When I lit a sparkler a few minutes before midnight on last New Year’s Eve, I had no idea what was in store for me in the coming year. 2012 can’t be summed up in just one word or one emotion or one event, and the same can be said for my blog. Red Lips and Academics had one crazy year, let me tell you.

Perhaps, the biggest accomplishment was my Geek Love: Dating while academic and other misadventures post was featured on the front page of WordPress. Woah. It was actually written late last year on a whim when I couldn’t think of anything else to write. I never imagined it would reach as many people as it did, and I’m sure my boyfriend’s coworker never imagined he would hear my scream from a phone across the office when I called my (very patient and understanding) significant other out of pure shock and joy.

It was funny to have a post like that featured because it was so different from my usual work at RL&A. It was more silly and humorous. Very personal too. Its success became a bit of a guiding point for the rest of the year. Due to the interest in the story from some readers and yes, an effort to recreate the magic, I continued the “Geek Love” series throughout 2012. But by the end of the year, that post sparked more than an attempt to prolong the fizziness from Freshly Pressed.

Geek Love started the year of the different for RL&A.

The attention and nice comments (even the critical ones too) from just one post propelled me to keep experimenting and trying new things all year. Some things worked, others didn’t, but every single post, I tried to keep with the theme that made the first Geek Love post resonate with so many people. I got personal, baby. And well, a little fun.

I experienced another viral post with Teaching freshmen composition, presented to you in gifs. Honestly, I have a love/hate relationship with this post. I loved showing off my sense of humor and seeing how many teachers related to my animated sentiments. I got comments, tweets, and e-mails from teachers all over the world, in nearly every discipline. That was fun. But I was also irritated that something so silly is now my most popular post. A post that barely has any of my writing! And I call myself a good writer! That was not so fun.

My favorite post this year was Academia is not an excuse, published right after the gifs one. It was a complete 180 from the previous post, but I was ready for it. I just wasn’t sure my audience was. I was pleasantly surprised when it got its own little following and became my third most popular post this year. It’s a post I’ve been planning for awhile, but never felt comfortable writing. It was only when I quit teaching and started taking care myself, I realized how much I needed to write it. For me. For all of us. For all the burnt-out academics in a brutal academic world who need to practice some self-love. I want to write more posts like that as I continue on this journey of learning how to take care of myself.

Which brings me to the next big change for RL&A. I quit teaching. Biggest woah of them all. Yes, even more than Freshly Pressed for me. It was a decision that left me reeling. So much so it took me a few weeks into my first “non-semester” to even write about it, The transition to student to teacher to… not. And even then, I could barely find the words. I haven’t written as much about my life post-academia yet, but I plan to. It’s still hard to put into words, even when I published My first semester without semesters a few weeks ago.

Though I choose not to teach this past fall, there was one thing that didn’t change. The “Academics” part of my blog. I thought about changing it to something else. Red Lips and Post Academics, maybe? But academics will always be a part of me even if I’m not a part of it. So I made it official by finally registering redlipsandacademics.com a few months ago. Others might see it as a clingy ex-girlfriend moment, but to me, it was staying true to the values of why I started this blog in the first place.

As I look back, 2012 for RL&A was full of deep breaths, shuddering cries, and immense laughter.

I faced my fears. I fell on my face. I fessed up my bad habits. You, my dear readers, picked me back up. You used your words to encourage me, console me, and lift me up. So whatever post you found me, no matter how introspective (Post academic wha?) or serious (RIP Grandpa) or eccentric (Ryan Gosling gifs!), I am so ridiculously, monumentally grateful you’re here. I only hope you will continue with me on this wild and wacky journey in 2013. I have more things in store for you in the future. Please e-mail me, tweet me, or find me on Facebook if you want to chat. I love hearing your stories too.

{Question for my readers–My 2012 was wild and wacky. How would you describe yours?}

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