I've never been one to make New Year's resolutions. There really should not by anything motivating about the calendar turning to another month. And yet, as we approach the turn from 2025 to 2026 and I look at the year where I hit the very middle of my mid-40s, I feel compelled to participate in this tradition. Perhaps I'm just old enough to recognize that we sometimes need a little external motivation for those destinations we'd like to reach, but for the journey.
Since a long list of resolutions would quickly become overwhelming, I have two that I am sending out into the ether.
Voice Training
Although it's fortunate that I've never had all that deep a voice, the one I have does not align with me. Being a bit of a chatterbox with moderate-to-high voice dysphoria is not the most comfortable of positions. While we all know that HRT does nothing for your voice, I think many of us (read: me) still hope that it will.
(Can't. Doesn't. Won't.)
It seems a bit unfair. HRT feels pretty magical in so many other ways, why shouldn't it? Because we can't have nice things. That's why. It's the same reason it doesn't take care of hair on your face: it just doesn't. So the only way through for most is expensive and painful electrolysis.
So 2026 will be the year that I actually get over my strong (strong) self-cringe and began making weird noises from the bedroom (keeeeeey oooooooooh heat from fire, fire from heat) and slowly stop sounding like I do.
The only way I'll ever reach my destination is by going on the journey.
Sewing
Kathleen is the sewist in the house. While she has many hobbies, it's her single main passion. I definitely benefit, of course, and many of the dresses I wear regularly are ones that she made. They always seem to draw the most (and most effusive) compliments. Although I admittedly appreciate it, I can take-or-leave the attention.
My main motivation is that my personal office style can be a little "I was young in the early 1960s": skirts with coordinated tights and a cardigan. Skirts in the styles I prefer are not so common off-the-rack these days outside of vintage reproduction brands.
Instead of searching for that right skirt and instead of asking Kathleen to spend her leisure time on clothes for me when she's electrified by much more ambitious projects, it's high time I learn to sew for myself!
We definitely have all of the equipment and machinery here in the apartment and I now have a big list of bookmarks for pattern companies who are great at helping beginners, so it's just to sit down and take that first step.
The only way I'll ever reach my destination is by going on the journey.
December 28, 2025