2010: An Odyssey (not in space, though)

I woke up this morning to a wonderful new-year themed Facebook note written by my friend Erin. In the note, she referred to the year 2009 as the year of transitions. This particularly resonated with me. It has been a difficult year for many people, whether due to the economy or more personal reasons. For myself, the idea of a transition year brings comfort because my troubles become reduced to the simple growing pains of change and growth. The negative aspects of 2009 have caused me to make the mistake of forgetting the positive. I believe it will help me to remember my year.

2009 has flown by. I started it working as a third grade teacher in Baltimore, living with two very close friends in Hampden. In June, following the end of the school year, I moved almost 3000 miles across the country to San Diego, California. For the better part of a year, I had been involved in a serious, long-distance relationship with my girlfriend Laura. I moved to be with her.

I remember getting the news that there was a hiring freeze for San Diego teachers. It was April, two months before my move. I was very unhappy about it, but not surprised, considering the state of the economy--particularly in California. Thankfully, my former administration gave me the recommendations I needed to land a job training teachers in technology-curriculum integration. It is a fantastic job and almost perfect, but I am contacted and work can be scarce.

Still, October and the first part of November were just busy enough to pay my bills. That makes me luckier than some. It's really been the last two months that have caused me to lose sight of the positive. Not having work or friends has provided many days of sitting alone and feeling hopeless. Add to this the death of my little dog Ratchett and the feelings of despair become amplified to the point of distortion, which is really what I need to take from all of this. My negative outlook is distorted, lacking proper perspective.

This blog is intended to help me gain that perspective, and I am filled with gratitude for anybody who takes the time to read or send me an email about it. In the meantime, I will try to remember something that happened on February. I was visiting Laura in San Diego, with a late Sunday flight scheduled to get me back in time for work. When the time came to fly back, I learned that school was going to be closed due to inclement weather. I was hoping that my flight would be canceled or delayed because I didn't want to leave my girlfriend.

As it turned out, my flight status was unchanged, but I decided to change it anyway--even though it was an extra charge of 175 dollars. All for a single extra day that we spent lounging around and going to get dinner at Shakespeare's Pub. It was perfect, though, and an excellent memory. From the dread 2009. So yeah. Life has some pretty great things to offer. I hope 2010 is filled with great things for all of you.

Happy New Year, friends!