Here it is again - Christmas! And, it's the end of a fine year. Merry Christmas, dear reader. I hope your holiday season has been as wonderful as mine has been.
I'm thrilled to have made it through another great year, and I'm feeling pretty good about life in general right now. That's a good sign! Here's review of my year. As I've reflected on the year, I've noticed a lot of great things happening in my life and I wanted to take a few minutes to share where I've been this year.
2014 - My Year in Review
Quarter 1
January to March was a blur. We had great times, though I must admit that the first quarter was busy! Just about everything I could possibly say has to relate to teaching and how insane that part of the year can be.
At work, I made it through many pep band events, took 16 kids to honor choir to sing in Salt Lake City, worked through Singing Valentines, attended the Utah Music Educator's convention, took three days of field trips to Richfield to attend the state basketball finals, and got word that my time at Parowan High School was to end after that school year.
I don't remember a lot of things that happened specifically, whether work or personal. However, I do know that because of the schedule I was keeping, I didn't have much of a social or personal life! Most of my after-school activities were spent enjoying time with Scott, Josie, and Kristi, though it was great to spend time with my parents and cousins there in Cedar City. Outside of work, I was able to perform with the Orchestra of Southern Utah, serve as the ward choir director at church, and play the piano and organ for church meetings. I got pretty good knowing the schedule of my favorite cooking and renovation shows on television, and I had a while where my "hobby" was playing Minecraft (yeah, it's not exactly the highlight of my life...).
Quarter 2
April to June was a difficult period. While I wasn't going to jump ship to leave my position at the school, knowing that I wasn't invited to return for another year made completing the school year all the more challenging. However, I made a commitment that the end of the year concert was going to be fantastic and I pushed myself and my students quite hard to make sure we had a fabulous rest of the year.
During this time, I put together a well-run (IMO) large-group festival and hosted eight schools, put together a dynamite end of year collage concert with "Skyfall" as our concluding number involving all eight performing groups, and finished the school year strongly, blowing everyone away! :-)
I grew considerably as a person during all this time, though there is still working through the emotional baggage that goes with job loss. Again, my time outside of school was mostly spent with siblings and parents, cousins and grandparents, playing with the orchestra, and continuing to work with the choir at church.
In the middle of June, I visited Colorado, hoping to have some job interviews. As it turns out, I didn't have any interviews at that point, but I was able to have a great vacation with my sister and her family. If I'd been thinking straight, I'd have flown Southwest Airlines and racked up a bunch of flyer miles. This year, I've flown from Las Vegas to Denver round-trip and from Denver to Salt Lake round-trip. That could have given me pretty close to a free flight! But alas, one of them was on Frontier and I paid too much... lol
Quarter 3
I committed to moving to Colorado to work in I.T. My job interviews were both amazing and I was offered multiple positions and had to choose between terrific jobs. Ultimately, I ended up taking a support role with RE/MAX and have since had many excellent experiences. Please indulge me for a moment as I brag - my supervisor at RE/MAX has been totally blown away by my job performance. Since training in August, I have outperformed my peers on the call team on multiple occasions and, in November, took 70 more support calls than any other member of the call team. It never seems like I'm working that hard, but it's nice to be able to go home at night and not have to do additional work to stay caught up.
Since arriving in Aurora, I've met some incredible people and started to form some great friendships with locals. I've become heavily involved in my singles ward at church and took on a second-bassoon position with the Aurora Symphony Orchestra. Now, I get to do two of my favorite things - work with computers and play my bassoon! Lastly, I volunteered to be a Temple Ordinance Worker in the Denver Colorado temple for the church. It's been a wonderful experience to attend each week, and I feel a tremendous amount of growth in myself since taking this on.
Quarter 4
Here, I had some time to reflect and adapt to changing surroundings. My company had some layoffs, so my technical support role disappeared in November. I was able to maintain my temp status until the end of the year, and will be transitioning into another department at the first of the year as a permanent employee!
With the holidays, musicians are often very busy people. I played in several musical groups over the last month, and was able to enjoy some really great talent and be a part of some very wonderful music. Now that's all done, I'm looking forward to some R&R for a couple of days.
My brother got married during this period, so I flew out to Salt Lake City to join the family for the ceremony in the Salt Lake City temple. It was awesome.
I know some of you are wondering, so I'll just throw it out there - no, I'm not married or seeing anyone at this time. I have been on a few dates since arriving in Colorado, though. One of my goals for 2015 is to go on more dates and take them more seriously.
In conclusion, it's been a great year. Sure, there've been ups and downs, but who doesn't have that? Where will 2015 take me? Good question. The only thing I know for sure is that I'm looking forward to it!
Thanks for being there for me, friends and family. I appreciate your love and support!
I'm so grateful to know there is a God who knows me personally and has directed my steps throughout the year (and life!). I trust in Him to guide me and help me make the best of any situation. The life of Jesus Christ brings me hope - knowing that life can be happy, even in the midst of really trying times.
May the blessing of this Christmas season stay with you throughout this season and the coming year.
No comments:
Post a Comment