Month-in-Review Highlights: September 2022

Leslie in front of event posters at the Festival America in Vincennes, France. September 24, 2022.

I postmortem each month shortly after it ends, reflecting on what happened in general and, more specifically, in the context of my goals. Though I don’t share all my insights here, I have made it a practice to share at least one key highlight or insight. (To read previous months’ reviews, click here.)

Closed out Q3 well—and here we go into Q4!

Though I still need to push hard to make several of my 2022 objectives happen before the end of the year, I feel on track with the biggest and most important of the set, which energizes me. The goals that I will not meet this year—as clearly evidenced by my progress or lack thereof toward achieving them—don’t have priority billing.

All in all, then: Good stuff.

As for highlights for this month, well, I made progress on several levels, but I’ll focus on two.

I had “build a community of authors and writers” on my goals list for the year, as well as getting back into the literary mix with events, conferences, seminars, and the like. In September, I had the incredibly good fortune to go to the Festival America in Vincennes, just outside of Paris, and to participate in two of the literary festival’s four days as much as possible. I luxuriated in the infusion of literary culture, being with other literary nerds, hearing authors I admire discuss their work and writing, and having the incredibly good fortune to speak with a few of them.

As I’ve mentioned in previous monthly postmortems, I had a goal for 2022 to use my French in the wild more, including building connections with francophones. In September, I continued my all-in-French volunteering work with the Red Cross in Vaud (my part of Switzerland), got much more active with a group I joined of French-speaking people (some of whom speak English, but with whom all events happen in French), and joined a new acquaintance (who speaks only French) for a food event here in Lausanne.

The month also brought connections with friends new and long-standing (I won’t say “old,” because never that), which warmed heart and spirit. Friendships, relationships, deep connections—over and over again, I realize how much they matter.