Every year, I have plans to write retrospectives, and things always get away from me. Here it is almost 2010, and I have written nothing.
2009 was a tough one, a tough one that started out especially tough. I remember last January being particularly hard — walking in through the cold to school. Things began to turn around after I passed my driving test: Gary, my friend the photograph who's doing his PhD in Geography, came over and we drank beer and talked for a couple of hours. After that, things changed in small ways, but it was that night that it started to get better.
Mei was born, of course, in May. This was certainly the highlight. She came so quickly.
I got to the Louvre. I got to the van Gogh museum. I was in the UK, the US, Holland, and France. I started learning French. I taught my first semester at a British university. I lectured at Birmingham. I ran forty five kilometers on a Saturday morning in July. I got a second masters. I saved some money.
I will remember this the clearest: I was running one morning in Milton Keynes. I ran up the canal past where the trail ends. I came under a stone bridge and decided to stop there. I climbed up the embankment and into a field, the sun coming up over the British countryside. It was absolutely perfect.
2010 could be a big year for me. I won't say more than that, but I have a good feeling about it.
Perhaps you will continue on with me.