For posterity’s sake

I struggled a lot this year. I worked really hard and have come so close ? if not crossed over ??to burnout on a number of occasions. I have been depressed and exhausted, anxious and upset more than is healthy, and it?s possible I have been this way for longer than I am comfortable acknowledging right now. But 2013 is a new year, and for the first time in a long time, it feels like a proper new start. So in the interests of saying goodbye to this year on a positive note, I made a list of ten things I achieved in 2012. Things I?m proud of; things that feel like steps forward.

1. I finished and submitted my PhD thesis.
2. I signed with a wonderful literary agent.
3. I moved out of a sharehouse and into an apartment of my own.
4. My PhD thesis passed with flying colours.
5. I ran a half-marathon.
6. I graduated as Dr Convery and left university behind ? after a full 9 years.
7. I appeared on a Wheeler Centre panel.
8. I helped organise a pro-choice feminist protest.
9. I created a political group.*
10. I started writing a new book.

*Could not have done either 8 or 9 if I hadn?t done them with my friend/colleague/fellow runner/reading group associate Jacinda Woodhead.