Final Reflections on 2012

Those of you who know me well know that the last four and a half years or so have been a bit of a whirlwind. I got married. I schlepped through three major moves (and two minor ones). I’ve held four different jobs, one of which I was laid off from – the first time that’s ever happened to me. The husband and I faced complete financial disaster on at least three separate occasions that I can recall. We also lost both of our mothers, only a year and a half apart from one another.

It hasn’t been easy.

2012 looked promising from the start. We were living in Austin, a city we loved, and had made a lot of great friends. The husband was chasing his dream of starting his own video game company. Very early on in the year, I decided to quit the awful temp job I’d been working and throw my talents in on the video game company. We weren’t getting paid and everything was up in the air, but it was exciting to finally take a chance like that.

Unfortunately, it didn’t pay off. Turns out the guy in charge of our group was a charlatan and a liar who squandered every opportunity we might have had to take our company to the next level. Everything fell apart. When the dust finally settled, the husband and I were only months away from running out of money. After about a month or so, he landed his job in Dallas. So we packed up our things, said a bittersweet goodbye, and headed the three hours north to our future.

The good thing is that all this upheaval in my life has made me a more flexible person. Most people get set in their ways as they get older. I’ve learned to roll with the punches. That’s not to say that I wasn’t sad to leave Austin. There were tears. I still miss it all the time & hope that we can move back someday. For the most part, though, I took it in stride. This is a thing that happened, it was dealt with, and we moved on.

I decided to approach Dallas with an open mind. I knew it would be very different from anywhere else I’d lived. I didn’t want to go into it with the expectation that I’d hate it (as many told me that I would). And for the most part, it’s actually been really good here. We love our apartment, love our jobs, and have met a lot of cool people. I have no complaints about Dallas. In some ways, I think it’s been really good for us.

Maybe 2012, and my life in general, didn’t turn out the way I expected. I’m not even totally sure what’s going to happen from here. But I have to admit that I’m feeling pretty excited to see what the future holds. Will my writing go anywhere? Will we work our way out of debt? How will our budding friendships in this new city unfold? There are so many different ways that things can work out. Everyday life is a lot more adventurous than people give it credit for, I think.

So here’s to 2013, and all the possibilities it brings. May we always remember to enjoy life, even when times get tough.