The Year My Life Changed

New Year's Eve is almost always the same for me.  I stay in with family watching movies in my pajamas until midnight, when we watch the ball drop.  I make a resolution that I am going to take some sort of action that will change the things in my life that make me unhappy.  Very few years have actually brought about the kind of change I sought.  Especially since graduating from college, I spent the days between New Year celebrations drifting along in haze of good intentions without a call to action.  

Last New Year's Eve was no different, expect that perhaps I was more desperate for change than ever before.  I once again promised myself that I would find what was missing and fix what was broken in my life, but I doubted that anything would come of it.  In the back of my mind, I still believed that I would remain terribly horribly the same.  Thank God, I was wrong.

The first indication that this year would be different appeared less than a week after New Years in the form of a Facebook message.  My darling friend invited me to go to Singapore with her.  That moment began a year full of so many wonderful (and bittersweet) changes and experiences.  This year I:

-saw the Pacific Ocean

-visited Asia (Singapore and Bali, to be exact)

-fed a monkey that was sitting on my shoulder

-left my first full-time job

-left the city where I lived since my second year of college

-moved back in with my parents

-watched my sister graduate with a bachelors and masters degree from UVA

-went on a Caribbean cruise

-started a business    

-worked as a semi-professional tech consultant

I won't try to fit a year's worth of emotion into a single blog post like a really bad Christmas card letter, but I would like to express my deep gratitude to everyone who had a part in making this such an amazing year.  To my all of my friends and family who helped me through the chaos, thank you for everything.  You gave me shelter when I was homeless, shared your wisdom when I didn't know what to do, supported me when I had to make difficult decisions, and encouraged me to take a leap of faith.  May 2011 return to you all of the blessings you've given to me.  Happy New Year!