The whirlwind that was two-thousand-and-nineteen suddenly came to an end.
For something that seemed to take its sweet time to move along, I felt a pang of nostalgia for the chaos that it had managed to cause in the twelve months leading up to the bitter-sweet ending.
In 2019 I managed to accomplish a lot of things, not as many as I had hoped, but still: accomplishing even the smallest thing is a victory. One of the biggest blessings of the year was due to me being dragged into a mid-year life crisis where I questioned my love for planning when life never goes according to it. And, you don’t know me, but I love planning. I love stationary and folders and creating a budget and figuring out my next five steps three years in advance. But, in 2019 I had enough of being focused on the future and instead decided that I was just going to go for it; whatever the it was that came along. Luckily for me, the “it” happened to be traveling.
Because of my carelessness and newfound lack of planning when someone suggested going somewhere or doing something I immediately challenged myself and said why not and completely committed to it. That is how I drove nine hours to go and see Mount Rushmore on not even a full day’s notice or how I signed myself up immediately for skydiving at a market with payment and everything already done. That is how, while I was at work a Mumford and Sons song came on and within a matter of ten minutes my colleague and I bought our concert ticket and had to figure out how we are going to get all the way to Washington and if we were even going to get the time off. This new-found freedom of not allowing every decision to be a life-altering mechanism gave me the courage to reach out to different employers which gave me the opportunity to come to Arizona for the winter. I have always wanted to do that, but I couldn’t because I always said to myself what if it doesn’t work out. Then, after I asked myself that question, I would come up with negative scenarios and all of a sudden my five-year plan wouldn’t seem feasible.
Now, I have realized that a five-year plan will never be feasible.
As a writer, I would have to admit that the twist and turns of 2019 made for quite a page-turner.
There were plot twists and heartbreaks
along with laughter and disaster
but true to a novel
it wasn’t short of anything
but a happily ever after.
Here’s to a happy 2020
Route and Review 