2018 in the rearview

Do you ever sit back in the early weeks of January and think about the previous year? Sure you do, we all do, hell we are thinking about it during the early weeks of December too even as we prepare for the holidays to come. I’ve never been one to really think back and wish things were different or I’d done more, or that the year would hurry up and end so I could start fresh. Never been much on resolutions either, they’ve just always seemed a little silly to me. Any day is as good as the next to start fresh, so why do we have to wait until January 1st?! Lots happened in 2018 for me though, good and bad, so perhaps this once I’m giving it some more thought. Not that I’m glad the year is over, it wasn’t that bad, and hey every day has a purpose in this life; but I’m definitely reflecting on it more than I normally do.

The year started with some eye opening experiences for both my children, which in turn meant for us as well, and the rest of the year followed that pattern. Our baby girl turned 18, finally decided to date the boy who would become the love her life, tried out college, started her first real full-time job with benefits, and continued to blossom as a young woman. Our son left some toxic situations, reevaluated his life on many levels, finally came back home where his momma and daddy could love on him some, and continued to grow as a young man.

By summers end both our kids were doing great, we were loving life, and a dream opportunity presented itself to us so we started discussing the idea of moving to the beach. This was nothing new, we’d talked about it before, but this time, oh this time would be different! Within about a week we went from the talk to the walk, and in a month we were gone. NC bound, here we come, new jobs, new home, new everything. This was HUGE, for us, our kids, our families….huge I tell ya. We were both born and raised in Virginia, never had ventured far from the original area we lived in, but here we were with a U-haul, our belongings and our sweet little Chance hitting the road. Chance by the way is our 11 year old Pug, who has diabetes, is blind, is deaf, but is still kicking it with us! Talk about a change, our dream was becoming reality, we were leaving our now adult children behind and starting a new adventure.

Fast forward to December, you know, that month where you start reflecting on the year….that thing I’d never done before. Remember when I said this once I was reflecting, well boy did I ever. Picture it, a typical Sunday, we were doing laundry, watching football, preparing for the week ahead…and back home in Virginia everyone was preparing to hunker down for the first snow storm of the winter. Ha, I laughed out loud for real, “look at that mess”, “boy am I glad we are at the beach where that doesn’t happen”, “ya’ll can keep that even a rainy day at the beach is better than all that snow”. Yep those are all the various things I said and more that Sunday. My husband shared my sentiments, we talked to the kids, made sure they were prepared and that was it, not our problem anymore. Then Tuesday came, it was just a normal Tuesday, much like Sunday, except for the Facebook memories. Have you ever looked at those? If you get emotional easy, take my advice, DON’T! Hell, even if you don’t get emotional easy, still take my advice, DON’T! I don’t cry as a rule, it’s just not something I do, I’m a pretty tough cookie, I get mad, but I don’t cry. Tuesday night, I cried. And then Wednesday morning, I cried, and I cried, and I cried….it just didn’t stop. I spent Wednesday in a training class at work with a sweet new friend who kept turning around trying to make me laugh, which worked for a minute, and then I’d cry again. She’d moved in 2018 also, from Florida to North Carolina, so she understood! Thursday morning we quit our jobs, rented a U-haul, and we came HOME!

That was December 13th, and so needless to say, with everything else that moving entails….I did a lot of reflecting at the end of 2018. It wasn’t a bad year, lots of great things happened, our kids grew, we grew, but I’m okay with putting it in my rear view.