Dear Auna,
I’m addressing this to you because it’s hard to write a letter to nobody in particular, and because you moved to the other side of the country, which is really lame.
This year felt short. And not just because it isn’t a leap year. I think I can safely say there was never a single moment when I felt bored. Overwhelmed, sometimes; stressed, yes; but never bored! Maybe that’s weird to say, since I’ve been in school all year. I guess teaching might be a decent profession for me after all.
It’s getting dark so early. Maybe that shouldn’t be surprising since we’re so close to the equinox. It feels like I’ve been holed up in my apartment working on finals for too long, and I’m almost looking forward to all the errands that need to get done once I have a little more time: finding new fluorescent lightbulbs for the kitchen, getting an oil change, doing file backups. It’s like I’m a real adult.
Part of the journey of becoming a linguist is losing my “native speaker of English” card. I continue to commit spelling blunders like schoulders, sneak peak, schoor (score), beaing, sours (source), vallies, and all manner of other usage heresies. A sacrifice to the profession.
On the other hand, in honor of things that are improving, here’s a list of things that I couldn’t do at the start of this year that I can do now:
- Teach English as a second language. I got a real classroom this year! Technically I was a co-teacher and only taught Tuesdays and Thursdays, but it still counts.
- Use a dating app. Yep, I finally decided to swallow my pride and step into the twenty-first century in my pursuit of true love. It’s a learning curve, but I’ve met some cool people.
- Do a jig. Since I joined Brandon’s Celtic band in April, I’ve been wanting to learn how to dance along in a culturally appropriate way. So I took Irish dance this semester!
- “Publish” some writing. After years and years of writing little stories in Microsoft Word ever since I was probably 5, I finally came up with something that I thought was worth sharing publicly! You should go read it. It’s not as funny as the devils-and-corndogs one though.
- Make a color-changing tea from random plants on people’s lawns. This one’s your fault.
- Play mariachi music on a train. Yeah…this one I really didn’t see coming. 10/10 experience though.
- Sing along to Japanese karaoke. One of my classmates in Japanese 301 invited the class over for a karaoke party and had a Japanese-region Wii. My Japanese reading still wasn’t good enough to keep up with all of the songs, but it was a true cultural experience, and I did my duty and belted out Nandemonaiya when the time came.
Also I blew up our oven this year. So there’s that.
Merry Christmas! I hope it feels Christmassy in Florida even if you’re not getting heaps of snow. May life go well for you and your husband, and may next year be at least as chaotic as this one.
Best wishes,
Eric ∎