It's the Little Things

On the last day of the year, it's natural to reflect back on the year behind us.

Two-thousand eleven.  What to say?

Well, I'm sorry to do this, but in order to assess the past year, I have to go back and put it in context among the past decade.

See, the thing is, pretty much every single year of the 2000s, I experienced some major life-changing event.  Such as:

• 2000: Graduated from college, and within 48 hours I had moved back in with my parents and started attending a teaching credential program.  Started 3-year long-distance relationship when Bill went to law school in Chicago and I stayed in California. 
• 2001: Did my student teaching, finished my credential, got a job teaching 5th grade.  On the second day of school, 9/11 happened. 
• 2002: Finished a really emotionally gut-wrenching first year of teaching, changed grades to teaching 2/3 multi-age the following September. 
• 2003: Moved out of my parents' house and lived alone for the first time.  Got engaged. 
• 2004: Got married, moved across country.
• 2005: Began the year with a really bad teaching job, quit that and changed careers to be an editor in the educational publishing field. 
• 2006: Got pregnant.
• 2007: Had a baby, switched to working part-time, bought our first home. 
• 2008: Experienced episode of major depression, switched to full-time at work, finally quit to be a stay-at-home mom.  

By 2009, I needed things to slow down.  And they did.  I remember at the end of 2009, I reflected on what a great year it had been, not because of the exciting things that happened, but because of the things that didn't.

In 2010, though, things began to feel stagnant.  I began to think I needed something big to happen again.  Have another baby!  Go back to work!  Make it big as a blogger!

And yet, none of that felt right.  Every possible life path felt wrong.

I didn't get it right until 2011, when I realized that the answer lay not in giant leaps, but in baby steps.

So the best way I can sum up 2011 is to say that it was the year of baby steps.

I didn't go back to work full-time, but I did do some freelance work and found out I loved it.  I didn't make it big as a blogger, but I did make money off my blog for the first time.  I got a lot of free stuff, had some great bloggy experiences, attended my first BlogHer, made some great friends, and built up my readership. 

I learned how much I love participating in community theater.  I completed an indoor triathlon.  I went on vacation by myself. 

It was a lot of little, but really great, experiences.

As for 2012, who knows?  I like to make resolutions like everybody else, but those are about specific behaviors, not about the bigger plan or theme or picture.

As always, the new year is a blank slate.  See you there.