The New Year

          Twenty ten? Two thousand ten? Oh ten? Whatever its going to be called, its a new year! Can't believe its 2010! So much has happened the past decade its crazy to think about. Getting older, gaining wisdom, developing maturity.. I must be becoming an adult or something! In the past ten years I have completed elementary school, middle school, and graduated high school, I have dated and broke up with my first boyfriend, had my first kiss, fell in love for the first time, had a hard breakup for the first time, gotten in a few car accidents, been to a few dances, worked 3 summers at Soundview, moved to a new town, settled into a new church, gotten several haircuts and dye jobs, gone through many pairs of jeans, learned to play guitar, started college classes, survived my first college midterms and finals, celebrated new years in seattle under the space needle, been to many the family reunion, tried octupus, traveled to texas, oregon, california, montana, idaho, roadtripped by myself, I think most everything that has been of much significance fpr me has happened in the past ten years. This is an important decade of my life! Going from kid to teenager to young adult is a huge transition and I feel as if it has gone well!
           Growing up isn't easy of course, there's bumps and curves and potholes along the way, but I can say that I am doing good, and I'm happy. I have friends that support me, wonderful family, great opportunities, good relationships, and a healthy body. What's to complain about? Life is good!
           More specifically, since the last posting, a lot has happened! Christmas and New Years have come and gone, I have ended one quarter of school and begun a fresh one, and I've ended a long relationship.  First, Christmas was spent modestly at home in Lacey with all the siblings together plus Amy and Lofa. It was a simple holiday with the expected breakfast of cracker eggs and cinnamon rolls, and eventually we did open presents all of us together. It was great having everyone together if only for a short time. As us kids get older its better and better to be together seeing that our maturities and the like sort of level out to be similar. As compared to previous years where everyone was very aware of the age gaps. But we're all getting older and all have our own lives and soon we'll be having our own Christmases with our own families and it'll be a special occurance to have us all home together.
           In chronological order, Ron and I ended our relationship on tuesday, December 29th 2009. We dated for week or so over fourteen months. Ron was and IS a great guy with so much potential and so much passion and I'll always love him but our two selves were not meant to be together forever. We have differences that for me made it hard sometimes and I knew I needed to break things off. We had a lot of good times together, just hanging out going bowling, hiking, watching movies, go-karting, coloring, eating lots, traveling to Texas. I enjoyed the time we spent together, but in the end, it had to end. Some of our differences were too different to be ignored. I will always care and support Ron in whatever he chooses to do and I believe he will do some great things. I'll never forget our relationship and hopefully we'll continue to stay connected.
           That weekend was New Years! Ron and I had planned to spend New Years Eve with his family and some friends that live in Seattle and have a great view of the skyline, but those plans simply fell through because of our still hot off the press break up so I ended up in Lacey at my parents house. I got a hold of a couple friends from high school and we decided to make an adventure out of driving up to Seattle anyway to watch the fireworks off the Space Needle. It was a great time just wandering around seeing the sights and people watching until we got to the countdown and saw the fireworks show. It's something everyone watches on TV every year but to see the show right in front of you is something else! Something to check off the list of things to experience in your lifetime. I had a good time with some fresh (but familiar) faces and it was nice to just get out and relax.
           After a late late night, we headed down to Oregon New Years Day for our annual family reunion at Fireside. The numbers are dwindling but its still nice to see extended family every year and simply enjoy each others company for a few days as an ending to the holiday season and break. We did a number of puzzles and played ping pong all weekend and said our goodbyes until next year.
          Since then I have developed a cold, and started the new quarter out at Highline with new classes. This quarter i'm taking Math 111 on tuesdays and thursdays 5:15-7:25PM, English 101 on mondays 7:15-9:45PM and Furniture History I on thursdays 12:30-2:00PM. So far its been alright although i'm experiencing things through the haze of being sick so we'll find out how I really feel about the classes when I'm healthy again! The furniture history class is apparently part of the Interior Design program at Highline, so it was a little awkward to come into a class full of people who've been in the program for multiple quarters and all know each other, I definitely felt the stares. But the class is going to be interesting I think, lots of work, but lots of knowledge! That's the theme for me this quarter.. lots of work, lots of knowledge. English and math are both not very interesting compared to the other classes I've taken but so far have been good. The english teacher is a young woman who's focus was the Victorian period of literature, so she talks a lot and tends to be wordy, and writes even more, but she's friendly and seems to be a good teacher, passionate about what she does. The math teacher is hilarious! He's older, has been teaching math for 40 years, but still has the spirit of a young boy! I can't place who he reminds me of, mostly I think its because its a few people mashed together, but the way he teaches, his mannerisms, the jokes he has, his sense of humor, its all very amusing without him actually trying to be humorous. One of those teachers you either find dreadfully wierd and annoying, or simply entertaining. Over all, the schedule and work load will take some adjusting but I believe it will turn out to be a good quarter.
            About a month ago I stumbled upon a program at Bate's Technical College in Tacoma that I'm going to enroll in. Its something like a year and a half program for carpentry that looked very interesting. I've been wondering and searching and thinking about what I want to do with the rest of my life, what career I'd like to start, anything that I can look into doing for a while to support myself but enjoy at the same time. Its been fairly unsuccessful, mostly wanting to do things like photography which is way to competive and rough a market to really support yourself or a family on, art which is about the same problem, music maybe, all things that I enjoy doing, but wouldn't necessarily want as a career. I thought about being an art teacher for elementary ages, my uncle still wants me to look into working on wind turbines, my mom and aunt decided I should be a.. sonomographer? The people who do sleep stuudies. But nothing really ever struck my fancy as something I'd really be interested in until I thought about carpentry. I can work with my hands, I can be creative but also simply follow guidelines, I can build things, re-model things, restore things, all things that I like to do. There's quite a few different careers and jobs that can spawn off from carpentry training like working for big commercial construction companies building houses, or working for small private businesses working on remodeling and home repairs and projects. I'd love to get into the small private side of it and I'm excited to get into the program and start learning. I think it'll be a good fit and hopefully something I can enjoy doing for a long time to come.
           Until then, i'll be chugging along in my classes, continuing to lead the youth band at Mission Woods, hopefully get in a number of fun adventures, most likely be a counselor at Soundview this summer, and continue to get older and wiser! So a toast to a new year, a new decade! A fresh start, a new outlook, clean slate. Here's to hoping that the year treats you better than any years past and that you find nothing but happiness, warmth, joy and love. Happy 2010!