2010: Moving and Shaking, Learning and Mistaking

It's New Years Eve, and it is blizzarding out, so I suppose it would be appropriate for me to reflect on the past year. Here goes:

2010 was a year of moving and shaking. I had a total of five addresses and began to consider a career change to become a professional gypsy. I moved with the seasons and with changing freedoms and responsibilities first living in a murder house in Vermillion, then to a Lawrence, KS house on Maine St., then my Watertown family home, then my aunt's windowless basement bedroom, then the cinderblock castle apartment with KS, and finally I'm here at my Watertown family home for a few more weeks until NYC. 2010 taught me the importance of efficient and organized packing (and unpacking), and by the end of it all, I think all the little moves and little goodbyes have helped lead up to my biggest move and my biggest goodbye of all.

There was also a whole lotta shaking going on in 2010. I got all shook up at the Char Bar once or twice, and Club David, and Dempsey's, and some other unknown establishments in Lincoln, Omaha, and Sioux Falls throughout the year, and I hope that continues in 2011! Some unexpected events and losses shook me up this year too. My grandparents lost their farm to a flooding lake nearby, and I had to prematurely say goodbye to a great friend and artist. 2011 will definitely miss the presence of such a beautiful life.

I took some risks in 2010, made some mistakes, and surprised myself too. I kissed some toads, and reconnected with some princes, but by the end of the year, my NYE kiss will be placed on my forehead by my mother. I love her, but I hope it's not a forecast of my love life to come. :)

This year, I watched as the BP oil spill stained our earth and as the job market continued to pain our unemployed, and I grew disillusioned by the way that things were working out in our world. But then I watched the Chilean miners come up from a dark, narrow tunnel where they had been trapped for months, and I saw as their wives and children got their husbands and their dads back. It made me forget about all the hopelessness in the world and remember that sometimes we really do get second chances.

Between last year and this year, I taught 2 more semesters of freshman English and managed to pull of the ESL Summer Institute at USD, which was an incredible experience that taught me so much and left me with some great friends. I read some books, wrote some papers, and somehow managed to stay sane through the two most academically strenuous and personally difficult years of my life. I graduated!

My friends had big years too! You got engaged and married; you graduated and got jobs; you got closer to what you are looking for, even if you haven't quite reached the destination. You laughed and cried with me, partied and prayed with me, went out and stayed in with me. You traveled and learned and moved and grew. And I'm so happy for all of you!

I learned a lot in 2010. I learned that changing a tire on an SUV is considerably more difficult than on a car, and that paying for gas to visit friends is a cost that is essential and needs to be budgeted for always. I learned that if I wear my glasses and pull half of my hair back, I will be called Sarah Palin. I learned that there is a strong possibility that there is someone for everyone. I learned that sometimes a girl just needs to take a break and get away, and that's ok. And most of all, I learned that "you can't always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need! aaaaahhh, yeah!" 

All in all, it was a pretty good year. Thank you for reading and following!! I hope you have a blessed new year (and that you get a real NYE kiss)!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Let July be July