Dear 2016: You’ve Got Big Shoes To Fill

I confess. January is always overwhelming to me. December is exciting with Christmas, family, and rest, and then the calendar page turns and a whole new year is ahead!

Then, right on cue (about 12:05am January 1st) the melancholy half of my personality freaks out. We just finished a whole year and had exactly five minutes to celebrate all the cool things we did and that we survived another year, and now we have to start all over again. Yikes.

I know, I know. My brain is overthinking this. It’s just another day. Same clock, same twenty-four hours, same everything. And if I get too much in my own head, I could freak out about everyday and every minute, since we cannot get any moment back or bend the rules of time. So I try not to go there. But, the fact remains, January is hard for me.

But so far, it’s still January, and I’m actually doing pretty okay. Maybe because I felt pretty good bout 2015, or maybe because 2016 is looking more promising. Maybe because I’m gaining confidence or just simply growing up. I don’t know. But whatever it is, I’m grateful for it!

2015

You probably don’t want to read a sappy year-in-review post about 2015, so I won’t bore you with all the details. And I also don’t want to do a humble-brag thing, but I do want to take a bit of space to thank God for the grace He provided for three big things for me in 2015.

I graduated with a Master’s Degree. Don’t be more impressed than necessary—it is master of arts in English. Be impressed with my friend Bryon who earned his master’s degree in engineering, something I’m quite certain I could never do, nor would you want me to. I do words, not numbers, and Heaven help us if I have to do math and make decisions for the greater good of humanity. Let’s be honest. I took two film classes, where we watched a conglomeration of classic movies and then talked about them. Yeah, you could go to grad school, too.

I completed a half-marathon. This is probably more impressive than the master’s degree, considering my deep aversion to exercise in general. I finished, but I am always one of the last in the pack of every race, and many hardcore runners wouldn’t even consider me a “real” runner. I’m okay with that. I sit at a desk all day, so it’s good for me to move around every once in a while. But contrary to what I’m sure all the buff runners on the cover of Runner’s World are thinking, I don’t think I’m better than you because of my athletic accomplishments or rigorous training program. (Hint: My training program wasn’t all that rigorous.)

I started a full-time job. This might not be news, since not much is changing here, but here it is—I’m now working full-time for Shattered Magazine! I have been working with Shattered since September of 2014, and I absolutely love it. I recently moved into the role of Online Managing Editor, which turned full-time not long ago. At Shattered, we break down barriers to Jesus through the power of storytelling. We believe people everywhere connect on a story level, so we want to tell people’s stories to connect people with the greatest story ever told—the Gospel. We print quarterly and publish online weekly—join us!

So there you have it. 2015 was a good year, and 2016 –even though we’re only 8 days in—is going to be just as good too.

Okay, your turn—what was great about 2015 and what are you looking forward to in 2016?