2006: A Year in Review

So, there are only a few more days in 2006, which means it's time to start looking ahead on the new year to come and to start reflecting on the one that passed.

2006 was a year of change for me. In a lot of ways, this was the year where I emerged from the limbo caused by my father's death and started getting my life back on track. I have plans and goals and some sort of crazy thing resembling a real life.

I got out of Castleton. Not that I don't love my hometown, it's always going to be home, but I needed to experience life beyond that tiny little town, see what else life has to offer. I always want Castleton to be there, a place I can go back to, but I also want more than that.

I went back to school. Studying had never been my strong suit in the past, but this past semester I did ok. I pulled down good grades and developed the kind of study habits it would have been nice to have at 13, instead of 23, but better late than never, right?

I've made a lot of headway personally, becoming the person I want to be and dealing with a lot of my issues. Not all of them, but a lot. I'm calmer and more stable, I think. I've begun to deal with things and to put them behind me, at least a little bit. I'm becoming who I need to be.

Then, there's Mark, of course. Definitely the best part of 2006. Being in a relationship took a little bit of adjustment for me, but it's definitely worth it. Mark is wonderful and amazing and I'm so glad I have him in my life.

So, all in all, 2006 was a pretty great year and there were a lot of changes, all for the better. Now the question is what will 2007 bring?

Final Grades

So, my semester is finished and I received my final grades back. I not only passed everything, I managed to do fairly well in most of my courses.

My low grades were Psych and Soc. which I predicted months ago. I finished with a 63% in Psych and a 67% in Soc. Not terribly high, but pretty good given how much I struggled in those two classes all semester long.

I got 74% in both Compostion (which would have been higher had I not failed an assignment early in the year) and Critical Aware Thinking and a 75% in Philosophy. All in all pretty good.

My best mark was an 80% in Lit! I'll admit that I would have been disapointed with anything less. I wanted that mark pretty badly since Lit was my favourite class and the one I found the easiest. Maybe that's a good sign about the future...

Anyway, I just thought I'd share my final marks with everyone. After years of poor grades, it's kinda nice to be able to talk about high grades for once!

Christmas Holidays

I have one more exam in a few hours, then I'm done and it's on to the Chrismtas holidays. Yay!

I'm still not sure exactly what holiday plans I have, but... Well, spontanity is fun, right? Right now, the plan goes: I'm heading home tonight and decoring the tree with Mom. Tomorrow I head to Toronto for the weekend. On Monda night, I go to Brantford until sometime near the end of the week, then I head back landing me in Castleton in time for Christmas, since that's a must.

Then, of course, it'll be the family stuff--yay! Get to see aunts, uncles and cousins and all that fun stuff. Plus lots of food. Christmas time has the best food or rather, at Christmas one gets the best food. I like food.

So, if I don't post before then (though I probably will), I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

Stress

So with three days left of school, plus Christmas and moving and all that fun stuff to follow, my life is very stressful at the moment. It seems like I'm doing a million things all at once and that's making me a little cranky.

Of course, Mom and I are fighting. What else is new? We get stressed and we snap at one another. Same old, same old. It just stresses me out even more, which means we fight more, it's a vicious circle.

Still, in three days school will be over and that pressure will be gone. Then, I just have to get through Christams, find an apartment and actually move. But, it should be easier when I don't have to think about exams and assignments and that fun stuff.

Exam Time and Christmas Shopping

So down to the final week of classes. Wow. The last fourteen weeks have flown by surprisingly quick. It seems like it all started only yesterday, though there were times when it seemed that it would never end (usually when I had a major project due).

I only have one essay left to do and that's almost finished and then it's just my five exams and that's it. I'm done. Wow. As of this moment my lowest grade is a 64% in Psych (which is my hardest course) and the rest of my grades are all in the 70s (mostly high 70s) and that's with a good portion of my marks back. I'm still waiting on most of my English (my best subject) marks though, it's the only subject where I have less than 50% of the course work currently graded.

So, I'm all done and then on to other things. I'll be moving out of my place here on the 15th and then into a new place (when I find one--though I have a few promising leads) on January 1st. Lots of things in motion right now, seems to all be happening quickly, but that's how it goes, I suppose.

On another note, I have finished about 80% of my Christmas shopping, which is good, I like having wrapped presents around--they put me in a Christmasy mood and I've found doing Christmasy things like shopping, wrapping presents and writign Christmas cards is a good stress-reliever, which is a good thing right about now.