Annapocalypse

2010 RET·RO·SPEC·TIVE

At the start of 2010, I was celebrating the new year at The Holiday Club in Chicago with Rob and one of my best friends from college, Kari.  We drank and took photobooth pictures and waved noisemakers around and I probably fell asleep that night buzzed and pretty content.  I remember feeling happy that Kari decided to visit for that weekend because other than friends I’ve met through Rob, I haven’t made too many friends of my own since moving to Chicago three years ago.

Since Kari’s visit in January, lots of other friends came and visited me throughout the year.  I saw Patrick later in January and in July, Meredith in March, my parents in May, David in June, Rachel and Mindy in October, and other people I’m probably forgetting (sorry!).  While it’s nice knowing that I’m friends with people all over the country, it’s incredibly hard to not have real friends of my own in the city I do actually live in.

This was the year I attempted to change that.  Besides hanging out with coworkers outside of work for the first time, I also started my Master’s program at UIC in August, for secondary education with an English concentration.  Obviously, I didn’t choose to go back to school specifically to make friends, but the group of people that I met through my program are honestly some of the best people I could have ever hoped to meet in grad school.  Speaking of which, I’m in love with being back in school.  I feel intellectually stimulated and challenged in ways in which I never was during undergrad.  No one valued my intelligence at any of the jobs I’ve had since I graduated in 2007 and it feels so good to be immersed in an academic setting where people actually give a shit about what you think.  Lately, I’ve been toying with the idea of eventually getting my PhD in English so that I’m able to teach at both the high school and college level.  I don’t know if I’d actually go through with this (since it’s a ton of time/money), but it feels really good to be able to have options.

Besides being more social and going back to school, I also traveled a fair amount in 2010: a quick Tucson trip for my Dad’s surprise 60th birthday party in January, NYC for Valentine’s Day, Pittsburgh for my 25th birthday in April, Los Angeles for Fourth of July, NYC again in September to see Pavement, and a few more Tucson trips, including last weekend for Christmas.  Although I’m trying to save money, in 2011 I really hope I can go somewhere over spring break and maybe plan a big summer trip too.

I’m not really sure how I managed to keep writing while going to school and working full-time, but somehow I did it.  I wrote for a few new sites this year (PopMatters, Chicago Innerview), but neither really stuck and I’m closing out the year with Chicagoist, Tiny Mix Tapes, and Spinner.  I wish I could have freelanced a bit more this year, but I know there’s always time for that next year or when I finish school in 2012.  I also neglected Pop Apocalypse A LOT once school started, which doesn’t really bother me as much as you would think.  I’m not over it, but I think I’ve moved on in some ways and I don’t feel this obsessive need to update it all the time.

I don’t think 2010 was necessarily one of the best years of my life, but I think it was the sort of solid year I needed to prove certain things to myself about my future.  And now that I’m at the end of it, I think I have a little bit more insight as to what I want out of life.  Here’s to continuing clarity in 2011.

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