The Year in Review

Dear 2010,

You were awesome. Seriously. I mean, 2006 was cool and all-- yeah, I met a pretty decent guy that year-- but you were better. This year I got to buy a house with that pretty decent guy, and go camping, and hear him introduce me as my wife, a writer, and we found a chicken in the snow!

You rock.

Sincerely,

Kristina

2010 dawned direction-less and a little desperate, truth be told. I was proud of (and have always been proud of) how we love and how we live. But the holy trinity of successful adult-hood is supposed to be: home, relationship, career. At least in this part of the world. This time last year, I was mired in indecision, trying to determine what on earth I wanted to be when I grew up. In 2008, I wanted to have a blockbuster Etsy shop. In 2009, I dabbled in starting a lettuce farm. And then early in 2010 I remembered--duh!-- that I've really always wanted to be a writer. How did that fact escape me?

The story of how I started writing--for money!-- for the first time in my life is wrapped up in the story of our new house. It was May when the offer we'd made was accepted, June when I spilled the beans about the place. In between, there were two weeks of rabidly trolling Gilbertsville job-boards, coming to the worrisome conclusion that there are approximately zero jobs I am qualified for/have opportunity for advancement in/actually like in the area. Corollary to that, pacing and fretting and nail-biting. I needed something I could do anywhere, that I was good at. And then I remembered that I could write.

And I immediately walked inside and checked out my favorite freelance writing job board, and 48 hours later I was a writer for a sustainability website.

It was a deliciously thrilling 48 hours.

The writing isn't paying any bills for the moment (at least not any major ones), but there is a future in it. What I've found is someone I work well with, a company I believe in, and work I enjoy doing. My fingers are pretty tightly crossed that by the end of 2011, it'll be paying bills for me, as well.

I also wrote an article for Edible Fingerlakes this year, and saw it published. I'd love to share it here, but for the time being if you'd like to read it you'll have to buy an issue. I'm going to have an article in the spring issue, as well.

All this has given me the temerity to say, Hello, World! I'm a writer now! It's the words I've been wanting to say my whole entire life.

Okay, I'm going to stop crowing now. I mean it.

2011 is going to be a year of work. Painting work and wiring work and plumbing work, garden work and yard work and kitchen work, writing work and more writing work. It is going to be a year of tight finances, but we are level to that task. It is also going to be a year of joy. We have arrived at the place, that place we've wanted since our beginning. Our place of community, for putting down roots. 2010 gave us direction, and from here it's forward, ho!