Happy New Year!

I suppose everyone is back to their normal routine already, I am due back to the office on Monday!

I just wante to say how I feel about this new year, compared to the old one...

This time last year, I was just starting on a new beginning, an uncertain beginning, a necessary beginning, a not fullfilling one. I had been trying for the previous few months to work in the UK, but the salary was not covering my basic expences, so I had to leave everything behind, go back to Cyprus, and try to make something usefull for the remainder of the scholar year.

I started my own 'business'. It wasn't really a business, I was skilled, I already had my Physics degree, but I was jobless, so I started teaching Physics and Mathematics to high school students. I have to say that I was lucky.. my friends and family supported me, and urged me to keep going, when at the beginning of February I only had 2 students and was not earning much. I kept going, my students had their first tests at school, not very promising marks. Then my other half reminded me that we had won a ticket to anywhere in the world we wanted, and we had to claim it before the end of that April (2010). I called Lufthansa (the company from which we had won the ticket, I will tell you that story at another time), booked the ticket for the last day before it expired, and gained a new strength..
I had a goal now... My life had a new meaning. Suddently, my students started getting better grades, I was more organised, more focussed, and was delivering the material in a better way, now that I had a month of experience. I got a morning job, so that I could top up my finances, and started saving money for that trip of a lifetime.. its not very often that people dream to travel somewhere, and get a free ticket to wherever they want.. I just had to save as much money as possible, so that we could enjoy our holiday!
End of April I find my self in NY, having booked an expensive hotel, enjoying my holidays.
At the same time, I had already approached a couple of universities for a PhD degree, and was working on my application form, on my proposal. Once more, I had a new goal to work towards to. I spend the next few months after the trip to NY completing applications, and talking to universities about what I wanted to do.
Mid-august to september, I already had a place at a university, attached to a studentship and was waiting for another one. I was accepted by UCL but I had to decline because the offer from Loughborough, along with the subject and the title was a lot better.
You probably know that since the first of October I have been working towards an EngD; with a task to analyse and forecast the energy consumption of a retailer, in the UK.

Therefore, this year finds me in a very good position. I have to admit that I am very happy to hold this position... I get to do what I like to do, its challenging, I am not very good with statistics, or programming, but I am working towards it. I ve got a lot of deadlines at the University, I have things to do for the office, I still haven't met all the people that work on the same floor with me. But I enjoy it!

I am happy, and I just have to say Thank you to carma. To all the people that put me down, and made me stronger, to all the people who helped me when I was down, to all the people who believed in me, and gave me this opportunity.

This might be the secret... find a goal, keep thinking about it, keep working towards it, and you will achieve it, even if you dont achieve it, you will probably find something better along the way.. its not Ithaca that matters, but its the road to Ithaca that is the most important thing.


Dream high, aim high and you will succeed

The Physicist