Hello Me, meet Me One Year Later.

As of today, I've been doing this Day Zero project for one year. I've got almost 90 posts made, 33 tasks completed and 23 started, enough to make over 50% done or in progress. It's only been one year, but to look back on who I was when I started and who I am now, the difference is striking.

One year ago, I rarely talked to my father, maybe once a month, and my grandparents only got calls on holidays. Then I started the tasks to call them more often. Today, our calls don't last that long, maybe 5 minutes, but every time I call, both my dad and my grandparents tell me how much they appreciate the frequent calls. When I called an extra time to talk to my Grandma's sister who was visiting on an off-week for their call, she said over email later that Grandma's face had lit up when she said it was me on the phone. It's something that takes 5 to 10 minutes a week, and it makes them all happy. I wish it were easier to see them, but FL is so far away, and my days off are so limited. Maybe sometime in the fall DH and I will make a trip down there to see them again.

One year ago, I would never have tried any foods anyone offered me if I 1) didn't know what it was or 2) wasn't interested in trying it. Then I started the cooking task and the trying new food task. Today, my tastes have been expanded considerably. I'm now in love with shrimp, of all sizes! This time last year, you wouldn't get me to eat anything larger than popcorn or salad. Now I'm happily eating any size. I've had three types of hummus and figured out what I did and didn't like about each. I've tried a lot of foods I wouldn't have before, and I'm open to trying more. Am I going to go out on a limb and order something not knowing if I like it or not? Probably not, but if someone offers me a bite, I won't say no (as long as it's not, like, Rocky Mountain Oysters or cow brains or something. We are NOT to that point yet.)

One year ago, I would never have tried baking anything from scratch or cooked anything complicated. Cookies, cakes, brownies, box mixes were fine for dessert. Heck, anything from a box made a fine enough dish for me. Today, I'm making flour and chocolate powder messes in the kitchen, leaving two or three medium to large bowls in the sink just to make a few dozen cookies. I'm juggling three or four pots on the stove and two things in the oven to make one meal, hoping they all finish up around the same time. Our mealtime list has probably doubled, and hopefully soon it's going to get even bigger. And I'm loving it. I hate the mess it leaves, but that mess makes me feel so much more...adult.

One year ago, getting back into writing was a "maybe someday". I hadn't gotten an idea for a story in years, and I'd lost touch with all my writing friends. The I decided to take on the NaNoWriMo task. Today, it's been "someday" for over six months. I've got an email file filled with 9 or 10 different story ideas, all new, to the point where I don't know which one to work on next. I've made new writing friends, people at the same place in life as me with the same dreams and aspirations as me, people who inspire me to keep writing with them, who fill out the incomplete ideas in my head and help me make a story out of a dream. I hope that with them, we can all make our dreams into reality.

In this past year I've learned that throwing a party and ice skating wear you out just as much as cleaning your house; that I'm a decent photographer with an eye for a shot; that I can actually live without television; that plans will not always work out exactly as anticipated and that it's okay to change them.

All in all, I've done a lot of growing and changing this past year, things I wouldn't have done without the list. There are a few things on it I know I won't be able to finish and may have to revamp them, and some stuff that maybe I won't really want to do anymore, but I'm going to do everything I can. If 50 tasks have made me grow this much in one year, how much more will I grow over the next 51?