New Year's Eve

Although classes don't start until Monday, obligations begin tomorrow. I'm fine with this fact. Not that sleeping in, reading copiously (leisure books even!), exercising and eating remarkably well have done me wrong, it is just that vacation did what it was supposed to do. My summer was effective in proving ample time for rejuvenation and now, I'm ready for another year.

This upcoming year, my second year (!), I will continue to work as a graduate research assistant although specific assignments will be clarified tomorrow, I presume I will continue to work on the same projects I worked on last year and throughout this summer.

Iowa City is morphing back into a beloved college town. Again the mean age of Iowa City is declining as first year graduate students and then undergraduates make their way back for the academic year. My section of the apartment building saw serious turnover this year. Of the 8 apartments only two of us have stayed (and even then the other person moved from a studio to a larger apartment.) It appears I am the only one to have stayed put.

After staying here a year, I realized that there are many things I LOVE about Iowa; the fact I can get ANYWHERE in under 15 minutest (usually it only takes less than 10,) the Shakespeare festival, the friendly and pragmatic culture, the heirloom tomatoes at the farmers market, the Amish grocery store. These are all things I love about being here, but the previous paragraph describes how living in Iowa City can be so hard...people leave. Sure the converse is that new people come, but transiency makes it difficult to establish deeper relationships with people.

For instance, the other day when I realized that ALL BUT ONE of my closest friends in IC will leave at the end of this school year. Ugh. I'm happy for them that they will finish and get to do amazing things, but it is hard knowing that they will leave. Friends came and went it Denver, but here, I feel like on a treadmill of friendships, making friends as a student here never really stops. On the bright side, most people I meet tend to be amazing people. They are down-to-Earth thoughtful, intelligent and fun people. And so I continue to forge friendships and nurture what I have. All the while thankful for friends of my past, that check in on occasion, just to say 'hi.'