I ready Jon’s year in review and found it very interesting. You can’t always see the overall shape of a year without summarising it like that. So here is my 2006 review.

What amazes me most about 2006 is that on January 1, I had not the faintest clue that by the end of the year, I would have left a job I loved and moved to England to study at the University of Cambridge. A year is a long time.

Early in January, I put in my application to Cambridge. Then I tried not to think about it. There were good things about getting an offer and there were good things about not getting an offer. Although it doesn’t seem like it at the time, flip flopping between two equally attractive options is a good position to be in. It’s better than two bad options, right?

It has been a year of milestones. I went to my first cricket match, Australian Open match and Aussie Rules football game. I was made a job manager at work and was absorbed by big projects. My team won the company trivia night. I was in the middle of it all. It made me happy.

The long-awaited Commonwealth Games came, and I left for a holiday in England and France. I remember seeing Damjan at the bus station when he came to pick me up. A year is a long time but sometimes, six months is a short time. It was like we hadn’t been apart.

I also remember falling asleep in my dessert at the French restaurant. I thought I was immune to jet lag.

Just before I left Australia, I found out Cambridge had offered me a place. The offer meant nothing without a scholarship. I took the opportunity to visit Cambridge anyway and while I was there, I kept thinking, ‘Do I really want to be here? Is it the right time?’ I felt bad that I was uncertain.

I came home to a life-changing experience. Work offered to put me on a long-term job based in Shepparton in regional Victoria. I, a suburban girl who lived with her parents, would be living with a workmate hours from home.

Shepparton taught me about the problems drought and salinity cause Australian farmers. I learned what it was like to build an environmental management system for a big, complex organisation. I learned to work closely and successfully with another person. Jamie covered for my blindspots and I organised his thoughts. I learned to cook (better). I learned not to be scared of the gym. I learned to keep in touch with my family. I was practicing for Cambridge, wasn’t I? But I didn’t know I would need this until I got a scholarship in May.

I stopped dancing hiphop. I didn’t miss it. I do now. My latin dancing improved, though. Vera and I had more than half a year of private lessons with Irina. I am no longer ashamed of my Cha Cha technique.

I worked and studied like a demon in the lead up to September. Somehow, I finished my graduate certificate in conflict resolution before I left.

Damjan came back for his summer break and we flew to England together. It was surreal, that moment I said goodbye to mum and dad. I was homesick and lonely, that first night in the Cambridge hostel. Dinner was a banana (luxury!) and a tub of yogurt.

The next day, though, I instantly had 100 friends. I went on camp with the people who had the same scholarship as me. People from around the world converged on the Peak District with the express purpose of being interesting and friendly. It was kind of overwhelming. But I was thankful for it, oh so thankful, when, in the following hectic days of setting up my life in Cambridge, I kept running into people I knew. I already belonged.

I met my new family. There are five of us in this college house: Di, Alex, Dino, Intan and me. Most of the time, the kitchen sink is pretty clear of any washing. They also looked after me when my computer crashed. I’d say this is a damn fine household.

I met 35 engineers interested in sustainable development. Some want to continue their work with developing nations. Others will work at changing industry from the inside. I’m not sure what I want to do yet. It might be clearer on Monday. I will be talking to a visiting lecturer who has challenged some of my basic assumptions about the world.

From my point in the world, the problem of sustainability is getting simpler and the solutions are getting harder.

In July last year, I wrote about six revelations I had about myself. Just now, I went back to my list. Those revelations have already been absorbed into my fundamental view of myself. It seems strange that I had lived without them.

Finally, just for fun, let’s see where I am on the timeline I wrote more than two years ago.

Ha. Two years is a long time.