Christmas letter -- 2010 edition

In a nod to the apparent path of all mass media, I'm going all-digital with my third annual Christmas letter. OK, the truth is I just didn't get around to the Christmas letter until now and it's probably a little too late to send them by snail mail.

It's been another busy year, full of change and plenty of blessings. 2010 started out with me volunteering through Americorps and working for my hometown newspaper after getting laid off from my first full-time job. It is ending with 20 Washington Post bylines, half a master's degree and a bunch of new friends.

I've been in the University of Maryland's one-year master's in journalism program now since July. It's been a great ride so far, getting to learn from faculty members who are veterans of USA Today, the Washington Post, CNN, the L.A. Times and the Baltimore Sun. After years in sports, I've been reacquainting myself with hard news writing and trying to pick up some new multimedia tricks. I'm particularly proud of this group project: College grad risks deportation to fight for DREAM Act.

I've also enjoyed getting to know my new classmates. There's about a dozen of us in my "cohort" and we come from a lot of different backgrounds (including two lawyers). The other master's students are intelligent and goofy at the same time, which means they're just the type of people I like to hang out with.

For the last four months, when I haven't been at school I've often been working for the Post. I applied for a part-time spot there as an editorial aide in the sports department — a position that includes answering phones, compiling high school box scores, designing a few pages and editing online photo galleries. I got the job and, before I even started, I was told that a slot had opened up in the high school sports writing staff. So, by virtue of my work experience and being in the right place at the right time, I got to be the paper's girls soccer writer this fall. Thus the 20 bylines, including this story, which I think appeals to non-sports audiences as well: Soccer helps sisters cope with dad's death.

I've also kept up with some of my meningitis awareness activities out here on the East Coast. In August I spoke to medical students at the University of Pennsylvania along with a friend of mine who lost her brother to the disease the same year I got it. She's now in her second year of med school at Penn and is going to be a tremendous doctor. In October I accepted one of those big novelty checks on behalf of the National Meningitis Association at a golf fundraiser in Reston. It's now displayed prominently in my bedroom (apparently the check NMA actually cashes is of normal size, despite what you may have seen in Happy Gilmore).

It's been hard being away from my family and friends in Minnesota and Kansas City. I'd still like to return to the Midwest sooner rather than later, but the job market remains tight and right now I'm confident this is where I'm supposed to be. In the coming year I will be: reporting out of the National Press Building for school (possibly on the Supreme Court), covering high school wrestling and a spring sport to be named later for the Post, and doing an independent study with one of my professors, Carl Sessions Stepp, to work on my meningitis memoir.

The book manuscript is finished, but I haven't had any luck pitching it to publishers or literary agents yet. Sessions Stepp is the former editor of USA Today and the author of two books on writing, so with his help I hope to get it more publishable.

So the world keeps spinning, and my life keeps changing. I approach the big 3-0 not nearly as settled in my career or personal life as I'd once hoped I would be at this age, but meningitis taught me to embrace life for what it is, rather than regret it for what it might be. I have good health, great friends, a tremendously supportive family and incredible professional opportunities on the horizon.

In other words, I'm doing just fine.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!