New Year, Same Me

I walked to the health centre and back yesterday. Just a bit over one kilometre each way, but with the ankle surgery and all, it's more than I've done for weeks. I began feel like myself again: a woman who walks.

A new year, a new me? Perhaps not. I don't want to change into a new person. Learn new good habits: Yes. Change the way I think about some things: Yes, when necessary. Learn new skills: Yes.

But I'm not planning a major personality overhaul. It's not a "new me" - it's the same me, a middle-aged (gasp!) woman, with certain talents and strengths, as well as undeniable weaknesses. Most importantly, I am a woman beloved and redeemed by Jesus.
Jesus makes me free.
Besides, He has already made me a new creature.

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; 

the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

2 Corinthians 5:17

And as a woman freed by Jesus I don't need to make myself 'new' all over again. But I can be a woman who takes up new challenges without being deterred by fear of failure.

Challenge 1: I have decided to learn to type with ten fingers. Right now, I have a pretty fast system of 2-and-half fingers or so. Just consider, I've been typing for my living for almost half my life (translating), and before that, I used first a typewriter and then a computer for my university assignments. Still, I've never bothered to learn a proper typing system. It's high time to try.

Challenge 2: New computer skills. :) My son got a new computer and I set it up for him - though it was not very techie stuff. So what's the challenge? Short answer: the first time I've ever encountered Windows 8. Let's just say - it's going to take some getting used to.

As a side note: I've been using Windows computers since Windows 3.1, i.e. since the early 1990's, and I'm not completely helpless, non-techie as I am. I know that I'll get used to the navigation system of Windows 8, just as I have adapted to all the changes in between - Windows 95, NT, XP and so on... But it takes time to get to the point where using the new system becomes natural enough not to require extra effort.

Finally, Junior Bookworm got to try his computer. He was happily playing a game at the Lego site and suddenly he shouted: "Mummy, help!"

The screen was sideways. I have no clue how that happened. It's a laptop, not a tablet! This has never happened to me before.

Well, Junior Bookworm jumped from having-a-break mode to homeschool mode and did his maths assignment while I got a neckache, sitting at the computer with my head cocked to the right and trying to find and sort out the screen settings. I'm happy to report I succeeded at last.

New Year, same me. But open to new challenges, adventures, and changes. 

Probably there are even bigger changes ahead than just typing and computers. Deeper changes, too.

So, let's walk.