2013.....Not so Bad

I'm feeling nostalgic on this year and I want to put a little bit of it down in words. Mostly, because this last year has been pretty good, one that seems to be poised to continue into the new year. To get a feel for 2013, I have to talk about 2012 a little bit.  2012 was a stressful year. Entering it in bad place, coming off of grad school, with very few prospects for a job of any kind, I was stressed to the max.Things did begin to to turn around in the second half of 2012 and by then end of the year, I began to have a little more hope. So approaching 2013 I had fresh outlook on a few different things. And below are some of the year.

Job: Yep, got a job. A good one. I started in March as a part time fishery biologists with IAP Worldwide Services. I am contracted to work for the National Marine Fisheries Service, and a lot of my job has to deal with auditing and managing data. In October, I started as full time doing a lot of the same things but as this year continues, I will change direction a little bit. This has been a big relief and I am learning a lot, on the job. It still sounds strange to say. But there are so many things that hopefully will open with this. It is going to be very exciting to see where this ends up.

Paper: I got my first paper accepted for publishing this year. The paper will be out in March and it represents a lot of hard work. The time I put into really taught me a lot about making things work, finding solutions, and really putting together a quality product. Here's to many more!

Jess: Jess and I celebrated a year together this year. Now we are at 1 year and third and still going strong.

SUP: Last spring I decided to start competing at something again. I missed the competition from college and needed to get back into something. SUP races were the solution. I entered into three races this year with a lot of early success. Third place, fourth place, and one win. Though all of these were in short or open race courses. This year I have a full schedule ahead of me with one coming in less than two weeks. I'm moving up to the more competitive division.

Travel: Jess and I took a two weeks trip to Costa Rica this year. There are too many things to say about it here, but it was one of my favorite outings to date! This year the plan (as of now) is to backpack and surf from Lima, Peru to Santiago Chile. I've got to get the time off first though. Since that matters now.