On This Last Day of 2010....

Believe me when I say that coming home can be quite an adventure in itself!! Yes, I'm posting from my mother's house in Benicia. And if you are interested in hearing about my journey back to California...then you are going to have to wait some more.

Every year, I like to think about my "resolutions". I put those in quote because I don't make them. I normally think about what I leave in that year. This is my reverse resolutions and say what I'm not going to do anymore. For example, every year I would say I leave smoking behind, only to not quit. In fact, the year that I did actually quit, I hadn't really planned on it. I just wanted to see how long I could go without smoking. Turns out, quite a while. Good to know.

Anyways, this last year was such a whirlwind of change. This time last year, my biggest plans were that I was going to take a trip to Hawaii. That was a huge goal of mine. I could look up my goals, but they are still packed away so too bad for me. The point is, if someone had told me that within a year I would be teaching in a Yup'ik Eskimo village in the middle of the Alaskan Bush, I wouldn't have believed you. I didn't think I had it in me. So there's no way I can say what I'm going to do this year....because honestly, I have no idea what's next. I am planning on staying in the village next year, but it's not up to me.

I'll be honest with you....I've been flying by the seat of my pants since March when I got pink slipped. My decision to go to Anchorage for a job fair was made on a whim. My preparation was well thought out and throughly conducted but every thing else was just a lark. It's almost as if life had grabbed me and taken me along for the ride. All I had to do was say, "Why not?"

It's been incredibly freeing to just let go instead of talking myself out of things like I had done the last decade. Professionally, I was in heaven. Everything was going great. I love teaching and every year I feel I am becoming a better teacher. My hope is to become a great teacher (which I think will take another five years at least). But personally, I was not being true to myself.

I want my life with a little bit of danger thrown in. I want to take the path through the woods instead of the big road. I want to stand outside watching a lunar eclipse on the winter solstice in -2 degrees. I want to notice that there are hundreds more stars behind the constellation Orion. I want to make something work in my life that wasn't working before.

Moving to Alaska was a crazy move. I'll admit it, it's not for everyone. You have to be a little crazy to do it. Like bridge jumping....or sky diving....you just let go. With the proper equipment and preplanning of course.