2011 - A year in review
Dec. 21st, 2011 04:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
persephone20I've been pondering the obligatory year in review post around work and... well, just work actually. Uni is finished for the year... maybe for longer. I've gotten both my thesis and my mark for Honours mailed back to me in the past week, and I've officially started lying that I haven't yet had either. Particularly to the in-laws who have all the high aspirations for me and knew my plans to go into PhD next year.
I'm couching the idea of 'taking a year off' next year like it was I choice I was allowed to make.
However, when I'm talking to people more broadly, when I'm looking over 2011 and comparing it to years most recently before it, I'm coming up with a whole lot of smiles. This year has been without drama, I say with confidence. This year has been happy, and positive, and wonderful. This conveniently forgets and leaves out the stress headaches, the crying at mid year over my first low mark (but not my last..) and all the other hurdles along the way.
But then, a friend of mine -- someone I didn't really know last year, but someone who has moved towards being one of my best friends over the course of this year -- wrote something in her year in review and I believe it's what I've been trying to say all along: It has not been a year without drama, but with that drama have come some rather astounding revelations.
Although it's a bit hard looking at the Honours year without seeing it as a bit of a waste of time right now, I've stopped obsessing about it and am starting to look up at the options surrounding me, options that have no doubt been all around me for the last couple of years when I've had my head down and bum up resolutely pouring over books in my uncompromising journey to the top of the academic mountain.
So, it's a good thing to have this opportunity to breathe and take stock of the rest of the world. It's even a good thing that it's something I've been forced into, as I clearly would not have done it if left to my own devices.
It's a good thing to have had the support of so many friends this year. I can, for the first time in years, say that none of the drama this year has been caused by anyone I hold close to my heart. In fact, I just have so much love for all of my close people that I can barely contain it as I type these words. You are all amazing.
And, in the balance, this year has been amazing.
I'm couching the idea of 'taking a year off' next year like it was I choice I was allowed to make.
However, when I'm talking to people more broadly, when I'm looking over 2011 and comparing it to years most recently before it, I'm coming up with a whole lot of smiles. This year has been without drama, I say with confidence. This year has been happy, and positive, and wonderful. This conveniently forgets and leaves out the stress headaches, the crying at mid year over my first low mark (but not my last..) and all the other hurdles along the way.
But then, a friend of mine -- someone I didn't really know last year, but someone who has moved towards being one of my best friends over the course of this year -- wrote something in her year in review and I believe it's what I've been trying to say all along: It has not been a year without drama, but with that drama have come some rather astounding revelations.
Although it's a bit hard looking at the Honours year without seeing it as a bit of a waste of time right now, I've stopped obsessing about it and am starting to look up at the options surrounding me, options that have no doubt been all around me for the last couple of years when I've had my head down and bum up resolutely pouring over books in my uncompromising journey to the top of the academic mountain.
So, it's a good thing to have this opportunity to breathe and take stock of the rest of the world. It's even a good thing that it's something I've been forced into, as I clearly would not have done it if left to my own devices.
It's a good thing to have had the support of so many friends this year. I can, for the first time in years, say that none of the drama this year has been caused by anyone I hold close to my heart. In fact, I just have so much love for all of my close people that I can barely contain it as I type these words. You are all amazing.
And, in the balance, this year has been amazing.
