Ponderings on the New Year

For some of you the New Year might conjure feelings of anxiety or bewilderment, or perhaps excitement of new possibilities and new determination towards new resolutions. For me, my only hope for the new year is that it will be LESS INTENSE than the year 2011.

Let me spell it out for you.

January 2011 we receive a phone call from our landlords that they are going to sell our apartment. After months of apartment hunting in fall 2010 we have just decided that since the spring will be so intense, we will put off apartment hunting until the following autumn. Then, amidst dealing with water damage due to snow and ice, we also have to search for an apartment. January 29th, my 27th birthday we find and fall in love with an apartment that we place an offer on. Our offer is accepted. We have also just begun planning for our upcoming wedding in July.

February 2011 after negotiations with banks we sign the agreement and take on mortgages. We become home owners. The radiators in our rental flat stop working, and we are plunged into freezing cold temperatures outside (-30c/-22F) and inside (+11c/52F). We are exiled on the weekends so that our landlords can have viewings all the while sporting an attractive drying device in our living room, while trying to pack. I'm also writing my thesis and trying to finish my last master's studies. L is in the middle of an interview carousel for a new job.

March 2011 doesn't differ much from february, but the pressure to finish my studies builds and it is quite cramped in our apartment due to moving boxes, the drying device and just us. L lands the job.

April 2011 we move in the beginning of the month to our new flat. A day later, while we are still without lamps, with all of our belongings in boxes, L starts her new job. I have less than a month to turn in my thesis. I don't remember much of this month, as I was typing away furiously. I'm attending wedding gown design meetings. And working on other wedding-related things.

May 2011 I barely finish my thesis on time and am able to attend my orchestra's 10-day European tour. I have just a few more weeks to finish my remaining essays. It then turns out I have missed the deadline to submit my request for graduation and am nearly turned down and forced to wait until September. Somehow, the lady on the phone feels really sorry for me (I cry and beg), and she finally gives me the ok. There's wedding gown fittings, meetings with our maids of honor, planning planning and more planning.

June 2011 I graduate at the end of the month, after spending the entire beginning of the month focused on the wedding. Graduation is on June 28th, and only then can I really believe this is over and I finally have my master's.

July 2011, three days after my graduation we have our beautiful wedding. What can I even say. The most beautiful day of our lives and filled with dear family and friends. We manage to take one week off this month until I delve into job applications.

July-November 2011 It's job applications and more job applications and continuing my work as a group fitness instructor at SATS and working in sales at Helsingin Sanomat. I decide that if I don't get a job by the end of November, I'm applying to law school.

December 2011 I move to Sweden for my new job at Studentum.

So that's a few things this year. I'm most looking forward to finally getting a vacation with L and not being so tired all the time.

Wishing all my three readers a Happy Happy New Year 2012!