Back to December

So I know there are several people out there who can't stand Taylor Swift...but I am not one of them.  Love it or hate it, I happen to love her and most of her songs.  I love her lyrics and can relate to a lot of them.  "Back to December" is her newest release from her latest CD "Speak Now."  Quick synopses - the song is reportedly about her short lived relationship with Taylor Lautner that ended last December.  

Although I cannot quite relate to every specific lyric in this song, I like it and there are some lines in it I can relate to.  More than anything, I probably have a guy or two in mind saying these things to me when I listen to it.  There's no way I want to go back to any point in my past relationships and change what happened so we could still be together today, but there are things I have done I would apologize for.  Anyway, I of course have the CD and listened on my drive back to STL yesterday.  When this song came on, it got me thinking about last December, and the December before that.  Making the 3-1/2 hour drive, I had plenty of time to reflect on how much my live has changed yearly, most notably over the past 5 years.   

Oh what a difference a year (or five) can make...
Dec 2005 - I was embarking on my last semester of college. What a whirl wind that was. I was enrolling in my last semester of undergrad and preparing for SB06 with my closest friends - a week that will go down as the best spring break ever under the worst possible circumstances. Life was good.

Dec 2006 - still wondering what to do with my life, I stayed in Lawrence and pretended to still be in college.  I was "happily" still dating my future husband (one of many "future husbands" I've dated over the years). I was excited to be accepted in to KU's School Of Med MPH program and planning to make the move to KC in the future months.

Dec 2007 was a bit different. I was on again/off again with my college bf as I battled for his attention and competed with his frat brothers as he partied away his last year of college. I think I even went home with him for Christmas - a place I never exactly felt welcome at. Thank God that didn't work out.

December 2008 - happily living in KC I was still working on my MPH and working. I enjoyed the holidays with all of my new friends I had met over the past year and who are still among my best friends!  I had a few new love interests and was so happy!  But there was one who I was most interested in and remember exchanging small gifts every day up until Christmas.  Thinking back, those were probably some of the most thoughtful gifts I've ever received.

Dec 2009 - my first december in STL. I was preparing for my trip to Buenos Aires to see my latest love interest and will forever remember that amazing trip. I was happy and couldn't imagine life getting any better. Little did I know how much would change over the ensuing year.

Dec 2010 - here were are. The past 12 months have been full of roller-coaster emotions.  Between the hardest year of my life academically and emotionally, I have survived and am stronger.  I lost a love and a best friend within a matter of days.  I dealt with the loss of an amazing friend, Dylan.  But the craziness of it all, within that short span of days, an amazing life was brought in to the world as well, baby Gunnar. In regards to school I can't believe I am embarking on 2011 and will soon be in the clinic actually taking care of patients...a thought that thrills me and scares me shitless at the same time. I never thought this day would come!  I'm one year closer to being Mel Plouv, MMS, PA-C, MPH!  Even though 2010 was a hard year, it was probably the biggest year of change for me on a personal level...and for that I would never go back to any other December.


-Stay Sassy, xo