New Year, New Post

Samantha told me to update this blog, so I decided to do that instead of responding to her emails. Hello! It's 2018, which means I, and all of you, made it through 2017. So that's good! It was actually a really good year for me, all things considered. I joined a bunch of groups, and now I'm involved in county and district politics, I'm the secretary of my local AAUW affiliate, I'm on the fundraising committee for a women's leadership development group, and I'm on the PR committee of NDSU's Graduate Student Council. Becky and I started a podcast about 'Gossip Girl' that's super popular in Romania. I went on a vacation with my family in Europe that has dramatically changed many of my professional goals. I was Crooked Media's Listener of the Week in January (but now they won't return any of my emails). I went to Glacier National Park and got to see Montana with Samantha before she graduated. I officiated my third wedding (and was asked to officiate my fourth!). I presented my research at a conference in Nova Scotia, and then almost didn't come back. I read some books, saw some movies, and listened to some music that changed my life. I kickboxed a lot. I made a lot of friends. Some of my opinions and ideas changed. Some of my ambitions grew. I bought a Nespresso machine.

I didn't really make resolutions for 2018, but I can't help but be reflective at the start of a new year. I turn 30 this year, which is... something I'm going to have to deal with. In a lot of ways, I haven't hit many of the conventional benchmarks of adulthood: I'm not married or in a relationship, I don't have children, I barely earn enough money to support myself, I don't have a house, I don't have pets, and even imagining what my life will look like two years from now is practically impossible. I'm also on a path that I've asked myself a lot of questions about: How did I end up in North Dakota? Should I really be getting a doctorate in a field most people have never heard of? Will I have any marketable skills when I need them? Is what I want to do already being done, and better than I could do it? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ None of those questions will really be answered this year -- I don't graduate until 2019 (God willing), and although I'll be doing some networking, I would be surprised if I had a job offer this year. With that in mind, I'll just keep plugging away: working hard, staying active, and being open to the people and experiences that are in store for me. Also, I'm gonna try to get abs again.