Happy New Year!

Last week was exhausting.

In a good way.

I’ve been a teacher for thirty-three years and for the seventeen years prior to being a teacher, I was a student, so my years don’t start on January 1st, they start in the middle of August, and therefore, last week was the beginning of a new year.

New beginnings make me think about past beginnings, so I was thinking about the past few beginnings and thinking this year’s beginning is the best one in a very long time. It's also not the new beginning that I expected a few short months ago.

If you’ve been following along, you know the last couple of years have been fraught with drama and despair and just in general not being sure about anything at all. The only thing I was sure of was that I wanted something entirely different. Kind of. Maybe not entirely.

I still wanted to be in love, but I wanted to be in love with someone else - someone who accepts that all the complications in my life make me who I am and loves me anyway.

I still wanted to be a teacher, but I wanted to teach somewhere else - somewhere where what I do is appreciated and I have colleagues with whom I can collaborate.

I still wanted to be a parent, but…    

You’re thinking I wanted to be the parent of someone else’s children - right?

Oh, come on. Really? 

No. 

I just wanted my children to be okay and my stress level to decrease just a tad where they are concerned. 

This year has started off with a new job - one that actually has benefits.

This year has started off with my kids being more okay than they’ve been in a long time.

And most importantly, I’m starting this year off in love with someone who knows that the job and kids are part of who I am and he’s okay with that and he loves me anyway.

So this week I started a new year. 

With a new attitude.

And sleep deprivation.

I’ll catch up eventually. 

Or not.

Whatever. 

Sleep is overrated. 

Enjoying life when it’s good is better. 

You can follow me on Twitter: @CeceliaHalbert