It’s that time of the year again, when we reflect on the year ending and the ways we can improve in the new year before us.
What are our goals, and what can we do in the new year to achieve them? Do we need to break bad habits or create new, better ones? In most cases — including my own — it’s a little of both.
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I want to break bad eating habits and renew my efforts toward a healthier, more active lifestyle. I want to get the family finances in better order. I want to be better organized in most areas of my life, from getting my column in early (heck, my editor would probably settle for “on time”) to cleaning out the garage to better balancing my family/work/church responsibilities with ample shots of relaxation and rejuvenation.
More specifically, in 2018, I resolve to:
*Keep plenty of gas in my car’s tank.
*Go sledding in Rotary Park.
*Find a faster, less congested, more direct route between my home on Naperville’s northeastern border to the businesses on Route 59. (Does such a thing exist? Readers, help me out!).
*Go to a parade in Naperville.
*Avoid the discomfort and inconvenience of losing any more nonessential, nonfunctioning organs (I don’t miss you at all, gall bladder!). Should that prove impossible, I resolve to return to Edward Hospital for any future emergency room trips or surgeries. Without exception, everyone there was kind, highly skilled and extremely reassuring.
*Shop local more often.
*Find a way to appear in the next Matt Bray dance video (or do something else that frightens but also exhilarates me).
*Celebrate with my congregation at Community United Methodist Church the end of a long-delayed, much-debated expansion and renovation to our 100-year-old building — and to welcome more people to wonderful, helpful, meaningful events there.
*To say “thank you” to someone every day — and really mean it.
*To be a better member of the community, someone who pays attention and thus has a say in issues that matter to me.
And speaking of our community, I took the liberty of making a few resolutions for Naperville as well:
*Figure out what to do with the old Nichols Library building, which the Naperville City Council voted to landmark. Now we’re discovering (as a wise Naperville Sun columnist sadly predicted) we don’t know what to do with it.
The current owners can’t build the project they proposed because of the landmark restrictions and say they can’t afford to fix the structure’s many problems or move it to another site. The local historical museum says the building doesn’t really fit on its campus, plus it’s unclear whether the city’s bridges could hold the building’s weight during a move.
The group that pushed for it to be a landmark is now entertaining proposals on how it could be put to community use, but neither they nor the City Council can buy the building or afford rehabilitation or renovations.
We’d better come up with a workable proposal somewhat soon or the former library will just continue to decay right in the middle of our downtown. (I’d say I told you so, but that would violate my resolution to be a better person in 2018.)
Come up with a plan to decommission Moser Tower and take apart the Millennium Carillon before the project that was met mostly with apathy 20 years ago becomes so much a part of the community that we don’t dare tear it down for its historical significance.
Find a new use for the old Kmart building on Ogden Avenue. It’s been vacant way too long.
Keep talking about the scourge of teen suicide in our community and find a way to come together to prevent it. The work of the school district and parents groups in Naperville has been very encouraging.
Get involved on the ground floor of issues that concern you (such as the public engagement process now under way for the Fifth Avenue project, a proposed development of eight city parcels on 13 acres near the Metra train station).
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Do you have ideas for 2018 resolutions for the city? For the Naperville Sun? For me? Share them with me and let’s hash them out so next December no one feels the need to start with the, “I told you so’s.”
Susan Keaton is a freelance writer for the Naperville Sun. She resolves to read your emails sent to [email protected].