Dear 2016?

Dear 2016, 

First and foremost, thank you for being a year of growth and learning and a roller coaster. Thank you for keeping us on our toes. 


There are four days left of 2016. For many, it has been a year that would be best forgotten. Some of us are being too quick to jump on that bandwagon. Sure, 2016 has been a hell of a year with celebrity icon deaths, an election that has put this country at a divide and awoken us to things we didn't realize were still problems (or maybe, it's not that we didn't realize, we just didn't notice how bad they were still), and what else happened? I don't know. I do know that this year will always be remembered for the election, maybe not the celebrity deaths though. 2016 will be remembered as just a normal, nothing to special year. 
Regardless of all the bad things that have happened or how awful the whole year seemed to you, did you ever stop to break it down? Was 2016 truly all bad? Every single day, every moment? Probably not. I can tell you 2016 hasn't been an easy one. As stated in my previous post, it has definitely been a roller coaster year. I can tell you that the good and the bad are about even. I watched my best friend walk down the aisle this year and got to be a part of her special day. I got to be asked to be in another best friend's wedding this upcoming spring. I got to see my family up in Seattle and see my cousin get married.  I saw many other childhood friends get engaged or become pregnant. That is something worth celebrating. I've seen people adopt dogs (myself included) and seen people buy their first cars and get promotions at work or get that job they've dreamed of for a while. I've seen friendships grow and relationships and work relationships grow. I've seen people grow (myself included). 
I won't lie to you, I've seen some bad too. We've had misdiagnoses and family scares, we've had deaths, we've had heartbreak. We've had hopes crushed and solemn realizations.

If every year is fantastic, then how do we know when we've had a really good year versus a so-so year. I think we need the so-so years to remind us of the good and to make us appreciate the years that stand out. For me, 2013 will always stand out as the year I started living for myself and taking risks. I think we all have those years that will always remind us of the good years full of huge things.

The thing is, with everything good that 2016 has brought us, i refuse to let the bad outweigh the good. I've grown in ways I didn't realize  would grow this year. I may have helped save a life. I was on the other side of a difficult conversation paying it forward to remind someone that this year may not be their year, and a lot of bad can happen, but you're still here for a reason.
2016 has brought me Dottie. It took me home twice. It got me my first Christmas tree (that wasn't the family tree). It gave me a new store opportunity. It also had difficult moments and lessons ready to be learned (including how to accept the outcome of an election). I learned how being away for holidays can be difficult, but you can still have a good holiday away from home. Dottie and I went to the beach, shared a hot dog on a stick, and then Dottie had an ice cream cone, and we just relaxed and watched a couple movies on Christmas. No, it wasn't full of tradition (I use that term loosely), but it wasn't planned around anyone else's schedule either. We got to just go with the flow and see how the day turned out. It was a nice quiet Christmas.

Maybe it's recent events that put things into perspective to me, but start thinking about the highlights of 2016 and the good moments. Don't forget the bad, but don't dwell on them either. In the end, a year is just a year. It's a collection of 365 (in this case, 366) days, but the only thing that separates it from the next is the number we choose to use. Take everything in stride. Count your blessings by days, not by years. 

Please, as we end this week, remember the good moments and bring that energy into next week as we begin 2017. For those who want to look at forgetting 2016 completely, start out 2017 on a positive note, so you won't want to forget it. 
On a complete side note, am I the only one freaked out that it's already 2017? When did that happen? The graduating high school class is the last class born in the 90s. WHAT? Time is a very odd concept and always boggles my mind. I'm at that awkward stage in life where I feel old but young at the same time. I'm pretty much halfway to 50, but I'm also still getting my life together. It's that age where you're like, I pay all my bills and have a full time job and am a responsible adult, but then you also will call your parents whenever something is wrong or breaks or just appreciating how they never ran out of stuff while you were a kid or how there was always food or even toilet paper. It's keeping track of all that random stuff.
 Half of my friends are settling down. The other half are still going hard every weekend. Then there's me, in bed by 9, 10 at the latest almost every night being a dog mom and enjoying every moment of that and realizing, I'm good with a dog and can't even imagine being engaged/married or having kids. It's a weird age, but I'm enjoying every moment of it and living my life. 

Anyways, got a little off topic. Back to the new year.

My challenge for you is to write down the good moments you have throughout 2017 so when you get to the end of 2017, you can see all the good that occurred.

2016, I thank you for every bit of growth I have earned and for every lesson taught.

Sincerely,
Lisa

P.S. Happy New Year and be safe!