What Sustained Me in 2023

When Lauren first suggested that we write a post about ‘What Sustained Us in 2023’, my first reaction was to think that for me, 2023 was not a year in which I needed a lot of sustaining. Certainly not compared to the last several years, where I depended heavily on my cat, texting my friends, lots of time outdoors, obsessive knitting, my studio, and quality time with my family to get me through the twin demons of monotony and uncertainty that characterized the Covid years. 

In contrast, 2023 seemed like a year in which lots of chickens came home to roost. Many, many wishes, projects, and schemes (many of which I’d been dreaming about for decades and took years worth of work) came to fruition in 2023. Most significantly for me professionally, I earned a year-long Sabbatical from my teaching job, and a solo exhibition; my first in the DC area where I live. Both of these have looming deadlines in August, 2024. My family and I also took advantage of the relative flexibility of Sabbatical schedule to travel around Europe for 6 weeks. My husband took time off work, we homeschooled our third-grader (with the support of his school), and tried our best to take in every museum, park, and cultural experience available along our route. 

So while, yes, I do feel a tremendous amount of gratitude and pride for all the planning, hard work, support, and luck that went into achieving these long hoped-for goals, 2023 for me was characterized by a deep desire to not blow it. And since the academic year re-starts in August, the fun continues. 

I’m loving it - it’s exhilarating, and I’m constantly pinching myself thinking, ‘Do I really get to do all this?’, but at the same time, the pace feels unreasonable long-term. I have been sustained by the joy, gratitude, and satisfaction that these opportunities have brought, and also by the knowledge that there’s an end-date. When September 1st 2024 rolls around, I hope I’ll be able to look back on this period with the satisfaction of a job well done.