2013

A year in review sees my journey to independence.  Getting my first real job, making new friends, moving out of state and then out of country, mastering chopsticks and navigating my way around China, loving and being loved by my sweet students, and getting a better idea of who I am and what I want to do with my life.  It has been one of the most amazing years of my life and definitely the one that has shaped my character the most.  I've made a slideshow of my 2013 adventures and set it to the tune "Helplessness Blues" by Fleet Foxes because the lyrics kind of explain what I learned:

I was raised up believing I was somehow unique
Like a snowflake distinct among snowflakes, unique in each way you can see
And now after some thinking, I'd say I'd rather be
A functioning cog in some great machinery serving something beyond me
But I don't, I don't know what that will be
I'll get back to you someday soon you will see

Because independence is not being alone or breaking away from everything we know. Independence is deciding for ourselves which pieces of "great machinery" we want to be a part of.  For me right now, these greater things are: my incredible family, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, my local community and my global community.   In 2014 I hope to able to serve some purpose beyond myself everyday and make this next year even more wonderful than the last.

Cheers 2013!