New Year's Reflections

It's one of those new year's days where I'll admit that I'm glad to see the last year go.  It was a difficult year for many people -- both those people I know well and those people around the world who suffered through all sorts of major catastrophes.  But 2011 was also a remarkable year: the Arab Spring, the Occupy Wallstreet protests, the protests in Wisconsin's capitol building, the current protests in Moscow (oh yeah, some dictators being overthrown, and that one other guy).  I'm always astounded by the changes in the world -- and I want to focus more on the positive when it comes to those changes.

And that's actually just it.  I want to focus on the positive.  I failed to blog for most of November and December partly out of simple neglect: lots of things were going on and I didn't make time to sit down and write in almost any form.  But I also realize that part of the reason that I didn't blog is because I spent much of the end of the semester feeling like I was in what I kept calling "a swirling vortex of negativity."  This past semester was challenging and frustrating, and since I often blog about teaching, I try to focus primarily on the positive, on the success.  I don't want to simply come to this space and complain.  (That's what warm nights on my front porch are for.)

I spent many of the past days thinking about how happy I am that the year is over.  That 2011 was horrible.  And in some ways, it was.

But then I remember that actually, it wasn't.  It was, like every year, a time of enriching experiences for me: even the challenges that I faced in the year brought about reflection and knowledge.  Sometimes I get mired in the negative and forget about the positive -- and I've become even more susceptible to thinking that my life is stagnant or boring as social media has become such a fixture in my life.  Everyone else's lives look exciting on Facebook and Twitter.  But when I sit back and think, I realize that my own life has been full of wonder and excitement as well.  I just happen to know about all the boring parts, too.  (And the amount of laundry I washed this year.)

So, if you'll indulge me, I want to reflect on 2011 with a bit of cataloging.

Travel: I always look at the travel photos of my Facebook friends.  And then I get really jealous: I love to travel (okay, I hate the airport part, but once I'm in the place, it's delightful).  I always think about how I'm not travelling while I look at those photos.  But 2011 was a year of a lot of travel for me -- even if it was primarily in March and April.  A lot.  In March, through the generosity of the "Bank of my Mother," I was able to go to London with a group from our university.  In April, I went to the Seattle area for a conference and to Albuquerque for a Bradley family event (thanks to the generosity of the in-laws). In July, I went to Berkeley again -- and I got to walk around San Francisco with a colleague who was game enough to walk for miles and miles and eat some sketchy looking Chinese food.  (She was also game to eat at the Pakistani restaurant and we found a wonderful Italian restaurant that served bottomless glasses of wine.  That's just some of why she's a wonderful colleague.)  And November, we headed to Atlanta for a conference.

Albuquerque

Dr. Johnson's cat 

Stonehenge 

From my hotel room in Bellevue, Washington

Work: Despite my disappointments and frustrations in teaching this fall, I also had some wonderful experiences with my students.  In the spring, I had a student write a strong capstone paper on the poetry of World War I; I also had several students present their research at our campus-wide student conference (and I think it was a record number of students from our department -- Bradley and I have been pushing our students to do this more and more).  I also had this moment.
One of the most significant changes for me this year was my shift in work.  In May, I became the coordinator of our Critical Thinking program, which is a quasi-administrative position.  It's a challenge I'm enjoying -- and I think that I'm making positive contributions to the program.  This position opened up because the person who developed the program -- our Dean of Arts and Sciences -- left our university for another institution.

And our former Dean's job change reminds me of the final important reflection ...

Friends: Bradley and I were friends with that Dean.  And we were incredibly sad to see him go (though of course I wouldn't be coordinating this program without that circumstance).  One of the things about being an academic is that we all work on the same schedule.  Groups of people begin the job at the same time; groups of people all leave at the same time.  So at the end of one year, not only do we see our students graduate (and two of my favorites graduated last spring), we see some of our favorite colleagues leave as well, for retirements, other jobs.
So we lose people -- though of course with the magic of Facebook, we're able to see how their lives are going.  But as academics, we also always have new people coming in each fall.  New students.  New colleagues.
We have some remarkable new colleagues this year, and we've been happy to be able to have them join our social circle (Bradley and I seem to have fostered a movement among the younger, childless faculty to see one another outside of work); and most importantly, we became good friends with a large number of our colleagues, both old and new.  We tend to compare friendships in life -- or I do, at least -- and I'm very happy that we've found a group of friends who we feel about as close to as we did some of our grad school friends.  Some of our new friends are colleagues; some are people who live in town (though they're all transplants, like us).  We're working with friends to improve our town; we're working with others to continue to foster a rich intellectual life on our campus.

It was quite a year in many ways.  I've been fortunate enough to have wonderful friends and a loving husband.  My cats are healthy and sweet, though frequently a little bit obnoxious.  And my family is supportive through it all.  We've all had our challenges, and while I'm in some ways pleased to see that it is a new year, I also know that it's simply another day.  New Year's Day is just a marking post where we should stop and take stock.