Because I'm happy…

Happy weekend, everyone!

I wanted to take a moment to reflect a little bit, because as the seasons are (supposed to be) changing, I'm realizing how different this year is from last year, weather aside.

This time last year, I was scrambling to find a job. The days on my visa were quickly ticking away and I was really dreading the idea of being deported in October (just 3 days before my birthday). I was bored. I had no friends. No phone. No car. All I did was lay around the house and watch TV. I couldn't get a library card so unless I could download the ebook from my home library, I was book less and movie-less. I was insanely restless.

This time this year, I've been employed for nearly a year in a job that while, outside of my career field, gives me some flexibility to have a life and still affords me the ability to take weekend jaunts off to new countries and places. I have a VW Beetle, which was my childhood dream car. Mine is 17 years old and is rather quirky, but it's cute and it gets me where I need to go. I have a few friends. Navigating the military lifestyle while not being a spouse or belonging to a unit that has lots of get-togethers has made making friends a bit of a challenge and the friends that I have made have kids and families and very busy schedules, but hey… the lack of hangouts has given me time to expand my etsy/Facebook business a bit!

It is more than just a relief to have no fear of deportation this year, and in fact, the week of my birthday, we'll be cruising around and crossing more countries off of our list.

I guess it would be fair to say that I'm happy!