Twenty Eleven
In the final weeks of the year, commentators and pundits took it upon themselves to pass judgement on the premature memory of the year 2011. This was apparently an attempt at the first draft of history, to be among the first to highlight the events that the world will remember for decades or centuries to come. While I can’t say whether the world will find significance in Fukushima or Kim Jong Il fifty years from now, I can say that there are a few other events that I personally will remember fondly in a half century from now.
2011 started out pretty good for me. In January, I was beginning my student teaching in Stillwater, MN, the final stage of my attempt at a career change. February was even better, though, because my girlfriend decided to quit school and move from Idaho to Minnesota. Three days later we were engaged. So as spring brought the end of my student teaching and summer gave way to wedding planning, 2011 was shaping up to be a pretty significant year. In August we got married, settling into our little abode in the southern banks of the Minnesota River Valley. September brought the stamp of approval from the Department of Education, granting me the right to sculpt the minds of impressionable adolescents. Though this thrilling moment was dampened when the governor and legislature of Minnesota decided to shut the state down for a few weeks, causing my license to show up two weeks into the school year. The holiday season brought us the pleasant privilege of hosting some of my family for Thanksgiving and all of them for New Years.
A lot changed from January to December. No more long phone conversations across the continental divide. No more college projects or portfolios. No more bachelor life. And I really don’t miss it. At all.
2011 also started out rather optimistically for my golf habit. I finally took a lesson that brought dramatic improvement to my swing, but by early summer wedding planning and moving suddenly eliminated time for golf. On the other hand, 2011 started off rather ominously for my reading habit. I read a couple books early in the year during my student teaching. But by the spring, I was so busy trying to finish my education portfolio for the state, that I went months without reading at all. Then wedding planning and other affiliated activities again eliminated both time and desire to read. Only when the dust of ceremony settled did I once again find the time and inclination to pick up a book. And read with gusto, I did. After having finished only seven books by the end of August (and three of them cookbooks), I managed to crank out 15 more in the last four months of the year. (My annual reading lists are, of course, available here.) So the year ended rather satisfactorily for at least one of my hobbies. Oh, and speaking of hobbies. That beekeeping thing. Yeah, there was a bear. What started out as such a promising year for my hives ended rather abruptly when a starving bear came foraging for the sweet golden syrup my ladies had made. So yeah, that wasn’t so nice.
But 2012 looks to be pretty good, too. My prospects for a teaching job are more solid. My reading time is fully committed (starting with Shelby Foote’s 3000-page history of the Civil War). (I may even find the time and inclination to post on this blog.) And I’ll get to spend all 365 days with my beautiful wife. So while goofballs twist their heads silly with fears of the end of the world, 2012 is really just the beginning here.
