2014: Back to Basics
As I sit to reflect on this year, it has taken me a while to realize the blessings. This year has been full of ups and downs, both personally and for my family. I have loved and lost, and felt lost. Through every experience, I've realized that there has been joy and pain, but this year has brought me back to basics. This year has grounded me, taught me to get back to the simpler things, focus on love, happiness, and family.
My family has struggled with great and tragic losses in the past year. However, as I sit and think about all that we have endured, I also must realize that we have been strengthened. This year has been the first year since my Uncle Sterling passed away, that I've felt like my family was becoming whole again. We have gathered and celebrated with each other like we used to do in the past. We have all reconnected and made it a point to be with each other. We have strengthened our bond as a family and for that I am eternally grateful.
This year I made a silent commitment to myself to start to focus on the things that are important to me and finding my happiness. Since, returning home, I have struggled with feeling like myself and this year I have finally made efforts to find my lane, find my comfort and do the things that I enjoy. I spent a lot of time with my friends, both here and abroad, I spent a lot of time on the water, and I spent time seeing places I've never been.
This year I went to Toronto, Canada, Nashville, Tennessee, and Las Vegas, Nevada, all for the first time. I love to travel. I believe that one of the main reasons I have a passion for education and a never-ending desire to learn is because of travel. Seeing the world is one of life's greatest teachers. There are so many places I want to see and I didn't travel for a while saying I didn't have the money, but you don't have to have a lot of money to travel, you just have to want it enough.
This year I also was accepted to and began a doctoral program. An educational goal that I never really saw for myself until my grandmothers set the spark in me. I love learning, but a doctorate was never on my radar, I never thought I was smart enough and all sorts of other things, basically I let fear tell me that I couldn't do something. Well I finally found a program that interested me this year and applied. It was a bit nerve-wracking, but I was accepted and completed my first semester with a perfect grade.
This year I also got to spend quality time with my friends, some of whom I had not seen in several years. It was amazing to be around the people I love and missed for so long. It was refreshing and rewarding to feel their love and be a part of their lives again, not just through email and social media, but in a real and tangible way. Give them hugs, hold their kids, hear their voice, see their face, simply to be in their presence. Friends are the family that we chose, and I have made some amazing friends throughout my life and I can't say it enough how much I appreciate them and love the roles that they play in my life.
I've always been a bit of a sporty girl, and for a while there I slacked off, lost my way; it happens to the best of us. But I am really proud of myself for setting fitness goals for myself and achieving them. I spoke life into my goals and achieved them. I pushed the doubt aside and I could not be more proud of the results.
This year though trying has reminded me of what is important to me. Through it all it was an amazing year. I don't know what 2015 has to offer, and at times I have felt a little nervous. But today marks the closing of a chapter in my life, 2014, a year that I can never re-live. I must embrace all that has past and be positive about what is to come. 2015 I hope that you are filled with great blessings, continued strength, and clarity. I have less than 2 hours left until the new year, a new chapter filled with great promise. I hope it will be amazing.
To all of you that were present for 2014 I wish you enough! I hope that in 2015 we are all continually blessed on our journeys and that we all remember what is important to us, and that we all get back to basics!
My family has struggled with great and tragic losses in the past year. However, as I sit and think about all that we have endured, I also must realize that we have been strengthened. This year has been the first year since my Uncle Sterling passed away, that I've felt like my family was becoming whole again. We have gathered and celebrated with each other like we used to do in the past. We have all reconnected and made it a point to be with each other. We have strengthened our bond as a family and for that I am eternally grateful.
This year I made a silent commitment to myself to start to focus on the things that are important to me and finding my happiness. Since, returning home, I have struggled with feeling like myself and this year I have finally made efforts to find my lane, find my comfort and do the things that I enjoy. I spent a lot of time with my friends, both here and abroad, I spent a lot of time on the water, and I spent time seeing places I've never been.
This year I went to Toronto, Canada, Nashville, Tennessee, and Las Vegas, Nevada, all for the first time. I love to travel. I believe that one of the main reasons I have a passion for education and a never-ending desire to learn is because of travel. Seeing the world is one of life's greatest teachers. There are so many places I want to see and I didn't travel for a while saying I didn't have the money, but you don't have to have a lot of money to travel, you just have to want it enough.
This year I also was accepted to and began a doctoral program. An educational goal that I never really saw for myself until my grandmothers set the spark in me. I love learning, but a doctorate was never on my radar, I never thought I was smart enough and all sorts of other things, basically I let fear tell me that I couldn't do something. Well I finally found a program that interested me this year and applied. It was a bit nerve-wracking, but I was accepted and completed my first semester with a perfect grade.
This year I also got to spend quality time with my friends, some of whom I had not seen in several years. It was amazing to be around the people I love and missed for so long. It was refreshing and rewarding to feel their love and be a part of their lives again, not just through email and social media, but in a real and tangible way. Give them hugs, hold their kids, hear their voice, see their face, simply to be in their presence. Friends are the family that we chose, and I have made some amazing friends throughout my life and I can't say it enough how much I appreciate them and love the roles that they play in my life.
I've always been a bit of a sporty girl, and for a while there I slacked off, lost my way; it happens to the best of us. But I am really proud of myself for setting fitness goals for myself and achieving them. I spoke life into my goals and achieved them. I pushed the doubt aside and I could not be more proud of the results.
This year though trying has reminded me of what is important to me. Through it all it was an amazing year. I don't know what 2015 has to offer, and at times I have felt a little nervous. But today marks the closing of a chapter in my life, 2014, a year that I can never re-live. I must embrace all that has past and be positive about what is to come. 2015 I hope that you are filled with great blessings, continued strength, and clarity. I have less than 2 hours left until the new year, a new chapter filled with great promise. I hope it will be amazing.
To all of you that were present for 2014 I wish you enough! I hope that in 2015 we are all continually blessed on our journeys and that we all remember what is important to us, and that we all get back to basics!
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