Two-Thousand and Thirteen

Come New Years Eve tomorrow night, I think I will be heaving a huge sigh of relief.
This year, in comparison to last year, feels polar opposite. Simply because it felt static, boring and almost wasted.
Some highlights were:
A family reunion in New Zealand, enjoying each others company and the LOTR scenery.
I love hanging out with my mums side of the family and we always have a lot of fun when we do spend some time together.
I completed Cert IV in TESOL and a Cert III in Education Support. I did learn that I love working with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse communities and in education settings.
Moving to a new city.
Landing my dream(albeit short term) job.

Despite all these wonderful things, this year still felt flat. Part of the reason was that I wasn’t over my reverse culture shock until the middle of the year. Eight months. That’s how long it took for me to be okay with being back home, 2 more months then I was away for. It was frustrating, painful and lonely. I either ostracized, or was ostracized from all my old friends and none of my new friends understood me. I was always talking about Israel/Palestine or Arabic, or some Arab country and usually it was completely out of context. And to top it all off, I had some pretty unpopular opinions.
It was hard.

Those words have been staring there for the last hour, staring at me. ‘It was hard.’ What do I follow that with? ‘But NOW everything is rainbows and kittens, yay!’
I still miss it, I still tell the same stories over and over again, I still talk too much about subjects not everyone cares about. I’m still lonely.
But I am okay with being in Australia. Finally. I’m even okay with living here for a long time.
A lot of it has to do with moving to Darwin and discovering how much I LOVE working in education.

I am excited for 2014. I am excited to continue working in education, studying for my Diploma and travelling some more.

See ya later 2013, I won’t miss you.