A Reflection of 2015 and the One Thing I’m Leaving Behind

The last few hours of a year are filled with people around the world reminiscing upon the variety of memories that took place over the previous twelve months.  On social media, I’ve seen many negative posts about how 2015 was the worst year that people experienced.  While I can almost relate to that sentiment (believe me, I have a list of things that happened in my life that I could add to the negative stigma surrounding 2015), I also have many blessings to be thankful for this year that I would like to reflect upon instead in an attempt to end 2015 on the most positive note as possible.

1. I got engaged.  That’s a pretty big deal.  I’m only 23 (22 at the time of the proposal) which I know some people will say is young, but that just gives me more time to spend with the love of my life.  I’m not giving up any freedom by getting married young (which, actually, we’re waiting until 2017 and I’ll be just shy of 25- which isn’t young in my opinion); instead, I’ll have more opportunities to experience new things with my best friend.  I’m truly thankful to have found someone so young that is always so wonderful to me.
2. I moved out (officially) of my parent’s house and am living in an apartment with my fiance.  Whenever I was young, I made a promise to my parents that once I moved out, I would only come back to visit-my siblings had a tendency to move out and move back in and I didn’t want to do the same thing as them.  So, I’ve been living in Pennsylvania unofficially since June of 2014 when I got a part-time job in PA after graduating college (it was the only place that would hire me).  I didn’t want to make the big jump of switching my license, insurance, and everything else until I received a full-time job.  I started full time at a job through a temp agency back in March, became full time through the company in June, and by June 30th, Kyle and I moved into our new apartment together and I am now a Pennsylvania resident.  I’m proud to say that (so far) I’ve fulfilled that promise I made when I was young.
3. I have always paid bills on time.  Bills suck.  I would give anything to be a child again to live carelessly and not worry so much about money.  However, since I’ve been on my own (in the sense of being independent from my parents), I’ve paid every bill I’ve had on time- sometimes even early- including student loans, which I can now say I’ve paid on time every month for a year as of this December.  Even though money is tight and sometimes I don’t get to do the things I want to do/spend it on a spending spree on desperately needed new clothes, I’m lucky to be able to say that I’ve always had enough money to put food on the table and pay my bills this year.
4. I got a full-time position at a well-respected defense law firm.  Before mid-March, I was working at a catering company as a server part time and wasn’t making very much money at all.  In March, I accepted a full-time position at a law firm as a transcriptionist.  Since then, I became full time through the law firm itself rather than the staffing agency that helped me find the position AND I was promoted as a legal secretary and am now doing twice the work I was before.  Law isn’t at all what I went to school for and it’s not exactly where I pictured myself, but I’m blessed with amazing coworkers who make me excited to go to work.  There are also days when I’m incredibly stressed out (there’s really no happy medium there- I’m either constantly busy or struggling to find work to do), but my coworkers are happy to listen to my concerns and usually help out in any way they can, which is always much appreciated.  All of this will make saying goodbye that much harder to do whenever I do get my dream job, or at least another job that will be a step in the right direction.
5. I rekindled old friendships and realized how important they are to me.  Childhood friends are forever.  Life gets in the way, and it’s tough to stay in contact/ to visit them sometimes, but they’ve seen you at your worst and your best and will always be there for you.  I was able to visit many old friends throughout the year to catch up with them.  I even walked around a quaint little town in West Virginia a few days ago for hours catching up with one of my best friends and just talking about life and how so much has happened this year.  Even though I don’t talk necessarily to them all day/every day, I know how much I mean to them and vice versa.

