Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Another Year

A few things have happened since my last blogging encounter, for example: a new year, I'm 24, the Packers aren't in the Super Bowl and I made my karoake debut! Everything inbetween is a rainbow-colored blur. Perhaps if I didn't wait so long between posts...

Anywho, the Super Bowl is this Sunday, and for the first time in recent memory, I DO NOT CARE. In fact, its very existence annoys me. Normally if my team isn't in the big game, I can still at least pick a side and hope for a good show. But this year, not only is the Super Bowl made more bitter by the glaring absence of my Packers due to the season and expectations they had, but the two teams that are in it I either have a suffocating indifference for or out-right animosity. Since the latter is a stronger emotion that the former, I've decided I'm going to root AGAINST the Giants (not to be confused with "for the Patriots"). And hope for some good commercials.

In other news, I turned 24 last Sunday. Twenty-four feels so much older than 23. That number is just so close to 25, whereas 23 was still "early twenties." Now I'm mid-twenties. I know one day I'll laugh at myself for thinking 20-anything was "old," but I can't be objective right now! Also, I figure if I get mildly panicky about 24, it might ease me into the panic of my mid-mid life crisis next year. But really, 24 or 42, it's always an excuse for cake and good company, and this year was no exception.

Twenty-three was a blink of an eye, but there were certainly days that seemed like years all their own. Seems like yesterday I was celebrating #23 in Nashville. Since then, another year has passed with the newspaper and I feel more comfortable in Canton, yet more restless at the same time. I've had one more year without Tarah, and learned that the phrase "time heals everything" is little more than that...a phrase. I've gotten a little more assertive, reconnected with old friends and made irreplaceable new ones. I have five new coffee mugs, a more established writing voice and a new-found love for 80's rock.

My friends and family, cliche as it sounds, have been my saving grace (which, ultimately comes from the saving Grace of my Savior). Nothing earth-shattering happened last year, but I have another chapter. It's filled with quirky nuances, snippets, trials and triumphs of everyday life, spent with the people I built 2011, and 23, with. The people who listened to me prattle on about my uncertainties, my silly little excitements, who remember I like singing Disney songs, who tell me they're sorry about the Packers losing when they couldn't care less, who are honest with me, who shared their excitement with me, and who gave me a chance to do all that for them.

What a wonderful year it has been, if I had nothing else to measure it by but the people who were in it. Now, I'm a year older, hopefully a year wiser and certainly not where I expected to be. But that's ok, for now. I know there's a guiding hand, if I have half a brain to look for it.

So, thank you to all of you who have made this past year what it was. I am blessed beyond belief, and cannot wait to see what the next one has in store for me, and how you all fit into it, and how I fit into yours.