fictional books in 2019. For someone who was going to read only 4 books-for-pleasure a month in 2019, that's a spectacular fall off the wagon.  It was my F.A.I.L....my first attempt at learning. Good thing I have a new year coming.
 
My commitment to being uninformed and avoiding reality meant I kept my aspirations out of sight. I remember going into 2019 thinking about focus. I did not focus. I reeled and bobbed and swirled around to wherever the currents flowed. Through that confluence, I have come through to the other side with a clearer vision to 2020. I now have a picture of the waters I'm swimming towards.
 
In 2020, I'll be starting my second stint in graduate school. This time going for my graduate degree in Business Administration. I'll be abstaining completely from reading for pleasure and I'm coming back to some of the habits I created in 2018 and then let go in my year of "focus". I'm going to do another year of poetry. 2020 feels auspicious and a daily recording of my life through poems can only heighten the grandeur. Poetry provides me a lot of clarity and reflection. I took this year's goal-setting as an opportunity to ground my dreams in poetry.
 
I've been reading a lot about narwhals. They have been popping up in my social media feeds and so I followed the rabbit hole to national geographic and wildspeak.com and worldwildlife.org and I can summarize. Narwhals are amazing. I think they are the perfect animal for me to reflect on to center myself towards 2020. And without further ado, my 2020 goal poem "I Will Be a Narwhal."