Wowza. This has been some year. To keep this manageable, I’ll just list some of the major events.

Conferences:

• Accepted to Michigan Academy of Arts, Science, and Letters to present my work on the Green Golden Age of spinsters in American regionalist fiction in March (couldn’t attend due to scheduling conflicts).
• Accepted to present a chapter of my thesis at the International Virginia Woolf Conference in Chicago this June.
• Accepted to present on the use of contact zones to facilitate reading/writing instruction at the Great Lakes Conference on Teaching and Learning here at CMU in May.
• Although technically not a conference, I presented some work on L2 writing feedback at a faculty meeting that my co-presenters and I plan to adapt into a conference presentation for MITESOL and TESOL next year.

Travel:

• I’ve seen a good chunk of the mitten this year. Traverse City for my birthday, several trips to Grand Rapids for records/yarn, and many planned trips to the beach this summer.
• Going home for a bit in April. I’ll get the chance to see friends and family and reconnect with the people I care about the most.
• Chicago in June for the Woolf conference. This trip is extremely exciting for me. I’m going to spend the time attending the conference, touring museums, visiting sites I haven’t seen during my other trips to Chicago, and taking in the more intellectual side of the city.
• My family is taking a trip to England and Wales this summer. My grandmother has kindly decided to fund this trip so we can enjoy some quality time together. She has spent very little time outside of Laclede county, so my grandmother is more excited about this trip than anything else in her life. I’m so happy for her. We’re touring the Raglan castle in Wales which is said to be where my Grandmother’s family came from.

Professional:

• I’m now working on my M.A. TESOL at CMU. I’m trying to take two courses a semester until I graduate. I’m moving a little slower, but I think Clint and I should graduate at the same time.
• Taking these classes is a little bit of a challenge, however, because I’m also working full-time in the ELI. I can balance the two, but it’s not a walk in the park. I keep telling myself, “You can do anything, even the most awful, unimaginable, stressful craziness for two years. It’s just two years.” I hope I’m right!
• This is hard to categorize, but this year I feel like I’ve become exponentially better at teaching. I’m creating a large portion of my materials myself, I’m juggling three different levels successfully, and I’m experimenting with methods to find what works for me. I think my students are benefiting from my dedication, and I’m doing a much better job maintaining the standards my department holds. Language teaching is infinitely different from teaching composition or literature to native speakers. I’ve had to reinvent the wheel, but now it’s rolling smoothly.
• This might seem silly, but I’m finally financially stable enough to buy a Macbook Pro. I used to be a strict Linux fangirl, but I’ve changed my ways (due to certain software restrictions and the ease of grading) and want something reliable that just works. I knew the iPhone would be a gateway drug!

Whew! I wonder what other incredible things will happen this year?