Good Freaking Bye 2013

Thank goodness 2013 is over. 

This was definitely a tough year. Special shout out to Helen for posting your 2013 list and for re-inspiring me to post mine. Let's see...where to begin. I think I will do my traditional recap of the year:

-Submitted a 95 single spaced thing-which-must-not-be-named (starts with a P and ends with an ACT) that is suppose to represent how qualified I am to be a teacher
-Went to New York and DC with Darius
-Finished a drink all by myself!! it had very little alcohol in it...
-Thought I almost failed the thing-which-must-not-be-named when I finally received my thing-which-must-not-be-named scores several weeks after everyone else. Then...
-Got my teaching credential! Woohoo!
-Landed and began my first career job as a 7th grade teacher at Virgil MS!! 
-After an anxious summer of housing searching, moved in with my aunt at the start of the term
-Was on TV....twice! Anderson Cooper Live (with Darius and Rachel in New York) and Let's Make a Deal (with the twins + Alex in LA)
-Locked my keys in my car for the first time about a week after I started my job
-Found out I was getting displaced from the school I worked so hard to get in
-Started my job as an 8th grade teacher at John Liechty MS days after getting displaced from Virgil (worst week ever!!)
-Went to my dear friend, Pheobe's engagement party
-Attended a divorce party 
-Submitted final grades for the first time for my students
-Went to the Carribean on a cruise with parents and Darius
-Went to Texas!
-Received a present from a student

In retrospect, I've learned 2 things from this year:
Things will most likely not go as planned, and nothing is ever easy. But when you're able to overcome the obstacles placed in your way, the results are truly the most rewarding.

and...

Baby steps go a long way.

I think I've shed more tears and found myself in multiple states of panic too many times to count this year.  Particularly the latter half of the year when I started my first year teaching and when I was displaced to another school, I thought so many times that I couldn't make it and seriously considered a career change several times.  But in the end, I am floored by God's grace. I actually survived my first semester. According to all of the other teachers at my school, it gets better.  And as I reflect on this year's event, I am really beginning to see that yes, it will get better because it already has.

I am disappointed in myself this year because I definitely did not keep my new years resolutions.
Here they were:

1.) Blogging at least once a week! 
2.) Living in the present. 
3.) Be able to finish one drink (and still be okay).  
4.) Gym at least once a week!

I was going pretty strong with # 1 and 4. But #1 stopped after the horrible PACT. I was so caught up job hunting that I just completely forgot to blog.  Then #4 stopped after I moved out of my apartment at UCLA.

#3 actually did happen but in a very lame way. I finished a really tiny and weak mojito in New York and another super weak but not so tiny sangria in a hip fancy place in DTLA on Darius' birthday. I am so pathetic ):

#2 definitely did not happen and so I have resolved to make it this year's resolution again.

So this year I resolve to:

1) Live in the present
2) Go on a roadtrip across at least 3 states
3) Fall in love with 3 songs

No explanation for each, I just simply want to do them. Let's see what 2014 will bring!! I am ready!!