Resolutions are a balancing act. If you aim too high, you can fall off a promise to yourself very, very quickly. If you disregard change, you can stay stagnant. For this article, we asked some members of LEO’s staff — and some community members — to share their New Year’s resolutions, or, just simply, what they want to accomplish this year. 

Erica Rucker 

LEO A&E Editor
New Year….

Yes, I want world peace and the end of food insecurity and itchy assholes for all racist dirtbags but most of all, I think I want to be present… not for the above, but for myself. 

It is tough as a person with intense anxiety — and likely some latent trauma waiting to jump out and kick me in the face — to be fully present in my daily life. I have moments where I’m really tuned in and comfortable, but sometimes when I’m in the midst of living this new modern paradigm of mothering, working and dodging the pandemonium that COVID has become, I just check out. Physically, I’m doing my job, talking to my kid, making dinners and saying the sparse ‘mmhmm’ to my husband on the occasions that we have a conversation, but mentally, I’m either drawing a complete blank or dissociating myself to a life where there is no COVID, no obligations and the ability to catch a plane to somewhere far away is just a matter of buying the ticket. 

OK, you too? 

I know that I’m not the only one. It’s a thing, a survival tactic in the midst of living through trauma. This pandemic has fucked us all up. We’re so much weirder than we were in January 2020. 

Now hear me out: it’s not all bad, the weirdness or even the dissociation. We’ve figured out a few things that capitalism tried to hide from us, and now we can demand the working conditions we want and need (don’t sleep on this one), do the jobs at home better than in an office and have the time to let our little brains wander away from the present where sickness is the only thing we seem to talk about. So, I guess my resolution is to be kind to myself, make space for my brain to take a leave of absence and just roll with this new year, hoping for many more years to come. 

Daniel Pfalzgraf

Owner of Wheelhouse Art
These past couple of years have been nothing if not inspiring for improving our lives and living situations. In 2020, I focused on taking care of my body better. 2021 was about focusing on my professional life, finally fulfilling a personal dream to own my own gallery. On New Year’s of 2022, we reached our one-year anniversary with WheelHouse Art. Business was great, and we were able to accomplish more than expected in a year’s time. Now that we have business operations set up and chugging along, my resolution for 2022 is to do more to empower, support and grow value. My first resolution is to work with my staff so they can take over several jobs that I am currently doing so their roles grow and I can focus on more of the things to continue growing the business. My second resolution is to learn more of the work the staff does here that I haven’t done much of. I want to support them better by stepping in to help if someone needs time off without feeling like things will fall to pieces while they are away. Lastly, I want to spend more time marketing Louisville and Kentucky artists outside of our area. I want to build more value for artists and the collectors that have supported them.

Carolyn Brown 

LEO Staff Writer / Photographer
Before I worked for LEO, even as an intern, I was always deeply tied to the world of live entertainment. Photographing shows –– or, really, working around them in any capacity –– has always been one of the things that makes me happiest. 

But, of course, live entertainment took a forced hiatus in 2020, and none of us knew how long the pause would be. At the start of 2021, I was prepared to spend another long year without concerts. 

But last year, I saw 40 of them. 

At venues large and small, in crowds of 20 and 20,000, I saw 54 artists perform. Many of the groups were new to me; some of them I only knew of because of ads on Instagram. 

(By the way: bands, please send me your demos. My inbox is always open.) 

My sheltered teenage self’s need to be A Concertgoing Person was part of the impetus for all of this show-seeing. Now that I’m able to drive myself places and buy my own tickets, I do, as often as possible. It’s rare anymore that I spend a weekend fully at home –– and, yes, I always mask up. 

My resolution for 2022 is to beat last year’s record: I want to go to even more concerts and discover as many new musicians and songs as I can.

Rep. John Yarmuth 

U.S. Congressman Of District 3 In Kentucky
My New Year’s resolution is to keep fighting like hell so I don’t have to spend the entirety of my retirement apologizing to my grandkids for letting Republicans destroy their democracy and their planet. We’ve only got a limited amount of time to get this right, and I plan to use every moment I have left in elected office pursuing policies that put our future first.

Fred Johnson 

Teacher At Jefferson County Public Schools
I turned 60 this year. While that number is the new 40 for some folk, it’s the new 12 for me. It must be, simply as a matter of survival. I’m a relatively new seventh grade teacher, coming to Jefferson County Public Schools as a second career. I retired from the Army after 30 years and several combat deployments. I thought being an educator would be a breeze, but that was tragically optimistic. While teaching is not like combat, it can be harder than combat, especially during a full moon, on Friday the 13th, the day after Halloween when the kids are spinning in circles with a sugar buzz that makes the Tasmanian Devil look like Eeyore. I had one student put sharpened pencils in his nose, eraser-end in each nostriland charge at me snorting like a bull. I matadored him and he ran straight into the wall 100 feet down the hall, was knocked to the floor and got up laughing, pencil horns still intact. So, my New Year’s resolution is to relearn how to think like a preadolescent. I don’t want to act like one (even though my wife says I already do). Rather, I want to know what was in my young bull’s mind when he put those pencils in his nose and charged me like we were in the streets of Pamplona. I think to understand him is to better appreciate the world and how we can lose our way and find it again, bouncing off walls.

Scott Recker 

LEO Managing Editor
I usually say that I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions, that they’re empty promises that bust by February, a momentary counterbalance to the gluttony of the holidays. But, I’m going to lean in this time. This year, I want to want to make good on something I always say I’m going to do, but constantly push back: I want to find somewhere to volunteer. I’m not sure where, or doing what, but the last two years have caused people so much pain and suffering that it’s time to move forward on it.