My New Years Resolution

My husband is cooking grilled chicken with Italian seasonings and garlic bread (he just brought up a small plate of bread to tide me over). He's told me to "blog fast because dinner is almost ready." So I'll type fast.
On New Years Day 2004, I made a resolution to write every day and to finish a short story and book proposal. Needless to say, I fell a bit short on all three. I managed to write in my journal a few times a week. I started 3-4 short stories. And I came up with a book idea. But I never finished any of my stories, nor did I write up a book proposal (or write every day). I didn't fulfill my goals.
This year, I've tried a different approach. I realized last year that without fulfilling this 'resolution,' I wouldn't be able to reach my other goals. This year I want to find my voice (hence, the title of this blog). So I started this blog as a means to do that. It's not a typical blog. There aren't many links. I don't have a single subject on which I write (unlike my husband, who writes about life in New York; or my foodie friend, aka VittlesVamp, or my freelancing friend, Noah, who blogs about defense technology).
But I hope that will change by the end of this year. I look at it this way. When I first went into journalism in the mid-1990s, I was a general assignment ("GA") reporter, meaning I covered everything from city council meetings to school funding inequities to spousal abuse. It took me a half-dozen years or more to figure out which stories I most enjoyed writing (typically they fall into one of these categories: health, arts, lifestyle trends, or consumer issues). I still haven't found my niche in journalism. And I'm still searching for my 'voice' as a fiction writer.
So my hope is that, if I write every day (or nearly every day) in this space--thanks to the total lack of restraints that come with it--I will eventually discern a pattern in my writing and a tendency to write about certain topics. And that will help me figure out what it is I'm meant to write about. Where my talents and interests converge.
I realize that finding my voice (or "unique personal significance," as Stephen Covey writes about in "The 8th Habit," which I had to read and review for work) is not the same as finding my niche at work. But there are similarities. As I write, and review my postings, I hope that the answers to both will emerge.
One reason I moved to NYC was to escape the stereotypes that had followed me throughout my suburban existence. When I was a sophomore in high school, my parents had a tendency to describe me as the "social sister" (while my sister was the "smart one"). And I did my best (perhaps, subconsciously) to live up to that label. It wasn't my parents' fault. They were just observant. It was more important to me to be in the 'in' crowd than in the National Honor Society in high school. I pledged a sorority my first semester in college, and got the lowest GPA of my college career. It took me several more years to realize I could be both social and smart. And when I look back now, I realize I was. I was the highest ranked girl in my grade in high school. I was voted "Most Likely to Succeed." I graduated Magna Cum Laude with honors from college.
But it is only now -- ten years after I left college -- that I am beginning to embrace that side of me. I just wish I'd done it sooner.