On The Past Year

As this blog has shifted from being about random crap to being vaguely about my life, I thought it might be good to reflect a bit on things that have happened to me in the past year. I have to say, that if I were prone to ups and downs, it would have been a year of just those things. However, now I think about it, that's probably the case for most people. I doubt anyone has years that are entirely up (though it would be kind of awesome) or all downs (which would suck really bad). Anyway, I don't do outlines or anything for my posts, so what to reflect on?

I have to say that I suffered a bit of disappointment this year. I graduated from BYU, and I learned something that I had started to expect, and that is that having a degree does not guarantee you the job you want. In fact, I have thus far found my college degree to be essentially useless, aside from the fact that I can say that I'm a trained professional when I end up teaching Sunday school on the spur of the moment. I even had pretty high hopes, and maybe even dreams, of getting a teaching job for a while, but those dreams ended up being closer to pipe dreams (not that I would know what those are like). I do, however, have some small bit of hope, nay, confidence, for this next year, and I feel that a teaching job is probably within my grasp.

I did a whole crapload of awesome stuff this last year. Nineteen canyon descents in one year is by no means a record, but it is still pretty amazing, especially considering that about four years ago I would never have seen myself as a canyoneer. I had a bit of a fear of heights, and, of course, I was pretty fat (I still am, really.). However, canyoneering has quickly become  by very favorite pastime, and the more I do it the more I want. The fact that gear is expensive is a bit of a deterrent, but I can't let that stop me for long! I could also point out my occasional forays into the mountains, as well as an INSANE trip to Havasupai that, while it did leave me hobbling around like an old person for about two weeks, would still make a list of my life highlights.

I learned this year that unemployment is kind of awesome, though inconvenient in that you have no money.

In connection with teaching, I learned that I suck at interviewing. I think the time for me to ask for advice in this area has probably come, and I intend to seek that advice from trusted sources, because I'm afraid the Internet isn't very helpful. As much as I follow the advice I read there, I still suck at interviewing.

So, I'd say that about covers the things I feel like reflecting on from the past year. Though, I will say (ambiguously) that my life has hit a definite high point at the end of the year, and not from any of the aforementioned things, either. That being said, I make an end in my usual way.

This is Captain Danger out.