a summary of 2009
Jan. 1st, 2010 10:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareinaFor me 2009 was a very good year. Some of the highlights:
* Completed my PhD
- Thesis submitted in June
- Comments from the examining committee received and acted upon in November
- Degree awarded in December
* Obtained first Post-Doc position & moved to Europe
- am truly self-sufficient for the first time in my life—not having my day to day living supplemented in any way by lovers, housemates, parents, or friends
- attended Geology conference in Edinburgh, Scotland
- attended Medieval Textile conference in Eindhoven, Netherlands
- attended SCA event in Germany
- attended SCA event in Stockholm
- attended Geology conference in San Francisco, California
* Got to visit friends and family in the US (including Alaska!) for the first time in many years. Twice for some of them in California and Seattle.
* Spent six months living with a family I adore, enjoying access to a garden full of fresh food while finishing up my thesis.
* Got to see one of my lovers fall head over heels in love and radiate the joy that comes with one’s first intense love
* Managed to maintain a strong loving friendship/connection with the lover with whom I’ve lived the longest, despite some major complications in his life
* Met many new and interesting people, and reconnected with many, many people with whom I’d previously lost touch
* Was reminded, yet again, that moving someplace new is a wonderful adventure, and that just because one moves on does not mean that one loses the connections with the people one cares about in the previous locations
However, no life is complete without some lows to balance the highs
* Didn’t have time to spend with one of my lovers while finishing up my thesis
- missed the frequent hikes and alpine adventures we’d enjoyed the year before
- missed living with him and the regular companionship/affection that entails
- missed him even more when I moved continents and regular correspondence didn’t happen as much as one might wish
* Was powerless to prevent the tragedy as another of my lovers had his heart crushed by the girl he’d fallen in love with (with a lot of help from a display of overwhelming intolerance on the part of her parents)
* Completed my PhD
- Thesis submitted in June
- Comments from the examining committee received and acted upon in November
- Degree awarded in December
* Obtained first Post-Doc position & moved to Europe
- am truly self-sufficient for the first time in my life—not having my day to day living supplemented in any way by lovers, housemates, parents, or friends
- attended Geology conference in Edinburgh, Scotland
- attended Medieval Textile conference in Eindhoven, Netherlands
- attended SCA event in Germany
- attended SCA event in Stockholm
- attended Geology conference in San Francisco, California
* Got to visit friends and family in the US (including Alaska!) for the first time in many years. Twice for some of them in California and Seattle.
* Spent six months living with a family I adore, enjoying access to a garden full of fresh food while finishing up my thesis.
* Got to see one of my lovers fall head over heels in love and radiate the joy that comes with one’s first intense love
* Managed to maintain a strong loving friendship/connection with the lover with whom I’ve lived the longest, despite some major complications in his life
* Met many new and interesting people, and reconnected with many, many people with whom I’d previously lost touch
* Was reminded, yet again, that moving someplace new is a wonderful adventure, and that just because one moves on does not mean that one loses the connections with the people one cares about in the previous locations
However, no life is complete without some lows to balance the highs
* Didn’t have time to spend with one of my lovers while finishing up my thesis
- missed the frequent hikes and alpine adventures we’d enjoyed the year before
- missed living with him and the regular companionship/affection that entails
- missed him even more when I moved continents and regular correspondence didn’t happen as much as one might wish
* Was powerless to prevent the tragedy as another of my lovers had his heart crushed by the girl he’d fallen in love with (with a lot of help from a display of overwhelming intolerance on the part of her parents)
