Reflections

The year 2010 is almost over, and I have to say, I won't be sorry to see the back of it. It's not been a particularly bad year, I suppose, just not a particularly good one. My job situation is very frustrating. My brother's job situation is even more frustrating. I've gotten many (what I thought were) good papers rejected from journals, and none were accepted. And these past few months have been especially hard: My youngest brother got in a bad car accident. I got in a bad car accident. I had a fight with my parents. I had a fight with my advisor. I can't seem to shake the blues.

My current negative attitude is making it hard for me to remember the good times that I had this year, although I'm sure they were there. I have had fun working on this blog (although the post-a-day thing is starting to wear on me). I read some good books, of which I would particularly recommend Philip Roth's The Plot Against America. I gave my first public performance as a trapeze artist. I went snorkeling off the coast of Australia and saw an octopus. I visited Tasmania and got to pet a devil. It was the first full year that I've spent in my new house, and we had a great Thanksgiving here.

Part of the trouble is that the good times tend to be the small moments --- making a really good almond tart, or learning a new aerials trick, or having a nice pint of beer at the pub --- while the bad times tend to be larger, more life-altering things, like the ongoing job-search troubles. That makes it hard to have any good perspective on the year as a whole.

All in all, I suppose, I guess everything evens out to neutral. Here's hoping that the new year weighs in a bit more to the positive end of the scale.

UPDATE: Just finished re-re-re-re-re-reading the first Harry Potter book, and am feeling better. Maybe it is the little things, after all, that make the most difference.