Reflecting and Celebrating

One year ago, I was stressed out about being in a very unsettled place, not knowing where we would live or what kind of job I would have after my postdoc finished. Two years ago, I was in my first postdoc position and was fairly unhappy with my job. Three years ago, I had just been diagnosed with my cavernous malformation, after experiencing my first bleed. Four years ago, my life was filled with the unknowns of where I would be for my clinical internship, and whether Jeff and I would be living in the same city.

While I no doubt have my share of stressors this year, they are different – still a lot of uncertainty, yes, but a different kind of uncertainty. In a lot of ways, things are starting to settle for us-- we are no longer living year-to-year, never knowing what will come next. As long as we do our jobs, we can stay here as long as we like. There is of course no way to know exactly what the future will hold, but at least now it doesn't seem like an ominous impending cliff. It has instead become a giant mountain, which I may never quite be able to climb, but at least now it's about hard work and perseverance and taking try after try, as opposed to trying to steer clear of some unseen pit, not knowing exactly where it is or when it will show up. Different kinds of challenges. I can't help but wonder what next year will bring.

Yesterday was my birthday, and we celebrated by having people over for cake in the afternoon. It was a small party, with a few people from work, and some friends who are also new faculty here, who we met when we first arrived. Two of our colleagues from work brought small children with them, and the balloons we blew up and had sitting on the floor turned out to be a big hit. At one point one of the kids decided that since it was my birthday I should be buried in balloons. It was total chaos for a couple of minutes, and Jeff tried to catch it with the camera, but just got the tail end:

A good time was had by all.

Update: The video should now work :)