A love type thing, a sure type thing

It's not that I don't like or appreciate New Years, but as far as the slate-wiping, leaf-turning, resolution-making part of the holiday goes, I typically feel like January 1st is a random-ass time for me to be initiating a self-improvement regimen. Having been a student for the last 16 years of my life, major changes tend to happen for me in the June/August area, not when I'm knee deep in snow. In the spirit of always looking out for Things That Will Let Me Know When I'm Really An Adult, I've always kind of assumed that it wouldn't be until I was older, when summers would become just another season of work, that I could pretend to seriously consider January a realistic time for self-enforced personal growth.

Hilariously enough, if my life is going to in any way resemble the plan I'm currently sketching out, I'll never actually be free of the summer break mentality. (Following my initial logic, I suppose, I've therefore achieved eternal youth. Eat your heart out, Ponce de León.) Also, considering the fact that tomorrow is my technical graduation date, immediately hurtling me, in theory, into Post-Graduation "WHAT NOW??" Land, this particular New Year is actually suited for its supposed status as the Turning Point for a New Linda, which might not happen again until my retirement.

All of this, incidentally, was just an attempt to make me more excited about tackling my Annual New Years Blog Project: evaluating my January '09 predictions for the passed year and making new predictions for 2010. This appears to be more fun in theory than in execution.

Predictions of Varying Certainty for 2009:
- I'll send out applications for grad school for Fall 2010.
- I'll graduate, early, with research honors.
- Ian will graduate and become a mainland-dwelling graduate student, making our continued relationship closer and more long-distance at the same time.
- I'll start working at Friday's, will still work for the writing center and will likely sporadically continue to sub for Tommy's.
- I'll go to New York.
- The economy will be better by this time next year.

How Prescient I Actually Was for 2009:
- Nope, though if I were to make a pie chart of the amount of time this year I spent being anxious over whether or not I should go to grad school, it would probably take up a bigger chunk than "sleeping."
- I did graduate early, but my research honors won't be theoretically settled until February, and won't be technically settled until May, as it turns out.
- In a rare display of shooting my own prediction in the foot, though Ian's graduated and happily ensconced at U of C, our relationship has been, well, discontinued.
- I did start working for Friday's, but I also started working for Hattie's, solidifying what I anticipate to be a lifelong love affair with coffee.
- I want some sort of bumper sticker/commemorative plaque honoring my demonstrated ability to drive through New York's Chinatown without killing anyone.
- I'm going to call this a win, too.

Predictions of Varying Certainty for 2010:
- I'll officially receive my research honors and will walk in IWU's May commencement.
- I (along with Sarah, Garrett, Alex, and Miranda) will move to Chicago, probably in August or September, in order to live with my seester and to provide GR with a new backdrop for hugs.
- I'll send out applications for English PhD programs for, ahem, Fall 2011.
- Megan and Brian will get married, and I'm guessing 1-4 other people I know will get engaged.
- I'll become passably adept at speaking, and hopefully reading, Spanish