Can you believe that I've been blogging at Pieces of Anna for an entire year now? In honor of this momentous occasion, let's recap what happened in the past year.
I started this blog to figure out what it is that I like to do in my spare time, after I realized that most of my hobbies had slowly disappeared from my life. Well, I'm happy to report that some hobbies have made a (re)appearance! But more than that, the blog has slowly evolved beyond this singular purpose into an outlet that allows me to record fragments of my life in writing.
So what have I been up to lately? Let's see.
I started this blog to figure out what it is that I like to do in my spare time, after I realized that most of my hobbies had slowly disappeared from my life. Well, I'm happy to report that some hobbies have made a (re)appearance! But more than that, the blog has slowly evolved beyond this singular purpose into an outlet that allows me to record fragments of my life in writing.
My life, in a nutshell. |
So what have I been up to lately? Let's see.
- Despite my aspirations for a career change, science will always be my first love. Chemistry never ceases to fascinate me, and if I could choose to stay in any scientific career, I would definitely become a chemist. For an amazing marriage of photography and chemistry, check out The Elements by Theodore Gray. Trust me, you will not be disappointed.
- And yet, I'm still gunning for that career change. More than a year of research and soul searching has not resulted in any definitive conclusions, but I can positively say that I would like writing to be a major part of my new career. It may be in the form of science writing, but I'm certainly not limiting myself to that one category. Meanwhile, I actually have some news on that front - my research into science writing is no longer purely theoretical. Surprise! In my infinite wisdom, I decided to take on the opportunity of a lifetime and start a three-month long internship as a science communicator... three months before the wedding. And no, I did not quit my day job. I'm actually now working TWO jobs at the same time! And planning a wedding! No one ever said career change would be easy.
- Science writing is one option for the new career, but I could be just as happy writing about decorating and DIY projects. Sometime in the past several years, I discovered the world of decorating blogs, and I fell in love. If you had told me five years ago that I would get crazy excited about rearranging the living room or refinishing furniture, I would have looked at you as if you had three heads. It's a side of me I never knew existed, but now that it's here, there is no going back. I have a growing collection of decorating books and actually making things by hand brings me much happiness (and instant gratification). To be able to say, "Look! I made that!" is priceless. Even if you don't have a decorating bone in your body, but would still like to live in a cozy, inviting home, check out The Perfectly Imperfect Home by Deborah Needleman. It's worth it just for the illustrations alone.
- But there is more to my life than just science, writing, and decorating. As part of our wedding preparations, we started taking salsa lessons! See those old, beat-up dance shoes in the photo? Well, those are not actually my salsa shoes (I just bought those last week, and they are still nice and shiny and new). Those are my old ballroom dancing shoes. Dancing has been a huge part of my life since I was in grade school, and as my hobbies slowly dissipated out of my busy "adult" life, I had forgotten how much joy dancing brings me. In my life, I've done ballet, ballroom, swing, tango, and even a little bit of tap and belly dancing. Our salsa lessons give me something to look forward to on Monday nights, and I am hoping to keep on dancing even after the wedding is over.
- And yes, of course the other big thing that happened last year is that D and I got engaged! (Bonus points if you can find the engagement ring in the above photo.) So the craziness of wedding planning has been part of our lives for over half a year now, and with three months to go, I can't wait to be married already. Meanwhile, I have to say that despite being super annoying at times, wedding planning has given me ample opportunity to work out that DIY muscle, and I am grateful for that. And for the whole getting married part, of course.
It's on your shoe!!
ReplyDeleteAnd hey, congrats on the internship. I'm interested to hear what that entails. I too sometimes wonder what else I might like to do. There are days I love my work but also a lot of days when it feels very monotonous. You know, all the parts between doing actual exciting science, which it turns out, is most of it.
Yay! Bonus points go to greyandshiny :)
DeleteAnd thanks! I'm planning to do a post at some point about the internship, but I'm holding off on that for now because a) the internship only started recently and it's difficult to coherently describe what it entails at this point, and b) I'm trying to figure out how much I can and am willing to put on the internet. But I will write about it one day.
Hey congratulations. For all of those achievements. And that writing internship sounds super exciting.
ReplyDeleteI also love chemistry (a little secret or not so secret, in high school I went to the chemistry olympics and was champion of my state ). I wanted to study pharmacology, then went in a more medical direction(.
Oh and I also found the ring I swear, before I saw the comment above by greyandshiny.
And wedding to come, how exciting.
All the best ! And glad I found you.
Thanks, Amanda! And you get bonus points, too!
DeleteChemistry olympics is tough, that's really impressive that you were the state champion.
Thanks ;) Then I went to nationals' and I wasn't prepared enough, but it was a nice experience.
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