ARIELLE BREEN: From sorting water bugs to walking in the cold, here's how I want to help in 2022
Arielle Breen, Manistee News Advocate
Dec. 28, 2021 Updated: Jan. 10, 2022 4:19 p.m.
Arielle Breen
(From left) Laurie Blevins, Candace Owens, Tyler Dula and Kendra Pollard prepare for the 2020 Walk for Warmth, a fundraiser intended to support families struggling with heating costs in winter. One of Manistee News Advocate assistant editor Arielle Breen's goals for 2022 is to participate in the annual event.
I'm always surprised when I hear people say they don't do resolutions for the new year.
I don't know their reasons, but I like them. I'm not intimidated by resolutions; to me they are simply goals. And making them clearer whether in a list or journal or whatever is one step on the path to reaching said goals.
But it's also important to remember that they can be altered as needed when your life or interests flux, or be nixed altogether if we find they are not useful for what we want to accomplish.
We can also add new ones all the time, but the new year is really a great time to take a refreshed look at what your hopes for the future are and break them into sizeable chunks.
For example, in 2022, I want to do at least one volunteer opportunity per month.This year I started working toward that in a noncohesive way, just picking up opportunities on a whim here and there — but next year I'd like to make a concerted effort to do this on a frequent basis.
This year I came across so many great events and efforts while reporting that I would say to myself, "I need to help out with this next year!" So I started squirreling away a list. I mean, how many times have we done that before? I don't know how many times I have stumbled on something I knew I'd want to attend or help with, only to forget about it until it's too late and it's in the midst of happening.
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Looking at the year in its monthly pieces helps me to get to be where I'm hoping to end up. These 12 months worth of volunteering in 2022 aren't just a slapdash way to give service to my community, they are specifically chosen for purposes that are meaningful to me and my history.
Whether it's things I'm personally familiar with like food, warmth and housing instability or something I love like environmental research while getting my hands dirty — part of this goal includes mission-oriented, hands-on endeavors.
I am finishing up the memoir "Between Two Kingdoms" by Suleika Jaouad. One piece in her journey that I really appreciated was that even when she was unable to get out of the hospital and interact in person with people due to her leukemia, she did a 100 day challenge of doing something creative each day.
She didn't do this alone either and I think that is a key reason why I love those frequent challenges like the 52 Hikes Challenge where you and a whole group of people are all working separately toward your own goals in a similar way through bite-sized portions like vowing to walk even a little once a week, or simply sit down for 10 minutes a day and write or draw.
Here's a taste of the activities I am hoping to tackle in 2022 both in my 12-month challenge and just in general:
• Participate in Walk for Warmth in February;
• Get out and ice fish at least twice;
• Do the 52 Hikes Challenge adventure version and try for an Upper Peninsula waterfall instead of a Lower Peninsula one as an entry in the challenge;
• Backpack at Nordhouse Dunes and the Manistee River Trail on non-peak season days;
• Read 32 books, just up a few from this year's goal;
• Do more invasive species pull events like the garlic mustard pull at Magoon Creek;
• Definitely do some more stream monitoring events looking for macroinvertebrates in the Little Manistee River;
• Help out with the Bette Naffie Thanksgiving dinner;
• Cut out nonessential meal spending — that means no eating out except for special occasions with friends; and
• Seek out and prep for my next level of certification of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test.
What are you hoping to tackle in 2022?
Arielle Breen is the assistant editor for the Manistee News Advocate. She can be reached at arielle.breen@pioneergroup.com or by leaving a message at 231-398-3109.
I mainly grew up in Gladwin, but have moved around living in other states and even in Japan for a time. I attended Mid Michigan Community College and Central Michigan University where I studied journalism, cultural anthropology and Japanese language and culture. I have won a list of Michigan Press Association awards in categories like investigative enterprise reporting, as well as other journalistic awards such as the Inland Press Association Newsroom Contest award for my contextual coverage of Great Lakes drownings, and was a top-20 winner of the Hearst Radio Competition's collegiate category. Prior to the News Advocate, I was the editor in chief and a reporter for the Gaylord Herald Times, a reporter for CMU Public Radio, a reporter for CM-Life newspaper and the Laker Current.