Life Lessons Learned from 2018

     As 2018 comes to a close and 2019 quickly approaches (side note: next year is the last year of the 2010s - how crazy is that?) , I thought it best to look back on the year that was 2018 and reflect. 2017 ended with me hanging out at Dunkin' Donuts and drinking coffee...and 2018 is wrapping up with me hanging out at Dunkin' Donuts and drinking coffee. And if you've read my blog long enough, you know that I made a similar joke to that last year. Nonetheless, here are the life lessons learned this year:

• Life comes at you fast: Don't you wish there were a way to schedule when things would happen? That when multiple events pop up at once and require your attention, that you could postpone some of them? I found myself wishing this multiple times this year. In January, I took a quick trip to Kansas and as I was waiting for my flight to Wichita to take off, I learned of news from a friend that created sudden uncertainty for me and our other friends. It didn't help that I was battling a cold this week, either.
  
       This fall, I learned more than ever how life can happen all at once pretty fast. In the midst of dealing with some personal struggles and heartbreak, a whole new problem occurred: my apartment flooded. In the end, most everything turned out to be okay and everything got sorted out. Still, it was a really stressful night cleaning up water and stressful few days dealing with the aftermath of it all. It didn't help that this was right before my birthday. Not exactly the best birthday present I've given myself. I was fortunate to have not been flooded when Hurricane Harvey last year, and after going through a much more mild set of circumstances, I hope that I never have to go through flooding again.
  
       All of this is to say, life and time wait for no one. This is also to say that you can't really compartmentalize aspects of your life, either (personal, family, friends, work, faith, etc.). If you're falling short in one area, it's going to impact you in the others. It can feel cold when you're dealing with tough issues and you're told "that's life", but that kind of is how life works. In the end, it makes you stronger and more prepared for when life does throw those curve balls at you.
  
  

  

  Life comes at you fast - a Wichita State-style shocker!
  
  
  

• You Gotta Have Friends (and Family): Since life has a way of happening all at once, it's important that you have people that you can go to in those moments. Special thanks to my parents for staying up late talking to me on the phone when I was figuring out the best ways to clean up from flooding. Because I don't have any family in the Houston area, having friends has become especially important for me. When reflecting this fall, one thing I found was that in times when life threw curve balls at me, my friends were right there. The "downs" of this year ultimately brought me closer to friends. As they say, God works in mysterious ways. I wouldn't want to go through some of those events again, but I also don't want to lose the closeness those events brought me with friends.
  
       Just as the "downs" of this year brought me closer to friends, so did "ups" like shopping at TJ Maxx, watching Wisconsin football, going to Popeyes, or drinking kombucha and eating Oreos. When you find people that will do those things with you, never let them go. When I celebrated my birthday this year, I got dinner and ice cream with friends from church, and it really was awesome to look around and be so thankful for everyone there with how they had been rock stars to me one way or another. As the former Thomas the Tank Engine narrator Ringo Starr once sung about, "I get by with a little help from my friends"
  
  
  
  
  
     
  
  

  

  I get by with a little help from my family and friends. Thanks for the adventures this year!

• Stay true to yourself: Yesterday, I went for a walk and ended up briefly playing on a playground designed for 5 -12 year olds. You know, kids at least half my age. One thing that I never want to lose is that childlike enthusiasm and optimism that anything is possible. That same type of enthusiasm that may spur me to briefly play on a playground or occasionally watch Spongebob Squarepants. Shoot, in one of the very first episodes Spongebob said that if you stay true to yourself you won't end up like a fool who ripped his pants.
  
       There's no way around it: I'm quirky. The pictures I take at grocery stores, the puns, and trips to metropolises like Wichita and Boise are living proof of that. In the past, I've struggled with viewing things that make me who I am as weaknesses, as though those very things hold me back. It's something that I'm continuing to work on. Using vacation days to watch March Madness or go to Wisconsin are steps in the right direction. So is continuing to write in a blog about random thoughts.
  
  

  

  Will-Sconsin

  
  
• Make peace with God and make peace with yourself: ...Because in the end, there's nobody else. Okay, so that's straight out of "How You Live", which if you couldn't tell, is probably my unofficial song of the year. Laura Story's "Blessings" makes a strong case as well.
  
       Okay, so this one is similar to the previous one, but there's a big difference between them, a God-sized difference. One thing that I found in the latter half of this year was that I found myself distant from God, something that I hadn't really done in a year and a half. It's no coincidence that I suddenly didn't feel the same way I previously felt. My New Year's Resolution for next year is to draw near to God again, as that's something that no relationship, trip to TJ Maxx, trip to the grocery store, trip to Idaho, or anything can fill in my heart. God is the one person in the universe that I can talk to every day and at any hour. Somehow, I keep forgetting about His love and grace. Thankfully, I have friends and family that point me back in that direction. And as I've found, make peace with God makes it a lot easier to make peace with myself. Moving forward next year, that means more time with God. In a way, this ties in to the previous life lesson as well, as another I goal I have is to take care of myself more. That means not beating myself up over every mistake, handling stress better, and setting time for myself.

     Well, that about sums up 2018 in a nutshell. To reference an earlier blog post this, 2018 was filled with wins, losses, and even a tie - literally! Life never does go according to plan, but that's the beauty of it. Besides, life would be kind of boring if we already knew the outcome of everything. As 2018 closes out, I'm thankful for a new year and what's to come, but am also thankful for all that I learned this year. Here's to a good year...and for many more to come. Happy New Year!