Peace and Quiet with an Occasional Ripple

It's that time of year when we review the year in all of its glory or infamy. Some years pass quietly and others leave their mark. This year will have to be a banner year for infamy. There was the usual work stress, getting investigated and having it turn out to be a lot of stress for naught but entertainment to the powers that be, moving job locations which required speedy packing and finishing loose ends, took on two different grade levels to teach, underwent a plethora of tests for a suspicious medical concern that made me walk around like a stunned deer until the negative confirmation was given and I could breathe once again, throw in a leaky roof that has yet to be addressed, and let's just call it a year.

On the flip side, getting investigated made me realize how my job location and management was the source of a deep unhappiness that I'd been carrying for so long and that unhappiness dissipated almost immediately when I applied elsewhere. I've been very content with my new school, students, and staff. A job contentment that I haven't had for...about seven years (that's how long I was at my old location).

The health concern and the battery of tests, while an entirely different level of OMG stress, has left me knowing that they could find absolutely nothing wrong with me and that is a confidence booster (no thanks to a surgery happy G.A. who scared the living daylights out of me by saying I needed to have surgery on December 22).

I visited my brother in the mountains during the summer and stress vanished in an instant. Spending my entire summer working on my novel and seeing it bear fruit by getting published has been wonderful.

As a writer, this year has provided an abundance of experiences and people to catalogue for future use in some tale I'm sure. It has indeed been a year of glory and infamy. While we learn from what life has to throw at us, there's something to be said for peace and quiet with an occasional ripple.