To tell the truth I don’t usually pay New Years much attention.  My family’s Christmas is just so full on that I am over celebrated by the time New Years rolls in.  As a result I am too exhausted for either partying or reflection.  This New Years is different though because I just received in the mail a newsletter from my old high school that announced my 20 YEAR HIGH SCHOOL REUNION!!!  I actually thought it was a misprint.  Could that much time have passed since the naive, self-conscious girl that I was passed through school gates forever?  I counted off the years, one by one, no subtraction was used, just to make sure.  It was right of course.  I have been a doctor for 12 years, a wife for 9 and a mother for 4.  It made perfect sense that I had left school nearly twenty years ago when I thought about it.

That school newsletter has led me to break with tradition and although I am too exhausted for partying, to engage in some New Years reflection.

When I left school I had aspirations for a career as an astronaut.  I maintain it was  a potentially achievable aspiration, despite digging from friends and family:)  As I entered my twenties I decided I would work in a developing country as a doctor. I gave up that aspiration (in the short term) for love and followed my Air Force husband as he was posted around Australia.  I now find it difficult some days to make it to the shops with my two young children although I blog about traveling and sometimes manage to do a bit of it with them.  Realising how my aspirations  have changed I felt a hundred years away from the school girl I was.

My first impulse was to cry in desperation that that both my sense of adventure and altruism had diminished with the years.  On further thought I don’t believe this is the case however.  Being flexible and open to new, unimagined adventures has led me down a different path but not necessarily a less exciting one.  Following my husband as a newlywed to the Northern Territory, instead of jetting off overseas was the start of my career in Indigenous health.  It also led to a love of both remote Australia and tropical living, and as a consequence I have worked in the Torres Strait and now live in beautiful Cairns.  Being a mother was never part of my imaginings until I fell pregnant with my first child.  Motherhood continues to be an adventure that has taught me more about love and sacrifice than anything I could have been involved in professionally.

So bring on 2013 I say.  Bring on more surprises, more love, more exploration with my kids.  Bring on more tears, bring on more sacrifice, bring on more family time.

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