New year, new semester - better or worse?

Okay, so it's a new year, new decade, new semester. A time for fresh beginnings, if you're lucky. A time to think about goals, or at least I usually do, and decide which ones are worth keeping, and which ones should be tossed. I know I did a lot of pondering earlier this month about my situation. I felt discouraged after the end of last semester, straight A's notwithstanding, and was seriously considering if I should just give it up, join the Peace Corps now, and get on with life. It was really, really tempting, but I decided I would suck it up and keep going forward where I am now.
Where I am now is still in Lubbock, still at Texas Tech, and still slogging through classes. I do have a degree plan on file now, and I believe I may actually see the light at the end of the tunnel, at least as far as classes go. If all goes well I should be able to finish my course work by the end of next year's spring semester (May, 2012), take & pass my quals, find an internship, write & defend my dissertation and be out of here at the end of 2013 if I'm very lucky. Of course, I have to hope that all of the classes I need to take align in the right way this summer and each semester, and that I do well in them. There's also that pesky core exam I have to retake this March. I need to pass that as well.
At least I feel a bit more settled with the path I'm on. It helps now that I can see an end in sight. Transferring programs didn't put me that far behind. I got to start my museum studies classes this semester, which I'm jazzed about, and looking forward to. I've finished my arts administration courses and my core courses, so that's a big chunk of classes out of the way. I try to remind myself to be a glass half-full kind of person instead of a glass half-empty type. Things seem to flow much better when I'm positive about whatever I'm doing.
Here's to all of us finding the positive this year and going with it. There's plenty of negativity out there and my goal (I don't do resolutions) is to spread the positive vibe and not the negative. I encourage everyone else to do the same.