2008 Reflection

2008 is drawing to a close already; creike! ...I think I say that every year. But every year it continues to boggle my mind.

2008 was excellent. I rang in 2008 with a wonderful and relatively new group of friends and acquaintances. I have always been with wonderful friends at New Year’s, but ringing in the new year with more of a fellowship community was so refreshing. I got to pass the peace at New Year’s; I’d never done that before! …Definitely looking forward to the same this year.

My social involvement definitely went up this year. I continue to run the projector at church on various Sunday mornings, and have taken more of a leadership role in that ministry. I am also involved in two small groups which I thoroughly enjoy (I am among the oldest in one, and among the youngest in the other, which is a nice diversity). I continue to do respite for my ‘respite family’, and became Aunty Gina for the third time when they had their youngest back in April.

Over Spring Break, I went to visit my friends S&J in Davenport, with a
whirlwind side-trip to Chicago. It was fun to meet S&J’s little ones for the first time, and way cool to see some of the main attractions of Chicago (I think to do the city justice I’d need to stay two weeks, not two days).

I graduated in June; I am officially Gina Blank, B.Sc., M.Ed. It is so nice to be done. And NO, I don’t have any intentions of getting a Ph.D. Maybe an M.ScOT or MSLP one day several years in the future if circumstances allow. Maybe. And certainly not any time soon. Right now, I’m happy where I’m at. My role at work provides a good challenge, and while this is my second year in the same role, the daily work has enough variety that I don’t think I ever have to worry about doing the “same old, same old”. It’s never really the same day twice. If God wants me somewhere else, He’ll let me know.

I thoroughly enjoyed summer this year. I enjoy summer every year, but this was the first year where I didn’t have a “summer job”, in the typical sense. I opted to just do respite for my respite family and a couple GRIT families this year, and it was so wonderful (yes, even the five-day, four-night respite stint with the girls while N&S went to a conference in BC).

(Click on this comic to enlarge it for reading)

Doing respite gave me a way more flexible schedule as far as fitting in my own summer desires (namely, travel and sleeping in), and my days were so much more relaxed and just… nice. I was able to ride my bike to ‘work’ about half the time, which was great for the wallet, the waist line, and the environment.

I managed to get two camping trips in this summer. The first was out to Cadomin, where I nearly hiked my legs off—but still had the best time ever with wonderful friends in a wonderfully peaceful place, topped off with a visit to the Miette hot springs! In August I camped with a friend from church and her three daughters, and that was… definitely different than what I’m used to. In theory, we hiked. But I’m pretty sure we spent more time walking through the town of Banff than we did hiking through any sort of wilderness. And whereas my July camping trips are always hot with possibly a little bit of rain, my August trip was mostly rain/cloud with possibly a little bit of hot. Nothing the Banff hot springs couldn’t cure, fortunately! The August trip was also nice, because I hadn’t been in the Kananaskis area in quite a long time. We passed through and/or spent some time at locations I’d been to as a child; it was neat to see what had changed and what had stayed the same. And I got some great photos.

This summer I realized two things. 1). I love Edmonton. Sorry to disappoint all you Calgarians. I love a lot of what Calgary is; that being said, I have definitely embraced Edmonton as home. I own a condo that places me six blocks from the River Valley (which is phenomenally beautiful and peaceful), I have a job that I absolutely love, a second family that I cherish, and wonderful friends that I don’t ever want to give up. I am home here. This sort of coincides with the other realization that 2). I am in a good place. Not that I was in a bad place; I rarely am. But for quite a while, even though life was good and I was content, I was still pining for more. Constantly checking-in with God about what’s-next-what’s-next-what’s-next? But over the summer, I came to a peace just being where God has me. I still have the occasional inquiry about what God has in store for me, but it’s no longer the urgent “c’mon, let’s GO, show me NOW” kind of state.

Throughout the summer and into fall, my photography has really advanced in all areas. I was asked to take family portraits for two families that I’ve worked with, and just did some Christmas shots of my respite family’s youngest. One family at work wants me to do their portraits in the spring, as does my respite family, and the parents of one of my work families want me to ‘re-do’ some of their wedding pics. While I have no desire to get into the professional category, I am excited about the potential of this passion at the amateur level. Using the bounce flash effectively is still my biggest challenge, and I am excited to discover new techniques this year.

I am definitely looking forward to all that 2009 could possibly have in store for me; I hope your 2009 is fantastically blessed!