Saturday, January 3, 2009

The End of One Year, The Beginning of Another

Well, 2008 is officially two days in the dust.
Some reflections:

-I did quite a bit of traveling in 2008, something I hope to continue in 2009. A trip to New York City with mom, a road trip all the way from Massachusetts to Texas with a lengthy stop in Maryland, trips to Vermont for trapeze classes, moving to China, Huangshan, Nanchang, and Nanjing once in China. It's been crazy.

-I left one job and began another. I'll never forget working at the Marriott, ever. Perhaps I'll go back into the hotel business one day, but for now, I'm happy to be teaching. And I started teaching! Perhaps it's not a job I'll have forever, but I appreciate the freedoms I am awarded because of it, those students who actually care make my days brighter, and this school is full of kind souls who just want to help.

-I lost two people who I loved very much this year. Both to prescription medication, although for two different reasons. They will both be in my heart for the rest of my life.

-I moved to China! Wowee! China! I'm still not over that one. It was one of my major goals to move here, and I achieved it. Amazing.

-I made some incredible friends who I hope I'll keep in touch with forever, Rachel and Jennifer and Jessica especially.

-I took trapeze classes! It was definitely an unforgettable experience, and I hope that I'll be able to continue learning it one day.


I can definitely say that 2008 was a year of change for me. Big change!


Everyone makes resolutions for the new year, and rarely keeps them. I'm going to keep mine.
I resolve to:

-Practice my Chinese and find someone who can teach me
-Make new friends, both Chinese and laowai
-Travel even more

Nathan and I have both resolved not to get married, haha. But perhaps we will be living together again before the year is out. Only time can tell. I'm excited to enter into our third year of dating this summer and see what that brings us.

What are your resolutions? They better be: 'Visit Jess in China!'

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I resolve to visit my girl. Can't wait. Love, Mom

chubtor said...

We don't have to make a resolution to travel 'cos that is taken care of for the first 3 months of the year when we cruise around the world discovering places we have only seen in brochures.

BUT one way or another we do resolve to see our one and only granddaughter and if it is not Hong Kong then we will just have to find another way.

WE WILL LOSE WEIGHT = OK so we say this every year, but December 2009 will see us leaner and fitter than December 2008. But first we have to finish off the Christmas pudding, the mince pies, the Christmas cake, the Roses, the Quality Street and the chocolate biscuits before we leave on January 8. It's a rotten job but someone has to do it.

We will visit Texas and we will make plans for Kauai in 2010!

Finally we will keep in contact with our family, our extended family and our friends... and finallly, finally Grandpa resolves to watch a lot less TV, stop getting involved in the Soaps and to occasionaly leave the computer switched OFF and NOT check for emails every 5 minutes.