2010 – A Year in Review

2010 was a great year. Sure it had its tough moments, but on the whole, it was a great year for me. Time for my annual year in review.

January

I spent a quiet New Years with the family at home, but the next day, we packed up our bags and headed on our first family vacation in years. Destination? Maui! It all started when I spotted cheap flights online. We then managed to find an affordable hotel and car rental and before I knew it, we were in Hawaii. I went snorkelling for the first time, attended a lu’au, watched the sun rise from the highest point on Maui at 10,000ft, and travelled along one of the most famous drives in the United States (#1).

 
I was still living in Victoria with 3 months left in my VP Finance term. Not to mention, I still hadn’t found a replacement for me yet. I spent a lot of my very free time helping with recruitment. We also welcomed an intern from Hungary who was working with career services. I didn’t have school, so a lot of my days were filled with boredom. I started my job search though.

 
February

February was dominated by the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. I spent a lot of time traveling between Vancouver and Victoria trying to take in the whole Olympic experience. I loved the theme song too.

March

March 1, 2010 marked the official end to my AIESEC career. It was definitely bittersweet. So many memories, so many experiences, so many lessons learned. March also marked the end of my life in Victoria as I moved to Vancouver at the end of the month.

I volunteered at the career fair, sitting at the AIESEC Victoria booth recruiting for the last time. Did a lot of packing and watched a sledge hockey game! I spent a lot of my free time putting together a yearbook as a gift for the local committee president in Victoria.

March was a month of beginnings and endings and of coming full circle. It was a bitter sweet month full of reflection and yet, a lot of potential and excitement for the future.

April

The very beginning of April and end of March was spent at a conference – Coastal Conference. My first AIESEC conference was Coastal Conference in 2006 hosted by Victoria, so it was fitting that my last AIESEC conference was Coastal Conference as well. It was a really good conference. I helped out a lot facilitating sessions and occasionally helping out the organizing committee as well.

I made a huge breakthrough in trying to define myself. I bought my own domain name along with hosting. I also customized my twitter background and started getting serious about hunting for a job.

The rest of the month was spent reconnecting with friends and starting the process of slowly unpacking. I hosted my first full dinner party – it turned out okay, but could have been better.

Back in January, I had started writing reviews on Yelp and this somehow resulted in me receiving an invitation to attend a pre-opening of a ramen place. I never thought that what I wrote would actually capture someone’s attention.

I also went to Seattle for the first time in years.

May

I saw Wong Fu Productions! I was too excited.

I spent a lot of May reflecting on my life and what I wanted to do, where I wanted to head. I put together a list of 25 Things I Want to Do Before I’m 25. I also set a goal of applying to a job a day in hopes of securing a job which eventually paid off.

June

June was an epic month. Everything started falling into place. I officially graduated from University and went on a small vacation with the family to the Olympic Peninsula.

On the job front, everything started happening all at once. This post explains it best.

In the meantime, I had random adventures and participated in this amazing race type event called Rush Vancouver benefiting the BC Lung Association.

I also went to Portland to celebrate the new job.

Annnnd… I crossed off item number 1 on my list of 25 Things: getting my driver’s license!

July

July was tough. I was adjusted to working 40 hours a week across 6 days, plus hold on to that internship. It was interesting adjusting to the various demands and just seeing how everything slotted together. I spent many hours in commute and was very frustrated by the lack of time to do what I was really passionate about. I also started taking my twitter feed more seriously and started sharing more relevant content and retweeting others.

August

August was full of frustrations. I was still deciding whether or not I was in the right place and trying to find the right fit in my life. I was frustrated by the lack of time I had and the inflexibility. I also said goodbye to a good friend that was headed on her internship.

The best thing to come out of this month were the rack cards (I’ll put up a link soon) I designed and then printed for work. I was putting my (in my opinion, pretty poor) design skills to the test!

September

September was oh so stressful. With the start of the school year, it was so busy at work. There was never a slow moment and it pass with such a big blur.

To fill up my more of my limited time, I also started an online class with BCIT on Public Relations.

October

I had some really important deadlines this month, so I ended up working overtime for a couple of weeks in a row. Making my little spare time even more valuable. This month passed in such a blur, I barely remember much of it.

For my birthday this year, I hosted another dinner party. This time it was a Murder Mystery Dinner Party, complete with theme appropriate food and music. It was a success and I can’t wait to host another.

November

I picked up another volunteer role. This one with a non-profit called Global Agents as their communications coordinator. The organization is very similar to AIESEC with a social entrepreneurial twist to it, which was something I was looking for. I wanted more experience with public relations and communications and to find something to be passionate about. This organization was the right combination of AIESEC mixed with my volunteer experiences in high school and my experiences in Cambodia.

Games galore. My friends and I have gotten really into board games especially with L. hosting the first board game night (there will be more for sure).

December

December was filled with work, work and more work, preparing for the Nutcracker. While I was indirectly involved with the planning, I helped with a lot of the behind the scenes things and relayed information between individuals.

The month started off well with me going down to Seattle for the Harry Potter exhibition (and seeing the 7th movie – SO good!). Mid-month, I headed down to San Francisco to see the sites and to satisfy the travel bug inside me. Despite losing my phone down there, it was good and fun trip.

And now, its New Year’s Eve. It has been a good year. Looking back, I accomplished so much that I wanted and also tried many new things.

I’ve started thinking about resolutions and goals for the year, but haven’t completely hashed them out yet. Expect a post coming up soon on that!

Happy New Year everyone!