2011 stuff

So, it's the time of year where every blogger on the face of the planet seems to be doing their year-end reviews. So I figured I'd go with the flow and try to sum up 2011 and what happened in my life.

2011 for me has been a year of huge changes in some areas, but also a year of absolutely no progress in other areas.

The first part of the year was a time for a lot of thinking and pondering. Spring, summer and fall were spent thinking about both personal issues and work related things.

While I enjoy my job, and definitely enjoy the work environment with my colleagues, I have to admit it's been a year where I've felt a bit "stuck in a rut". I enjoy working under what many others see as stress and high pressure. This year hasn't really offered much in that area. It's been a year of mostly watching things run smoothly, which means it's been a year where I have quite honestly been a bit bored. It's also been a year where I have gotten some insight in how the possibilities for progression are in my current job.

Earlier in the year I turned down a couple of job offers, because I was initially planning a specific move. Looking back at it, purely work related, I probably should have taken one of those offers. Right now I'm very glad I didn't, but more on that a bit further down. Getting offers is a good boost for self confidence though :)

Anyway, looking back at 2011 work wise, I'm determined to have a better 2012. I hate stagnation, so it's time to buckle up and make sure there's some progress in the coming year.

When it comes to my personal life, 2011 has been anything but stagnant. While I haven't been too public about what's been going on, some things have been written and hinted at. Other things have not been mentioned at all. What's very clear, is that 2011 has been a year of big downs and is ending with a huge up.

The big down was, unsurprisingly, that I split with my wife after an 8-year relationship. While neither me nor Linda was shocked at the time we came to the conclusion it was right to end things as husband and wife, it was a hard decision to make. You don't simply toss away someone that has shaped your life for nearly a decade. Because of this, the big down did have a silver lining. The friendship that I have with Linda survived the split. We're no longer a couple, but we're still very good friends who can talk about almost everything.

The split probably shocked friends and family more than it shocked myself and Linda. We had been slipping apart for quite some time, and our lives are simply going in different directions. We decided that it was better to split as a couple before the friendship suffered. None of us wanted to end things in a way where we'd end up despising the other one and losing contact. So we made a really tough decision, but it was the right thing to do.

The fact that we lived apart for over a year before the actual split probably made things easier as well, and has probably contributed quite a bit to the both of us being able to move on as quickly as we have.

Which brings me to the big up of 2011. Louice. It's a quite strange and intricate story on how me and Louice ended up together, and I'm not going to go through all the details. What I do know, is that I'm just going to accept that I'm lucky, and that there really is no logic in how it happened.

We went from a very brief talk at an after-party sometime during summer to ending up as a couple in December. During the months in between, becoming a couple really was never a topic or something either of us was "aiming" for. It just wasn't something that was in any plans what so ever. But it happened. When I'm sitting here thinking about the criss-cross road that led to it, I'm just going to say thanks to the people that unknowingly brought us together:

• Jens and Gudrun for dragging me down to Järnvägs from another party that summer evening.

• The ones telling me it was time to head on back up to the hill, since that walk was the first conversation me and Louice had.

• Kent for housing the after-party that night, and Toffe for telling me I should join instead of going home to sleep.

• Sofie for running off with Louice's apartment key, leading to her going to the same after-party.

• Daniel for several months later making me see that I might have some feelings, even though I denied it.

• Jessica for asking me some questions that started the thought process which concluded in a relationship.

All in all, a long chain of random and seemingly unrelated events that eventually gave a really good ending to 2011 :)

Another personal change that happened this year, is that the die-hard atheist has been redefined to an agnostic. In short, it means I'm still a huge sceptic, but I quite simply can't manage to be completely sure any more that there's nothing going on.

There is one more thing on the personal front that's happened in 2011 which is still an on-going process. I'm not going to go in to any details on that, and no, there's no point in asking. You won't get any answers. I just want to say thanks to Shaya and William for the kick in the ass, and yes, I'm almost done ;)