A year in review

Well, I'm sitting here looking at the snow and being a little annoyed that I just had to do one grad application over again, but now I'm going to take a short break and review the past year in all its glory and ridiculousness. 

In January, I had to come back to Provo early to start student teaching. I hated the last semester before it started, so I wasn't even remotely excited, and I was not super happy about coming back to my cold, empty apartment before anyone else was back. I spent the first two weeks observing and writing lesson plans, and then just got thrown into the whole thing. It was ultimately a good, if often traumatic, experience. 

I also started making plans to go back to England, and worked as a facilitator for the program in the preparation stages. I started on my journey to being the program's Google in human form, and I loved it. 

Whitney and I went to see a play in Cedar City called "Art," at some point early in the semester, and we started to discover that we were kindred spirits (a phrase I can us in reference to Whitney because she pretty much IS Anne Shirley). This was a good thing to discover, because Miri and Lili were making wedding preparations, and Jennie didn't want to hit all of the obscure movies at international cinema with me. 

In March, I was sick for pretty much the entire month. It was delightful trying to teach through the coughing. 

I graduated in April and started the discouraging process of applying for jobs. I drove down to Utah county several times and then had several phone calls telling me that I didn't get the job. By the time I went to London, I just had to tell myself not to worry about it.

London was great, and at some point the Google thing must have gone to my head, because I decided to look into the whole librarian thing. I managed to secure myself an internship as soon as I got back, and spent many happy months working in the Music and Dance library. I moved in with Whitney, and we got really lucky in the roommate department with Amanda and Torie. Lindsey moved back to Utah, Jennie got engaged, and Miri moved to Texas. I got a new nephew and am eagerly anticipating another. I finished out the year by changing my mind about doing an online MLS program and switching all of my applications to different schools in places where I wanted to go (which meant not so much the University of Alabama). 

I've been thinking about the strange course of this year a lot lately, because for so many years it felt like I knew exactly where I was heading (at least as far as the school to work continuum was concerned) and now I feel like I'm exploding in so many different directions that I don't even know what I want. I feel good about the grad school applications, but I'm scared to death, and I keep wondering where I'll actually be in September - if I'll really leave or if something completely different will come up. I suppose that should seem exciting, all of this uncertainty, but it's making me approach 2009 a little warily. I suppose that overall 2008 was pretty wonderful, and no matter what happens, my guess is that 2009 will be as well. I just wish I could see why now. 

In any case, bring it on. I can't stand the wait much longer.