This has been a year of dizzying highs and devastating lows. In church on Christmas Day (yes, I went to church with my family. Due to time constraints [we needed to drop my brother at the airport], we ducked out before communion [to my mother's relief, since I was about to launch into a “modern Christianity has got it wrong” diatribe about the sacrament of communion]), the minister talked about how it's important to look at where we've come from in order to chart where we're going. Since it's the end of the calendar year, I felt the need to write a review of what's happened this year – a highlights and lowlights reel, as it were. I'll start with the lowlights, so that the post ends on a happy note. Part 2 of this post will serve as the Hi5 Awards for 2010 (I had wanted to do them in a separate post, but I'm on holiday in Cape Town at the moment, and internet facilities in our accommodation are sorely lacking).
Lowlights
I think the month of July, pretty much in its entirety, counts as a lowlight (that set the precedent for my final semester at Rhodes). That was the month when I lost two friends to car accidents within four days of each other. Literally, I got back from one memorial service to find out that I would be organising one for another friend. The waste of potential and the pointlessness of their deaths threw me very far off-centre. The cloud of dark grey that had settled over my mind was then compounded by finding out that, no matter how well I did in my November exams, I would never score high enough to make it into a postgraduate program.
Another lowlight came in the form of the unexpected housemate. A friend and I had arranged to move in together for the duration of 2010. However, he got excluded from university on academic grounds, so I was left without a friendly face with whom to share a house. Instead, I got saddled with The Hypochristian. It still baffles me how someone who claims to love God – who told us to look after the earth and be motivated by love – can feel no guilt about taking hour-long showers (seriously, not even a crack-whore in downtown Bangkok could possibly need that much shower time on a daily basis) during the worst drought the region has ever recorded, leaving lights on (in locked rooms, so that I couldn't turn them off) and going away for the weekend, and exclusively choosing unethical food and cosmetic products.
Highlights
Resolving the issue of The Hypochristian playing her (horrendous) music too loud (although I would debate whether it's worthy of being played at all). It would seem that right-wing religious nuts get the point when you blast them with Children of Bodom and suchlike until they turn their music down.
Girls nights. Towards the end of the year, two nerd-girl friends and I discovered that life was easier to handle when faced together. Thus, Tuesday nights became a sacred time of food, wine and geek talk. It is wonderful to have friends to share musings with and ask for creative guidance, even if the side-effect of having three scientists in the room is that every sequence of actions needs to be discussed at length in order to find the most efficient method.
Catching up with old friends. A few people have drifted back into my life this year after rather lengthy hiatuses (hiati?), and it's quite lovely rediscovering old friendships, catching up on important news, and adding new layers of memories to the bond. This is especially true when you realise that you can be yourself around them, even though you thought they would judge you for some of your life choices.
Being made an author on sidepodcast. Yes, to the relief of those of you who don't follow F1, I now have somewhere to work out the more intense parts of my Formula1-related geekery. After submitting this post, I was offered an authorship. True, it doesn't come with a paycheque, but it's lovely to know that other people think I have something valid to say.
Passing my degree. I think that says it all – I am now no longer a student; I am a graduate; I am no longer doomed to either waitress or sex worker as career options in the current job market. I want to get a t-shirt printed to that tune, just so that the whole world knows. Although, I'm not sure how seriously people take someone with “university graduate” printed across their bosom.
I have no idea what 2011 holds. I'm hoping it holds good things. However, if it doesn't, I hope I can hold it together enough to survive it. I know what I'd like to happen, but am aware that articulating these things tends to jinx them. All I know is I'm not going to be in Grahamstown, or (I hope) Harare...we're holding thumbs for Edinburgh (with trips to the south for Silverstone and the Goodwood Festival of Speed). Dad has offered to pay for my ticket over after grad, so that's looking at least a little bit likely. Anyways, I hope I'll see you on the other side.
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