2015 in Review

I meant to write a "Year in Review" post sometime this week, but (characteristic for 2015), that really didn't go as planned.  So here I am on January 1, dragging a bit of 2015 into the new year with me.  You know what, though?  Maybe that isn't a bad thing.  This is MY blog (and..,you know...MY life), so I can pick which pieces to bring with me into the new year.  Those of you who know me well know that I have never been happier to kiss a year goodbye as I was for 2015.  Actually, I didn't even kiss the year goodbye.  I more said, "Don't let the door hit you on your way out.  Heck, who am I kidding?  I hope you fall down the stairs on your way out too." But that's just a personal issue between me and 2015.  We didn't get along.  I don't need to drag you down with our drama.

Despite 2015's insistence on trying to kill me, I came out on top.  Look at all the fab things I did in 2015 that I am going to remember,  I'm going to smile about, and I'm going to take with me going forward:

1. Traveling.  I lost count of how many flights I took this year (somewhere in the area of fifteen) and how many hotel rooms I stayed in (somewhere around twenty).  I've never done so much traveling as I did this year.  I went to Asia and Europe for FREE with grants I earned to study their education systems.  I was treated like an absolute princess on both continents.  I learned a lot of things.  SO many things.  I would say "all the things," but one of the things I learned is that I'll never know all the things (boo!). Traveling is good for people.  It should be a prerequisite for adulting.  As for domestic travel, I went to North and South Carolina for spring break with my in-laws (let's just pause here for a moment and consider what percentage of people would voluntarily CHOOSE to spend a week straight with their in-laws?  Mmmhmm.  Not many.  Mine are pretty fab).  Also, I did a New England trip with my mom at the end of the summer.  I went to my cousin's wedding in Wisconsin.  It was a travel-heavy year.  I am now only missing FOUR states in my quest to complete "50 by 30," seeing all fifty states by my thirtieth birthday.  I have just over three years to go...I think I can make it.  My mom did it, so I'm hoping I can too.  America really is a beautiful country.  I'm happy to think of how much of it I've seen.  So, so many memories.  I'm really lucky when it comes to traveling.

2. Finished my math minor.  For the past six years, I've been one class away from finishing my math minor at MSU.  This year my school asked me to teach upper-level math in addition to English, so I asked if they would please pay for me to finish the minor.  That way I'd be highly qualified in both of my subject areas.  They agreed.  Therefore I enrolled in Calculus II (eeek!) and buckled up for a wild ride.  It was five hours a week of class, plus a few hours a week on homework.  Let me tell you, I've studied for a lot of classes, and this one took nothing less than my "A Game."  It kicked my butt, but I kicked back harder.  My teacher was a bit nutty (correct?), and he didn't particularly like women (all two of us in the class...), but I made it.  I also scored higher than most of the men in the class, so HA.  Calculus conquered.  Minor on my transcript.  More job opportunities opened for me.  Most importantly (to me), I finished what I started.

3. Writing.  I wrote a lot this year.  I do a lot of writing here, on this paltry blog that has basically no followers (hello, you three!), but I don't feel like I can abandon it because I've grown to love this little corner of cyberspace.  It's not popular, but it's mine.  I started a new blog for my international travels and acquired some attention there.  I wrote on that blog almost daily, which is great because I'll have those memories forever.  I got published in a few other magazines this year, small gigs, and I finished off the year this December by sweeping every category in a community writing competition (not going to lie...that felt pretty good).  I'm no J.K. Rowling or Sophie Kinsella (who I met this year!), but I have fun.  And really...isn't that the point of a hobby?  To have fun?
I also started venturing slowly into poetry as a genre.  I've never really loved poetry. I've seen it as something thirteen-year-old girls do when the boy they like talked to another girl and they just have to get out all the feels onto paper.  Junior high...so many feels.  Turns out, writing poetry can actually be pretty fun.  Also turns out, I don't totally suck at it.  I don't think.  My poem won the grand prize in the aforementioned competition, so there's that.  The judges don't think I suck, AND the judge who announced it teared up when announcing how the judges all found the winning piece so "moving and beautiful."  That made me feel pretty good.  Excuse me while I go write poems about these feels.

4. Finally Made Headway on the Bible.  Every year I put on my New Year's Resolution list that I'm going to read the Bible in a year.  I never do.  I get to about Leviticus and say, "Okay, this is way too confusing to read straight through.  I'm out."  This year, though, Rex and I decided to hold each other accountable and that we were both going to do it.  Accountability makes a big difference.  It makes a big difference, that is, until I get behind so I feel like I can't hold him accountable, and he is also behind, so then we sheepishly don't ask each other about it for weeks because we're both ashamed about not doing our readings.  Arrrgh!  After a few spans like this, I think we're back on track.  I didn't actually finish the whole Bible this year, but I'm more than halfway there.  I left Leviticus behind loooooong ago.  I also learned that some things in life don't need to have deadlines, and that the fact that I didn't finish by midnight last night is OKAY.  I'm going to finish by this summer for sure, and I'm okay with that.  I think God's okay with that too.  I talk to Him a lot more this year than I did last year.  This is probably also a good thing.  Or definitely a good thing.  Because the thing is, He's always listening.  He WANTS a relationship with you (and me), but I do a pretty good job of stubbornly ignoring Him sometimes.  Newsflash: that never goes well.  I've (mostly) given up on doing that.

5. Student Successes.  It's not like I'm a great teacher.  I'm not.  I just REALLY, REALLY love English.  If I find a student who also loves English or could potentially love English in the future (so, uh...everyone), then I push them as hard as I can to be as successful as they can.  This year I had four students publish novels (full-size novels - around 150 pages each.  Look for them on Amazon.com next month).  I had two students win prizes in the community literary competition.  I had a student win a poetry competition and get published in a young writers' anthology.  I know the successes are theirs, not mine, but there's this little piece of me that says, "They wouldn't have known about these opportunities or done these things without me challenging them."  And really, their parents and even the students themselves have told me that, so I think I can take a teeny cut of the credit.  Like, 2% credit.  But that 2% is mine, and it makes me smile.

6. New Life Motto.  I've lived a lot of my life for things to build my resume, and here's the thing: I've always had really good resumes.  I spent all of high school building a resume for college, I spent all of college building a resume to get a good job, and I've spent all of my professional life building my resume to open even more doors (e.g. free trips to Europe and Asia).  Those experiences are great.  It's good to have a stellar resume.  HOWEVER - my new life motto that occurred to me about a week ago was this: "If it goes on your resume, it's not what really matters in life."  And this, my friends, is TRUTH.  It's not to say that your professional and academic accomplishments don't matter.  They do.  They're just not what really matters.  Relationships matter.  Playing Pugopoly with your husband by the fire matters.  Laughing because your new puppy is such a nutter matters.  Tackling your sister with tears of joy when she surprises you by coming home for Christmas matters.  Sword-fighting students with yardsticks at recess matters (okay fine, I admit that was actually in the middle of math class.  But FUN matters!).  Praying for God to help you make it through another day matters.  Meatloaf on a Sunday afternoon matters.  None of that will show up on a resume, but if you're only living for your resume, then you're missing out on your life.  Your life cannot be reduced to a piece of paper.  If it can, then you aren't living any sort of a life at all.

On that note, I think I'm ready to hit 2016 full-force.  I'm not at all sure what this year will bring, what I'll be writing on December 31 for "2016 in Review," but I'm ready to turn the page and see what the next chapter has in store.  See you in December, end-of-year me.  I hope you have awesome things to say!