Well, here we are, 2 days into the New Year, and my (seemingly) obligatory post is here!
While my writing on here is sketchy, I seem to make my way to the blog every January, talking about how I'll write more--I SWEAR I'll write more. Every day! Okay, maybe not every day...every other day! Once a week? Well, regularly....definitely regularly.
Yeah, yeah....we've been here before. I'm not going to go there. Do I hope to write more this year? On this blog, or elsewhere? Of course. Hopefully I'll follow through. But I'm not going to write about writing today. I'm going to write about ushering in the New Year.
The title quote of this post really struck me when I read it, because, honestly, I think it's at the heart of New Year's, and the resolutions so many of us make. No matter how good, bad, or mediocre the year being ushered out is, we all HOPE for a happier upcoming year. If the previous year was bad, we hope the new one will be better, will wipe out the struggles that we faced the year before. If it was good, we hope to improve on the momentum we had going. Regardless, hope is at the center of it. The hope that the year will bring us the things we want or need. The hope that it will just be good to us.
For some reason, this year I've been thinking a lot about last year and the one coming up. 2014 really wasn't bad to me. In May, I finally graduated. Which was amazing. The day I graduated, I got a puppy. A puppy that has been such a wonderful addition to our little family (although Connor would probably disagree). She's an amazing, lovable, wonderful creature, and as scared as I was to add a dog to the mix of crazy in our house now I can't imagine her not being around.
And then, on top of all of the crazy graduation/puppy stuff, in July I started an amazing new job, putting my degree to use, and allowing me to stay in a place that I've truly loved working for. And while leaving awesome people at my other job was sad, and stepping into this big new job was terrifying, it's also been amazing. I love working in a library, and every day I learn something new--about my job and myself.
So yeah, the year has been good to me. But thinking about those awesome things also reminds me how scared I was going into pretty much all of them. That's the thievery new year we hope for change, plan to change, aim for better for ourselves. But what we tend to forget is that those changes we want, when we get them, are often really, really scary when we're actually faced with getting them. But they're also usually so worth it when we get them. There's so much at stake with the things we want most--seeing them become a reality just makes the thought of them being suddenly taken away that much more frightening. And then realizing it's not being taken away makes it that much more amazing.
My year, of course, was not without its struggles. Never enough money, never enough time, always something to worry about. Even the bad, things, though, give you something to learn from. Some of the stuff Patrick and I dealt with this year made me look at certain things and people in a new light. I was able to gain new perspective on people close to me, and found myself being a little more forgiving in areas that I was maybe too harsh.
Of course, I hope that 2015 will be good to us. I hope the good things that 2014 brought will remain, and some of the things we've struggled with will improve. Overall, though, what is most important is that I have a roof over my head, am surrounded by people I love, and am able to do things that make me feel happy and accomplished.
And hey, if I finally finish that book that I swear I've started writing, it'll just make the year that much better. If I don't, you'll see another post next January with another hope to make some more progress :)
Happy New Year, and here's to it bringing at least some of the happiness you're hoping for!
