For me, 2009 was full of transitions, from the private to the international. On the private side (or that affecting me directly), in addition to my mother-in-law’s death, I’m wrapping things up (or winding them down) at the end of my five-year term as Education Policy Analysis Archives editor, and my daughter has her driver’s license and is in the middle of applying to colleges. Publicly, we’ve had a Florida House speaker resign, a presidential inauguration, an almost-but-not-quite-complete collapse of the world economy, a (still-too-small) stimulus package or three, the 2008.5 Nobel Prize for Economist-Like Rambling going to Steve Leavitt for Superfragifreakowhatonomics, and landmark health-care legislation that might just get to a bill-signing ceremony next year. And I’m leaving lots of things off the list here for a variety of reasons. For both good and ill, 2009 was absolutely full to the brim. Here’s hoping that 2010 gives all of us a little breather.
Oh, one of the list above isn’t true. For a better summary of things that didn’t happen this year, see Howard Troxler’s year-end wrap up, part 1 and part 2.