To know the outline, not the detail

Over the last few years, I've been stumbling toward the rather obvious realization that Becoming A Grown-up is a gradual and nebulous process. Throughout my childhood and teens I implicitly assumed that, when it was time, some sort of confetti cannon would go off in my head, and I would Be An Adult. The evidence is here in this blog -- skimming through entries from the past several years, I find that I continually ask myself, sometimes literally, Am I an adult now? How about now? This is kind of adult-like, don't you think?, as if looking for signs of the blast. I'm finally getting comfortable with the notion that, (to paraphrase Virginia Woolf), the moment of adulthood perhaps never does come. Instead, there are little daily miracles of maturity, isolated situations and decisions, which eventually push you into feeling like a fully developed human being. The confetti, explosionless, just sort of slowly floats down out of nowhere and accumulates around you.

In 2013, I was treated to a lot of these little miracles of grown-upness: I taught a college class, started cohabiting with GR, independently traveled to Wales and back, and relocated to an apartment that has respectable square-footage and an in-unit washer and dryer. It was a watershed year for delightful adultish moments. But it was also a year of maintaining patterns, of proceeding according to plan. Lots of things -- most things -- didn't change in my day-to-day life. And it made for a wonderful year. I'm really warming up to this reality of Adulthood being mostly keeping on keeping on, with occasional and mostly unexpected blushes of change.


Predictions of Varying Certainty for 2013:
- GR and I will move into a two-bedroom apartment somewhere along the D-line, and will find the transition into cohabitation to be relatively smooth, even if the move itself is a little stressful.
- I will attend fewer weddings than I did in 2012 (during which I attended three), and I will not be in any bridal parties.
- I will travel outside of the U.S. more than once. Canada and Mexico totally count toward this tally.
- I will find that I enjoy teaching.
- I will make at least one really large/significant purchase (e.g., a car, furniture, a major appliance)
- GR will teach me how to drive manual transmission cars.
- My current cell phone will finally give out, forcing me to join the 21st century and get a smart phone. Still, I will not buy an iPhone. 

How Prescient I Actually Was:
 - Our new apartment is along the no-good-very-bad B-line instead of the far superior D-line, but other than that this was spot-on.
 - Truth. I attended two weddings (in two new states, to boot!) and avoided being a bridesmaid.
 - Truth again. As noted, I traveled to Bangor, Wales and Cancun, Mexico this year.
 - Absolutely.
 - I suppose this depends on how you define "major." I bought a TV, a laptop, international round-trip airfare, and a bunch of furniture (including a couch) radically discounted courtesy of Craigslist and family friends, but no cars or private jets or anything.
 - Nope. GR has the privilege of chauffeuring me around Boston.
 - This is a prediction that I sincerely thought I'd manage to defy, but instead became half-true. My phone met its demise in a puddle, and I wound up getting an iPhone to replace it. I feel a little ashamed.


Predictions of Varying Certainty for 2014:
 - I will pass my major exam and come up with a[n undoubtedly preliminary] dissertation topic.
 - GR will teach me how to drive manual transmission cars, for real this time.
 - I will hold a baby. (You guys, I've never held a baby before.)
 - I will attend at least one baseball game at either Wrigley or Fenway.
 - At least three close friends (i.e., Facebook acquaintances don't count) will buy houses.
 - I will continue to work my part-time/remote job, even though I will also continue to find it incrementally more frustrating to balance it all with my teaching and grad work. 
 - I will find teaching a literature class more fun than teaching a writing class.
 - I will visit at least one new state.