2010- The Rollercoaster

When 2009 ended, 2010 was full of promise and optimism. I wasn’t blogging at the time, so I don’t have it all written down, but I was excited. 2010 was going to be THE year. I just didn’t know THE year of what.

I started this year as a bright-eyed new college graduate. I was fresh off an amazing student teaching experience and looking forward to finally not being a student. I was offered a last minute long term substitute job. While it would only be until April, it was like a real job. Also, wasn’t the age I really wanted (8th), but still, I found a job as a December graduate.

I was living in an apartment with 3 other girls. Nothing terrible, but wasn’t happy with it really, so I was basically living at Mr. A’s apartment. Scandal, I know.

The first three months were spent driving 40 minutes each way to work. The school wasn’t great, but I got some great experience and some amazing references for future jobs. I got called a bitch by a student. I was told I was some students’ favorite teacher. The school brought me to tears on my last day as the principal read little notes my students had written to me.

By May, school was out and wedding was all I was thinking of. Last minute details were starting to stress me out. My mom was annoying me, but she had done so much, so I tried to bite my tongue and keep my fiance from getting too upset with her and her endless questions and requests. Seating charts were studied over. Calls of confirmations were made with florists, venues, judge, wedding party, and everyone else under the sun. We dealt with people not RSVPing, people we didn’t want to invite throwing a fit, despite the fact that I had never met them.

But on May 30th, 2010 at 5pm on a gorgeous spring afternoon, we stood in front of friends and family and vowed to love each other, for better or worse, for the rest of our lives. I married my best friend. I giggled through the ceremony because I was so excited. I held my new husband’s hand as it shook from nervousness. I listened to my stepdad get choked up as he prayed and cheered as we were announced as husband and wife. Life ahead of us looked promising.

We spent a couple days with family and friends before setting off on our romantic honeymoon in Mexico. It was our first real trip together and we were excited. Even waiting at the airport, in the heat and humidity, we were light with giddiness. Our room was gorgeous and the ocean even more so. I wanted to lay on that beach all day, listening to the waves crash as we sipped coconut rum and fresh pineapple juices, reading books, and being cooled by the salty breeze and refreshing blue water. It was paradise.

And while I will always look upon our honeymoon fondly and with the deepest desires to go back, maybe as a post law school celebration, there was a stain on that trip.

Our second day in paradise, we received the terrible news that Mr. A’s granny had passed away. She was one of the sweetest people I have ever met, and since my last grandparent had passed away less than a year before, she eagerly accepted me into the family as one of her own. We were devastated. Even more so, we wouldn’t be able to make it to the funeral. We both miss her dearly, but we know she’s in Heaven, pain free and watching over us.

The summer of 2010 brought a lot of new changes. We moved into the new city where Mr. A would be attending law school, into our first apartment as a married couple. We set up rooms. Put up decorations and found new cubbies for all our wedding gifts.

Mr. A started law school. We figured out our routine. Well, he had a routine. I was in a rut.

This second half of 2010 has been full of unemployment. The term “funemployment” must have been coined by someone with a job because I will promise you that nothing is fun about it. 2010 kicked my self-esteem to the ground and stomped on it. It showed me that nothing can be taken for granted, not even getting a job. I won’t rehash the desperation, but it was a curve ball.

The last of months of 2010 have been…something. I finally got a job in retail. Retail during the holidays is hell. Also, it seems like shoppers think you’re their personal slave and must be dumb if you work at the mall. Yes, I heard someone talking about me say that I was sure to do whatever they said since I probably didn’t even finish high school. People are swell.

2011, I’m ready for you, and I hope you can beat 2010, especially the last part. You have a big job ahead of you. Hope you’re ready because I’m ready to take it on and gain some of myself back. Just a heads up.

****EDIT****

It’s New Year’s Eve, and I’m sitting in my pajamas, because not only do I have mono, which is strange in itself, but I seemed to have also developed the flu in the past 2 days. Seriously 2010? You just had to rub it all in, didn’t you?