The Christmas Letter

Ok, we all know someone who goes and recaps the entire year for everybody when they send out Christmas cards. Well, here's my recap without the card (sorry if you feel jipped, but know that at least the people I care about are all online on Blogger and Facebook).

This year started out with plenty of room for improvement on the homefront. Still dealing over the loss of Leslie and determined to move on, I dubbed 2008 as the Year of the Phoenix for myself. Using information about the mythical creature as inspiration, I set some goals. Even though I didn't achieve everything I set out to accomplish, it was still a good year.

Early into the year, I decided I needed a change of environment. I left Holladay and moved down to Lehi with my sister. It was great having company when I was home sometimes and living with someone who completely knew about my situation. Although I'm not the greatest roommate ever, I appreciate Erin putting up with me.

Pharmacy school continued. I was able to get through the school year with the maximum of 5 weeks of summer remediation by the last test. After going to my first rotation at McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden, I returned to class and passed 4 of the 5 tests. HIV continues to be a challenge, and I'll be tackling it again at the end of March 2009 in order to graduate. The important part was that I was able to move on and start my final year of school, which just consists of seven rotations focusing on different areas of pharmacy practice.

Once this final year started, I've been on a whirlwind tour. I started in Ogden in June. After finishing up summer school, I went on a long-term care rotation that was based in Springville, but it took me literally all around Utah. After that, I had the opportunity to go to Boise to work with the Idaho State Board of Pharmacy and go not only around Idaho a little bit, but I also got to go to Oregon for the first time. Now I'm almost done with my first hospital rotation in Payson and I only have three rotations remainding in 2009.

Throughout all the craziness, I've been able to piece my life back together. And even though I'll never be able to go back to the way things were, I'm excited again to see where my life is going. Right now I don't have much of a plan for the future. I'm just taking life one day at a time.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and a Happy New Year to everyone.

- Rob