So this new year season has brought about much reminiscing, not to mention debate about when decades begin and end. Although logic dictates that decades run from '01 to '10, human nature is more inclined to go '00 to '09. After all, is 1990 part of the '80's or '90's? Enough on that, I myself was just thinking about how significant the years ending in "9" have been in my life, except for '69 when I was only three years old. So here goes a quick re-cap of my life...
December 1969: I can't remember much except for t.v. shows like Woody Woodpecker and
Family Affair. I think we were living in southern California near my grandparents, which was a good thing. Grandpa was my favorite adult and I was his favorite kid.
December 1979: I was 13 years old and in 8th grade attending school on Dugway Proving Grounds. This was my seventh school since the start of 6th grade. I had gone from being on an isolated, insulated, idyllic island in the South Pacific to southern California to mid-western Topeka Kansas, back to So. Calif. and now cold hard Utah winter and conservative LDS mindsets. Looking back, I can see this was the beginning of my lowest years. High school is normally the worse time of your life, but for me high school and its activities were my sanctuary from the personal lows. By my birthday in March my parents will have separated and by fall, I will have been to another school and back to Dugway and my mom forced to go to California without me.
December 1989: Life was better, but still in the tank. I was 23 years old, a college drop-out, in a job I hated, two years into an unhappy marriage and had just suffered a miscarriage. 'Nuff said.
December 1999: I was newly divorced, still a college dropout with an 8-year old and a 5-year old, unemployed having just moved in a strange city in the South (with bi-racial children), far away from family and friends, but I was more optimistic about my future than I had ever been in my entire adult life.
December 2009: I am a college graduate, happily remarried to my love (and best friend), have a couple of really great teenagers, employed part-time (by choice), loving Nashville and the church community we have, and, I must say, in the best place yet so far.
Today I eagerly await what the coming year has to offer as we forge towards the next year ending in a "9". Thank you for swinging by my blog! I wish everyone a healthy, happy 2010!
¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!
~N
Normally I'm not an emotional fan-girl type, but this weekend I got caught up in the blog of one of my favorite authors, Neil Gaiman. A furry house guest of his, Zoe, has been ill and had to be put to sleep today. If you're interested, you can read about his and her journey on Neil Gaiman's blog, start with Wednesday's entry. I have no idea why I got so caught up in this or why I can't get that little cat out of my thoughts. Maybe it is because our own animals are getting older and I dread the day I have to tell my 15-year old son that the pup he has loved since the first grade has to go away.
