My year, in brief.

At the end of January, my gall bladder almost burst. It was removed. Since then, everything I eat makes me sick. My semester was a wash because I was recovering for 6 weeks. Thesis progress = nonexistent. I was wait-listed for my dream program. And then formally rejected on my birthday. Turned out to be a good thing, because I haven't graduated yet. I was rejected from TFA. I was thrown out of my apartment. I was wait-listed for CLS, and eventually accepted...but had to shell out about $1500 to change around flight plans in order to make it there. I went to Germany as part of a research team to present a paper about grammar prescriptions and the COCA. I went to Spain to visit my sister and beautiful niece. I saw Gibraltar and Cadiz and the Alhambra. I planted a garden and then abandoned it to weeds. I got thoroughly smitten with a boy who will never ask me out. I lived in India. I walked on the roof of the Golden Temple in Amritsar. I worshipped with the Sikhs and Hindus. I saw the Taj Mahal and got bitten by an Indian dog. I had rabies treatments. I got a tan that had not yet faded completely. I got jaded and wounded and learned a bit of Punjabi. I came face to face with a cobra. I was mugged. I rode trains across the country. I went on 14 plane rides across the entire world. My school messed up my financial aid until December, so once again, thesis progress = nonexistent. I got into a car accident. I got depressed, and then undepressed, and then depressed. I cried a lot. I spent a lot of time in bed, recovering from one thing or another. I rode in rickshaws. I bargained. I was largely unemployed. I lost 40 lbs, not all of it on purpose. I lost 2.5 pant sizes and had to buy a whole new wardrobe. I became a mac person. I was not asked out once. And my car just stranded me in 8 inches of snow on the side of the road. This year has been wonderful and horrible. I've seen amazing things and been broken hearted. I've been amazed sometimes and helpless and hopeless at other times. It's been a roller coaster, but mostly not a good one. I wish I was the sort of superstitious person who believed that the turn of the calendar could make things magically different, but I'm not.

When 2010 started, I made one wish: May this year be better than last year. It was and it also really wasn't, but I'm not making the mistake of making that wish again.