Hello 2013! It is a few minutes past midnight and my mind is going in a million different directions as has happened several times this week. I look around my apartment and see mass chaos. It’s amazing the amount of “stuff” you can collect in a year’s time. Did I really need to save a box of 1,000 matches? For now, it’s time to pack up these memories and store them away for a while (well, minus the matches). What better time to start a new adventure than at the beginning of a new year? A fresh start. A clean slate!
I’m not going to lie; I’m sort of relieved to see 2012 go. I had many challenges this year which I hope to never have to relive. As through most trials, I grew more than I could’ve imagined. I’ve grown to appreciate the true friends I have and have vowed to never take those for granted. They have now become like family. I’ve built new relationships with people who have done nothing but encourage me; friends who I have instantly bonded with. I learned the value of giving with everything inside. I believed that with enough faith, hope, and love the world could be changed but only if we take action. I attempted to become a better coordinator…that’s still a work in progress. I squashed the internal battle of my head that says I’m not good enough to be used for something great. I’ve accepted, although this one hasn’t come easy, that I will be single for at least the next year and a half and that’s ok. (Mom, don’t bust out the Christian Mingle profile just yet) My biggest feat of 2012 was applying and being accepted into the World Race. I know because of that my life will never be the same and for that I am glad. I want my world turned upside down and inside out. I am ready to be stripped away of the baggage and junk I carry. A good friend of mine shared this post from a prior racer and it was one of those things that had come at the perfect time…
"The World Race is not a reset button. It did not erase the wrongs I had done, or the people I had hurt, as I had hoped it would. This experience merely changed my natural inclination to spiral downward into a propensity to climb diligently upward… and that is life-changing. It's only when you stop thinking of the Race as Life's "easy button" that you can truly grow the most from it."
That is my challenge for the New Year. Welcome to 2013! It’s going to be a crazy year with trials of its own but I cannot wait to see all the good that will come!
Happy New Year!
