New Year’s Eve is quickly approaching, and with it, inevitable expectations and emotions arise. NYE has always felt like a daunting night for me. Something about that night makes me incredibly sad and I often find myself crying, especially if I spend the night with my family. However, for the past years, I’ve taken control of my NYE and have been making my own plans. And while I’ve still cried, the night has overall felt more joyful. This year, I’ll be spending it with my family, but on my own terms. I planned a trip for our crew and we are headed to a week-long mini-vacation to get away from the chaos we’ve been living in since the hurricane hit.
I wouldn’t say that I necessarily look forward to NYE nowadays, but I’ve created certain rituals around it that make me happy. I’ve found that creating mini self-care rituals around holidays I don’t love makes them more enjoyable. I’ve adopted this ritual for Valentine’s Day, on Thanksgiving I make breakfast, watch the Macy’s parade and decorate my house for Christmas before heading off to lunch, and on NYE, I reflect back on my year and make a plan for the coming year. Sounds cliche, but it works for me!
I always like to summarize the year in 2 or 3 words.
2010: Goodbyes & Hellos – I graduated college and moved back home, which meant I bid adieu to my college friends but started making new friends and greeting old ones back home.
2011: Learning & Adulthood – I started my first big girl job and learned TONS about what its like to be an adult and take care of myself financially.
2012: Health, Family & Wholesomeness – I began my quest to eat better and for the first time, I lost significant weight and felt good about myself. My dad had moved into his new house and I enjoyed a lot of family time.
2013: Adventure & Friendships – I lived in Madrid, made amazing friends and went on crazy adventures like camping in a desert and having a snowball fight in the alps. When I moved back home, I continued making great friends.
2014: New Beginnings/Milestones – I became a homeowner (WHOAH), and I came out to myself and to one friend. This was HUGE and defining for me. I also started a new, incredible job. This year was rough though, as from March to November I was incredibly stressed and depressed due to a toxic supervisor at my job. Thankfully, the year ended on a VERY high note.
2015: Fun, Fears & Transformations – I fully came out, fell in love for the first time, cowered in fear over it, had some of the best nights of my life through my job and finally started to embrace who I was, beyond sexuality. My workplace really helped me love my weird self.
2016: Creative, Fun, Turning Point – I changed jobs, traveled quite a bit to see old friends, started this blog for my crafting projects (and boy did I craft that year!), got my shit together in terms of finances, home life and organization, and I had some FUN AS HECK times. From organizing a major fashion show to seeing my old friends from college a few times, this was a cool year.
Now, to describe 2017 in 2-3 words seems harder. This year has been weird and I believe it’s a collective global mindset that it almost feels like the world is gonna end. However, some good things absolutely happened, and I certainly can’t deny that.
2017: Introspective, Financially Positive & Unexpected – I found myself in a job that allowed me to create a lot but that didn’t allow me to be surrounded by peers I enjoy. The result of this is that I have had a lot of time to think about who I am and what I want in life. I’ve read, journaled, vision boarded and meditated the crap out of this year. I finally embraced the Law of Attraction and little magical and miraculous moments have begun to happen. And I have unexpectedly made amazing friends, and unexpectedly faced a Category 5 storm that changed and shaped the way I looked at the rest of the year, and possibly the future and unexpectedly bought a new car. I also paid off my old car, my credit cards and my student loans.
So, what do I predict and hope that my 2018 will look like?
2018: Achievements, Fun & New – I hope this year I will achieve some of my major goals, like weight loss, getting a new job that I’m passionate about, embracing love and releasing fears. I hope plenty of new and good things appear, like friends, lovers, travel destinations, cities to live in and experiences. And I hope that through all of this, I can release stress and learn to enjoy it all and have fun.
Here’s to a great year!