I can’t help but think about
everything that has changed this year. My life was punctuated by gains and
losses, just like every preceding year. This time, the losses were
magnified, the positives were significant, and all of it came in rapid
succession. I feel so much older than before (and hopefully wiser). Regardless, I am looking forward to taking
2013 on with that classic Elyse mix of trepidation and hope. Maybe with a little more hope and
self-assuredness this time. :)
I started the year by landing my
first post-graduate career as a statistical analyst/pharmacoepidemiologst (and
ended the year with a promotion to project manager!). I had finished grad
school in December of 2011, so in a few months, I moved from Fort Worth --> Houston --> Dallas. I essentially knew nobody in the area when I
moved in, and since all of my co-workers happened to speak Mandarin more
fluently than English, I remember days passing where I wouldn’t ever speak
aloud.
That prompted me to get out of my
comfort zone and meet some people. And
you know what? It was a wonderful move. J I now have a
boyfriend, best friend, and other fantastic influences who make me feel a lot
more fulfilled. It would be difficult to
describe how far from that I felt at the beginning of the year.
I love that I became an aunt this
year. My sister and her husband are fantastic parents, and my own parents
are even better grandparents than I ever could have imagined. It is ridiculously cute to see my father
swoon over little Vienne, and my mom (MoMa) has the best Vienne stories to tell
me during my lunch breaks. She has made
everyone’s life better. :)
One of the two family cats, Lucy,
passed away after a long struggle with an arthritic condition that no
veterinarian had seen before. She became a part of the family in 1999,
while I was recovering from anorexia and coping with sad realities that
sometimes happen when your childhood comes to an end, but you’re not yet adult
enough to handle them very well. She was incredibly sweet and friendly
from the moment my family met her until her last days, when it was quite
apparent that her breathing was labored and she was in pain. She was a
doting mother to her kittens and a wonderful companion to an awkward girl who
grew to become a…slightly less awkward adult.
Although my grandmother had been not
been feeling well for a few months, it came as a surprise to everyone when she
passed away this summer. We had always connected well for reasons that
are beyond explanation. She just got me, you know? Despite the
errors she made in her own life, she always had some solid wisdom for her
family members (and she was not afraid to distribute it, either). She could
size up my ex-boyfriends more accurately than anyone else I had known. :)
It saddens me to think that the person I spend the rest of my life with will
never get to meet this powerful force of a woman. While I’m thankful that
I was able to live in Hawaii for a few years, I wish I had spent more time with
her.
