New Year's introspection (one day late)

So apparently I didn't have enough patience for self-reflection to complete the Reverb 10 thingy. As others have pointed out, there were a lot of prompts that seemed to want me to talk about defining moments, and really, last year went by in more of a blur than anything else. But I can handle the meme below, which I'm quite sure I've done before.

1. What did you do in 2010 that you'd never done before?
Worked for a law firm. Worked in a clinic and had my very own clients. Helped organize a moot court competition. Made offers to authors and edited their articles. Billed my time in .1/hr increments. Got a clerkship.

2. Did you keep your 2010 resolutions, and will you make more this year?
I don't remember what my 2010 resolutions were, though I suspect that's because I didn't make any. I don't think I've made any specific resolutions for this year, either, though I would like to manage my work-life balance a little better.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
A variety of online friends had babies. A couple of classmates. None of them were people who are incredibly close to me, though - my life continues largely baby-free.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Yes, my aunt - the one I stayed with while doing dissertation research, who took me to lunch at Harrod's (where they carved my salmon en croute at my table) and took me to York for a long weekend just because I'd never been there and wanted to see it.

5. What countries did you visit?
England, to attend my aunt's funeral. In February. Not the country's best time of year, honestly.

6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?
A living space I'm happy with that's bigger than <600 sq. ft. In particular, a DESK of my OWN (ideally, in a room of its own. Because that will make studying for the bar much easier!). And a bar passage, now that you mention it.

7. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
God knows. Surviving law school? Taking on a whole slew of law-school related things and juggling them semi-successfully? (We'll have to see what my fall grades looked like to know how semi-successful I was over the whole year.)

8. What was your biggest failure?
Getting really cranky about a service obligation (or what would be a service obligation if I were still faculty - not sure what to call it as a student) that I didn't really choose to take on, and letting the ball drop on elements of it. What's particularly classy is that I think I've sort of managed to give the impression that it wasn't my fault, but the fault of a faculty/staff person also involved in this endeavor. I haven't actively said it was hir fault, but when people have blamed hir, I haven't corrected them. (That's partly because I do think ultimately the buck rests with the faculty/staff people whose brainchild this was, not us students who had the project dumped on us. But also partly because I'm a bad person.)

9. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nothing that I can remember. I'm sure I had a summer cold in there somewhere, but thankfully, it was a pretty healthy year.

10. What was the best thing you bought?
My iPhone. God, I love that thing! (AT&T, not so much, but they were my carrier before the iPhone, so at least I'm not really any worse off.)

11. Whose behavior merited celebration?
I'm going to go with the Chilean miners. Nothing like the amazing example of people trapped underground for umpteen days who don't give up to put my petty problems in perspective.

12. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Off the top of my head, I'm going to say Haley Barbour. But I'm sure I could come up with many more if you gave me a moment.

13. Where did most of your money go?
Food, I think. And rent, although since NLLDH handles the rent, I'd say food is what I, personally, spent the most on in the sense of taking out my wallet and paying for something. (I'd say school, but that's just where my debt has come from. The money won't start going to it until I graduate!)

14. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer?
a) pretty much the same - if anything, though, happier; b) I think pretty much the same - I've been avoiding the scale! c) not much different in terms of day to day life, but poorer in the sense that I've accumulated more debt!

15. What do you wish you'd done more of?
The usual - exercise. Or spending more of my non-working time actively doing something fun, rather than just not working.

16. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Sitting in a chair working for 10 hours straight panicking that I won't get everything done in time.

17. Did you fall in love in 2010?
Stayed in love.

18. What was the best new book you read?
Freshest in my mind is The Hunger Games, although I'm pretty sure it's only new to me. I also really liked Tana French's latest book (though not quite as much as her first two, which are sublime). 

19. What was your favorite film of the year?
Honestly, my favorite was probably How to Train Your Dragon. I'm not saying it was the best film out there, but it was still my favorite. (But I really didn't see that many movies last year!)

20. What kept you sane?
Who said I'm sane??

21. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010.
(I think I've said this already, but) I've learned that I have become someone who would rather do a whole ton of different things reasonably well, than focus my efforts and do one or two things REALLY REALLY well. Not sure what all the implications of this are, but it's useful to acknowledge that if I'm going to try to do everything, I probably can't do everything equally well. It's either a healthy balanced approach, or it's a way to avoid failure (because if I haven't tried my best at something, well, then, it isn't really a failure when I don't achieve my best, right? Yeah).

(Will just conclude by saying that really, 2010 was a fairly decent year for me, so I feel very lucky. Here's hoping that things just get better in 2011!)

Comments

[rented life]

How to Train Your Dragon was great!
And thank you for #21. I feel that way, but most people are like "why don't you focus on one thing?" I get bored. I don't enjoy it.

[Clancy]

I think I might like to read the Hunger Games books, but I'll have to get over my disgust with the name "Katniss" first.

[comebacknikki]

Oh, I'm so with you on #21! I think it's that damn liberal arts education that poisoned my mind. ;-)

I haven't read any of the Hunger Games books yet -- they're on my disgustingly long to-read list for this year.

[Fabgrad.blogspot.com]

I totally feel you on #21...jack of all trades master of none and all that :)