Can you believe it? This past week I traveled to Texas to visit my family and was amazed once again at the differences between an urban suburban Dallas and Boston. I lived in Dallas over 10 years ago. It's unbelievable how Dallas and the outlying areas have grown. We drove and drove and kept passing the same type of cookie cutter developments. Everything is new - shopping centers, restaurants, malls, colleges, and subdivisions. An emerging subculture of no culture just more of the same.
I also became wistful thinking about who I was over 10 years ago and the people that my family were. We've all grown in different directions but have evolved into the same direction if that makes sense. And how pivotal the last two years have been for me personally. They have been very trying but there's been some good to go with what seems like an overwhelming list of bad.
1) It all started when I was assaulted at my home in February 2003
2) That summer I decided that I wanted to pursue the idea of going to law school
3) I crashed on my bike and tore my rotator cuff ending my MTB season/amateur career in September of that same year
4) A few months later, I lost my stepfather unexpectedly in a car crash two days after Christmas
5) In April 2004, I met BF in Nashville but discovered that he was going back to Boston in July
6) In October, my mentor and boss of 8 years passed away suddenly of a heart attack.
7) I applied to law schools in the Southeast and New England
8) In April I was accepted by schools in Boston and RI
9) In May I sold my house and gave notice of my resignation to the company I had been working at for 9 years
10) BF and I moved in together in Boston in July
11) I started law school in August
12) I lost my grandfather in October after a long illness
13) My grandmother went into the hospital and suffered major complications in November
14) I finished my first semester of law school and went home to visit my family in Texas.
Of course, this is just an overview of some of the majors or rather the things that I've reflected on in the past week. I haven't even made any new year's resolutions. It seems that I'm always making a "resolution" to be healthier, happier, get in more shape, become more efficient in how I study, to learn how to knit, to try acupuncture, to race again. More often than not, I'm just focusing on putting one foot in front of the other and taking it one day at a time while remembering the big picture and the overall insignificance of all the little things in life.
