2016 May Not Have Been Your Year, but It Was Mine.
There’s no denying that 2016 brought terrible things. Quasi-immortals David Bowie and Prince died (along with a slew of other influential people I loved — now Carrie Fisher?!). Donald Fucking Trump got elected President of the United States. Racism and sexism (still) run rampant. Violence is (still) everywhere. People are (still) suffering for a lot of stupid reasons.
2016 sucked, except … a lot of great things happened to me.
I didn’t realize how great of a year 2016 was for me, until Mark pointed it out. I was bitching about all of the horrible stuff that happened in 2016, and he reminded me that I accomplished a lot this year. He did too. I guess that’s what we can keep doing: accomplishing good things on a personal level, even if those things can’t counteract all the bad shit happening around us.
I killed it in 2016.
- I finished my graduate degree.
- I won a teaching award.
- Mark and I finally got married.
- I moved to Minnesota.
- I traveled to a city (Los Angeles) that inspired me to do more good.
- I wrote a first draft of a novel (also inspired by LA) and a design-for-good book, which includes a kit to help others spread kindness in the new year.
- I got a new job doing what I love for a place that does great work.
These are huge accomplishments. Although, marriage isn’t really an accomplishment per say because it’s not like you can put it on a checklist and get it done. It is an accomplishment to me because Mark and I had been together for so long and it’s nice to finally be “official” even though not much has changed (beyond my last name — which is still weird — and some legal documents).
How can I top this in 2017? I want to continue learning, making, and growing, even though I’m not in school. I don’t want to stagnate. I want to remain relevant and produce great work. I’m continuing my monthly creative challenges, which should help, and am taking advantage of my job to learn some new things.
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Do me a favor and answer me this: Despite all the crap 2016 brought, what great thing happened to you this year?