There are plenty of other great things that happened this year and plenty that I want to bring with me into 2016, but there’s one thing that I plan on leaving behind:

1. NEGATIVITY.  I wish I could explain why, but I have been overly negative over the past year, and I feel as though it has progressively gotten worse.  I’ve been negative about my career, certain people, money, my weight, and I’ve even been envious of other people’s lives.  However, we’re all in different places in our lives, and we all have things that are good and bad in them, so there’s no reason for me to compare myself to others.  My negativity about my career will just push me to strive toward my dream job even more. I will leave behind the people who I have negative feelings toward so as they don’t cloud my happiness.  Overall, my goal (and resolution, I suppose) is to be a better person.  I want to work on myself and become a better person in every aspect.  Though I didn’t have to wait for 2016 to start working on this, a new year is like a blank page in a notebook- you can start fresh and leave everything behind that you don’t want to include from the previous page(s).

I’m thankful to see another year, to see the ball drop on TV, to spend another night with the love of my life, and to have the best friends and family a girl could ask for.  Though there were a lot of bad/sad memories in 2015, I’m thankful for everything that happened because each event is shaping me into the person I am becoming.

With that being said, I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Years, and I’ll post my resolutions next year (aka tomorrow)!  Happy (ALMOST) 2016!

 

Friendly Friday: Feeling like I belong

I was definitely nervous starting my new job.  I’m a relatively shy person (karate brought me out of my shell but I’m still shy around new people) so I didn’t know how it would be interacting with new coworkers and people I’ve never met before.

But this week has showed me how fortunate I am to have found a group of people at a law firm that make me feel like I belong.  I feel included and like they appreciate the work that I’m doing.  They don’t make me feel weird by being so new.  In fact, they recently hired a few attorneys, so a few people there are still getting the hang of everything in the office.  I can even have conversations with them when they come to my desk, like an older woman who came up and asked me about my day/how I was doing and then we talked about traveling, moving and retirement.  I also had an attorney come up and talk about me choosing Duke to win the national championship because he’s also a Duke fan, so it was nice talking to another person who likes Duke (aside from my other friends who like them, too).  It was also just nice talking to these people about things other than work.

I even received a compliment the other night by one of my coworkers who told me I had really pretty skin and it looked awesome under the light in our office.  So that honestly made my day.  I have relatively low self-esteem (something I’m constantly working on so it doesn’t get the best of me) so hearing things like this from people other than those that I’m close to is really nice and it made me feel really confident the rest of the day.

So anyway, basically the people I work with are great and I’m really excited that I get the chance to work with them every day.  Even though the work I do is tedious, they make my days more enjoyable by little snippets of conversations that I have with them randomly throughout the day. 🙂

Friendly Friday: The light at the end of a tunnel

I have some wonderful people in my life.  I’ve always known that, but recent events have really brought this to my attention.

These past couple of weeks have been hard on me, my boyfriend and his family for various reasons, but every time something bad happens, someone steps up and we get some good news.

Out of respect and courtesy to my boyfriend and his family, I won’t get into exact specifics of what is going on, but one of the great things that some friends of the family are doing for us as a present and not as a loan is getting us a storage unit, which is helping lift some weight off of my boyfriend’s shoulders.  We never approached them for help.  They came to us.

He also had the rough responsibility of giving his dog away.  He tried everything in his power to keep her, obviously, but the odds were unfortunately against him and that was the best thing for his dog.  But the people who took her today are amazing.  They’re a laid back married couple with five kids who are looking to move into a big house with a fenced in yard (aka they already looked at 3 houses and are looking at more).  They recently fell into some money somehow and had some extra cash and so it was perfect timing for the dog to fall into their hands.  They’re already taking her on walks and runs (because she’s overweight, to be completely honest) and playing with her and getting her hair cut.  She gets along with the cats they have and with their five kids which is perfect.  And the husband works third shift while the wife works first so someone will always be there and taking care of her.  So it’s honestly an ideal place for her to be in, since she can’t stay in the family.  What’s even better is that they were friendly enough to invite us into their home today to show their kindness and prove that they’re going to take the best care of our family member that they can.  All of that meant the world to my boyfriend, and it was finally something positive to take out of this very negative situation.

Props to them for being the bright light at the end of a dark tunnel.  They were exactly what we needed, and what my boyfriend needed, to make things easier.  And that’s why they’re the subject of my friendly Friday today.