Saturday, December 31, 2016

Reflections on 2016 and Plans for 2017


It’s that time of year again. A time for us to reflect on the past year…what went right, and what to improve upon. To find closure in sadness, and to start the next year anew, opening a new chapter, if you will. I would say my theme for 2016 was growth.

My 2016 Moments
There were moments of sadness in 2016. I lost my aunt I was closest to. She finally lost the battle to cancer after a long, brave fight. I missed talking to her on my birthday and around the holidays like I always have. I’m glad I called her on her birthday and again while she was still here. After that, a few members of extended family passed away too. They will all be missed, but I have their memories to cherish.

Another unfortunate thing was that I had to take a hiatus from skating. This is going to change next year for sure! I have missed out on so many competitions and events this year, and it has made me both sad and jealous.

Luckily, the time away from the rink mobilized me to do something I had always wanted to do: start a blog. I didn’t know where I wanted my focus to be. Obviously, skating would be in there, but I didn’t know if I would also include music and fashion. I had started watching some old skating movies and writing short commentaries on them for Facebook. I couldn’t get into as much detail in a status update as I would like, so I thought that could be a launching point for my blog. I started Icy Trails in July of 2016. The ideas kept flowing through me, and still do. It is a great creative outlet in addition to skating. Skating is something I have always had a passion for, and I have a lot of opinions on a lot of things. I like to interject humor as well. I really like the direction Icy Trails has gone and the commentary I have gotten from the Facebook groups I’ve shared posts with. There were some touching moments particularly on the Team 1961 post.

In other areas of my life, I have been digging deeper and developing myself. In my professional life, I spent a great deal of time in the Leader Investment for Tomorrow, or LIFT, class. This was a course to develop future leaders. I had to reach out of my comfort zone so many times, talking to high level management that I always found intimidating. I accomplished projects that seemed like an impossible feat at the beginning of the year. I got advice from mentors that has helped me a great deal in my career development. It has helped me have more confidence in interviews, and just more confidence overall.

At church, I took on a lot of challenges this year, helping out wherever I could. The children’s director chose me to lead the drama section for Vacation Bible School. I was excited for the new challenge. I don’t know why she chose me, but I’m so glad she did. I made an impact on many youth and children and it was enriching for me as well. I can still make a positive impact on children’s lives, even if I don’t have kids. Knowing I am looked at as a role model motivates me to be a better person as well. I received a lot of praise for my work in the drama section, but it wasn’t about me. It was about getting the message of God and the love of Christ to those children in a way that they could relate. I had a great group of young ladies to help, and I let them have fun with their parts too. I cannot say enough about how that week impacted me. Another undertaking I had was the 34 week Disciple bible study class. In this class, we had discussions on almost all the books of the bible, and shared really deep discussions. I consider myself to be good friends with everyone in there now, and there were a lot of them I didn’t know at the beginning of the year. I think our Disciple class was a model of how the rest of society should work. We had people of all different political and sometimes different religious perspectives and life experiences, and we could respectfully discuss these differences and still like the person who believes differently. There were no hurling insults or other things so rampantly seen on social media. It was good to get a full context of the bible and to have other to shares these ideas with.

At the conclusion of my LIFT class, we were charged to go forth and become the next generation of leaders. At the conclusion of Disciple, we were charged to go forth and be disciples to the world. In 2017, it is time for me to make good on these promises and the expectations others have of me. I’m out of training mode now, and it’s time to put it into action.

Plans for 2017
Other than the goals stated above, there are a few more things I would like to do:
I will be returning to the ice hopefully in early 2017. That means I need to get back in shape. This is legit what has happened this year:
Yes, going to gym and eating right are the most cliché of New Year’s Resolutions. With skating, I will have motivation to actually do it though. Skating is pretty much the only thing that will get me to make better lifestyle choices. I have an idea for a new dramatic program that is going to be the bomb.com! I will also bring back an old favorite freestyle program.

2017 will be our 10th wedding anniversary, and we will take a trip at some point.

I will also be working more with the youth at church. I’m looking forward to that and seeing where I can help and have an impact. I’ll be back working drama for the 2017 VBS too!

I’m considering starting another blog on music. I will see what kind of ideas I can come up with. The focus is likely to be primarily hard rock.

I want to live life more fully in 2017 and enjoy myself more, and care less about what other people might think.

Other than that, I have most things wide open to see what the year has to offer. Hopefully it will be good.


Happy New Year friends!

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