Happy 2019! Time keeps marching on and one day bleeds into the next, though I find the end of the year calls for pause and reflection on what the heck happened over the last year and contemplation regarding what one hopes the next year might bring. I’m not much of a goal setter, if I want to do something I’ll generally just go for it and I either succeed or fail, I like to just wing it, so no New Years resolutions for me. I will say that 2018 will always be significant in my mind and I anticipate 2019 will be as well, mostly because so much has happened and so much more needs to happen.

We started 2018 with no idea if the Scotland thing would happen or not. If we didn’t get our UK visas we were still planning on leaving the Seattle area but hadn’t 100% settled on where. We were both shocked to actually get the TechNation endorsement that allowed for us to obtain our visas. The move to Scotland happened so quickly that we didn’t really have much time to register the move in our brains until we were here in Scotland. It was an utterly overwhelming process and I feel like we made it beyond some of the most challenging parts of our move in 2018, like getting the dogs here, finding housing, getting accounts set up (bank, utilities, phones, etc.), obtaining our NINos, getting the dogs sorted with a new diet (yes, this was a big problem initially), registering with a general practitioner, and so on and so on. We tore down our lives and started over from scratch in 2018.

I really pictured things looking a little different for us by this point. I felt confident that we’d both be employed and fairly settled by Christmas. The reality is that I am only now beginning the job search and my husband is still searching for steady employment. Fortunately, he has had a few freelance gigs since we arrived, which helped. Other things that I hadn’t fully anticipated were how many wonderful people we would meet in 2018, that I would be doing aerials again, that I’d discover the magic of the flying trapeze, that I would already have delved back into dog agility (even competed already), that we’d both be so in love with Glasgow, that we’d be the subject of a tv show, and just so much more. We have been extremely blessed.

I don’t have any real goals for 2019 but do have some things in mind that I hope might occur. The job thing has to happen fairly soon in order for us to stay here, so hopefully at the end of the year we’ll be celebrating having jobs. That’s not neccessarily something that I hope will happen or that’s a goal, but rather something that absolutely has to happen since our survival here depends on it. We’re looking at moving to a different flat in the spring since our flat is so damn expensive, so hopefully that works out. I would like to improve enough on the trapeze (either static, swinging or flying) that I’d feel confident putting together a performance by the end of the year, not necessarily performing but being able to if I wanted. I also hope to indulge my creative side more, which includes writing songs with my husband and maybe performing again. I don’t know, I suppose the list could go on but it would be cool if these things occurred. Of course, I hope for all that good health kind of stuff as well.

In other news, we had a great Christmas and New Years! For Christmas it was just us and the dogs and we opened gifts (the dogs had a lot of gifts and each had a stocking), had some great slow cooked stew, went for a walk, and relaxed. We were supposed to spend NYE at a friend’s place but Ryan wasn’t feeling well so we stayed back, chilled and had a nice evening. With the holidays concluded, businesses are starting to open again here in Scotland and I’m back to my circus classes, which I’m really happy about. People are now back in town after being away for the holidays, kids are back in school (I can hear them rejoicing in play at recess right around the corner), university is bringing the older “kids” back, and life is resuming as normal. I enjoyed the quiet that came over Glasgow for the holidays but it feels nice to have the city come back to life now.

Well, I suppose that’s it for now. In summary, I will say that this will go down in history as one of the most overwhelming and challenging years I’ve ever had but also one of the most exciting as well. I love Scotland and I hope this coming year further solidifies our truly becoming a part of this place.  I think on NYE of 2019 I will have more to reflect on than ever, I look forward to that and hope that I am smiling like an idiot while I do so.

Note regarding the photo attached to this post: Our friends gave us a gift bag full of all things Scotland (ok, all things that will fit into a bag), which we’ve already consumed half of. Such a cool and thoughtful gift!