Divorce, moving, family drama and professional woes…I won’t be sad to see 2010 go. Good riddance and peace out to you, 2010, may you burn in hell with the heat of a thousand burning suns.

I’m ending it like it started: sick at home, just as in January 2010. I had high hopes for 2010 due to the suckiness of 2009. I changed jobs in bad circumstances in early 2009, I then had the first inklings my marriage was going south in spring 2009, followed up by the death of two friends in September and October 2009. This time last year, I thought surely 2010 would be better. I was sorely wrong and sadly mistaken. 2010 was horrible beyond my wildest expectations, both personally and professionally. I lost my support systems and had to completely recreate my life alone. I never expected my life to turn out like this and I would be lying if I said I don’t feel defeated, disappointed and lonely as 2010 comes to a close after almost two years of uninterrupted bullshit and drama.

Before people say that I am a bad Muslim who doesn’t have any shukr, I am grateful for two things in 2010: my friends, both old and new, both online and off; I’m also grateful for the fact that I made it to December 31st in one piece, alive, with all my body parts, although my lungs are about to quit this bitch.

Thank you to friends for your visits and presence which were the sole highlights in an otherwise forgettable year. My visits to see friends in Seville, Granada, Montpellier, Vienna, Rabat, Paris and in repeated trips to Zurich were the lone bright spots in a sea of darkness. For those of you in Switzerland and for those of you who ventured as far as backwoods Lausanne to cheer me up, thank you. It helped me more than you can ever know. Thank you to those friends who chose to look past the surface and took the time to realize that this sad girl isn’t the real me.