So long 2010...

...and greetings to MMXI. I’m writing this post on the penultimate day of the year, whilst I take a brief hiatus from the etymological research which has eaten up a lot of my time to retrospect about the year that was (and still is, for another 26 and a bit hours here in London) 2010.

It’s been a year of ups and downs for me. It has included a trip to Paris, a symposium in Cambridge, and a crippling depression. I made some new friends, got in touch with a few old ones, and lost family members.

As it currently is, I haven’t got an awful lot to complain about, and I feel thankful for all the good that’s happened to me so far, despite 2010 being punctuated with several events that could have ended very badly. I really didn’t think I’d make it through this year, and, as those who have been affected by those events will know, is no hyperbole.

I had my first taste of a proper relationship, and although it took me several months to get over, I am feeling much better for having had the experience, despite the suffering that came with it. I came out as gay this year, which was probably the single most liberating thing I have ever done. I feared a backlash, with some people declaring they weren’t comfortable with this, but so far nobody has reacted negatively. The metaphorical closet was lonely and claustrophobic, and I had to get out of there. I don’t regret the decision one iota.

I was employed for three months at Bruce Castle Museum, a spell which was ended prematurely due to the seriousness of the depression I was going through at the time. In the months since, I have slowly been getting better to the point where I now feel able to work again, and have been putting so much effort into the research for the etymological dictionary which I’m aiming to get published in 2011. I also resolve to take better care of my health (an oft-made resolution, but one which I really have to take seriously), and to get out there and make more friends in the New Year. Oh, and I must restart on some fiction projects I had started this year when my head was in an odd place.

My deepest thanks go to my friends and family who have helped support me during this oddest of years, to my online following who have boosted this tiny, yet no less shallow, ego, and to the wonder that is antidepressant medication. Here’s to a merry 2011!