Reminiscing at the close…

2020-12-30

4 years ago at this time I was just arriving in Ottawa to start my “new” job with the CFIA… it was a chaotic and incredibly hard and emotional time.
Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s I had…
1. gone into the hospital for 2 calcium-magnesium infusions… (due to the damage to my parathyroids from the thyroidectomy 6 months prior)…
2. taken a “forced” 10 day trip to PEI with Tyra as a celebration to “relax” before defending my PhD… (apparently my anxiety – which started in August – was stressing EVERYONE out…)…
3. packed up my entire house to get it ready to sell – shipping some stuff, selling some stuff, donating most stuff…(only finishing because of Elaine, Michelle, Jo-Anne, Ashley, and all of their spouses)…
4. defended my PhD… (probably the easiest part of that entire period)…
5. published the first article from said PhD…
6. held 3 VAST fundraisers in 3 provinces to fund the 2 weeks of activities we were holding in Nepal… (thanks to help from Amanda, Hillary, Luke, Rhonda, and Jeff, amongst others)…
7. conducted 2 workshops and held 3 clinics in Nepal, and taught a short course at one of the vet colleges… (with some assistance from Sunisha, Sudarshan, and Rabindra)…
8. completed a 5 week internship in New Zealand analysing antimicrobial usage in livestock, and likelihood of there being a correlation in antimicrobial resistance… (fyi – there was none…)
9. gotten stuck in Beijing for 30 hours because of volcanic eruptions in the Pacific creating an inability for planes to fly…
10. gotten dumped by the guy I thought was going to be my “forever”…
11. and driven across the country through a crazy number of storms, narrowly avoiding an insane number of accidents (wildlife, black ice, white outs, out-of-control other vehicles…)…

It just goes to show… you absolutely never know what is going to happen next.

So keep your eyes wide open, and don’t be so busy planning for tomorrow that you forget to savour today. Challenges can be gateways, complications can be blessings, and obstacles can be beginnings, but if you miss the opportunities you may not get to experience those joys – we don’t always get a second chance.

And sometimes…. like 2020… the new pathways can create hardship and devastation – during which the memories of the good times are needed in order to maintain hope.

So Happy New Year everyone…
May your troubles be less, and your blessings be more. And nothing but happiness come through your door.