Here's to 2011

Over on the University of Venus Facebook page, the questions was asked, "What's your word for 2011?" Most came up with words like adventure, change, whatever. For me, my word for is "stability." 2010, the last five years in fact, have had enough change to last me for a little while. 

In 2005, I got married and moved to California. In 2006, I had my first experience teaching developmental writing and got pregnant. In 2007, I had my daughter and defended my dissertation. In 2008, we moved again to Florida for a tenure-track job for me, but not before moving into a bigger place in CA and finding out I was pregnant again. In 2009, I had my son, and we moved to Kentucky for a tenure-track job for my husband. 2010 saw me not teaching for the first time since I taught ESL in a summer program back in Canada. So I started my own business, started blogging, and got in Twitter. And then, I got a full-time job and we bought our first house. 

I'm exhausted just writing about it. 

To extend on my metaphor about trees, I want 2011 to be about putting down roots, providing a stable base or foundation for myself and my family. I want to grow what I have started, instead of continually uprooting and starting over. I want to give myself a chance to explore who I have become over these past five years. I want things to be a little (ok, a lot) more stable than previous years. All of the change has been a blessing, but I'm ready for a year where I can take a breathe and focus on what's in front of me because I have a better idea of what that is. 

My adventure is ongoing. But I hope 2011 is about the lull that sometimes comes in the middle. Now that I've written that, something is going to come along and completely change it. Stability is my hope; as I have learned, I have little control over what the year has in store for me.