2018: Smell ya later!

I hope this blog post finds everyone well and rested. It’s hard to believe, but 2018 is very quickly coming to a close and the shiny, new year is right around the corner. I’m giddy with excitement to close the fuh-reaking door on the utterly craptastic year 2018 turned out to be. Ugh!

Honestly, though, and I don’t know about everyone else, but I have always loved New Year’s Eve. It feels as if it holds such promise. New and wonderful things are waiting on the horizon. Resolutions that we all want so badly to actually succeed at this time around. All you have to do is be patient and have perseverance and the good and incredible will happen. Right?

For me, flipping on the television and waiting eagerly as the ball drops in Times Square in New York City has always been one of the highlights of the current year. It seems odd, though, doesn’t it? That one of the best moments of our year is spent being eager for the next…

A lot of our lives is lived like that, though, isn’t it? Feverishly waiting to turn the page instead of absorbing everything we just read.

I get it, though! I really, really do! For a lot of people, myself included, this year had moments that sucked a giant bag of… well, you know what I want to say. But as the saying goes, in every gray cloud there lies a silver lining.

So, in an attempt to find the positive and not focus on the complete shit show 2018 actually was… I’m going to ask each one of you reading this to post something awesome that happened to you in 2018. That is if you feel like sharing, of course. Sometimes it’s enough to just sit back and remember those times you smiled instead of frowned, laughed instead of cried, held your chest in happiness instead of clutched it with despair.

In the spirit of fairness and honesty, I’ll go first! (Let’s be real, you all knew this was coming.)

While this year was particularly interesting on my end, it still held quite a few wonderful moments. Living in Florida has its advantages and I went to Disney more times than I can count, which if you know me at all, you know I love Disney so much! My first book, Falling into Her, was nominated for a Goldie and was chosen as a finalist. I was able to meet a lot of really awesome authors that I’ve been reading for a very, very, very long time. I went to Vegas! And had an amazing time. But who doesn’t have an amazing time amongst the glitz and glitter and of Vegas? I was able to celebrate one of my very best friend’s fortieth birthday with her in Chicago, my favorite city on this planet. I met some amazing readers in Provincetown during Women’s Week, which was so completely surreal to me.

One of the other awesome things that happened is my second book was published. Breaking Down Her Walls hit the shelves this month and I couldn’t be more excited about that! It’s a homage to my home state of Colorado, where my heart runs free amongst the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains. It’s also a story of doing exactly what I’m doing now, finding the wonderful when the horrible seems to be all you can remember.

Hopefully anyone reading this has thought about a few times they smiled this year. As my girl Truvy said in Steel Magnolias, “Smile! It increases your face value!”

Instead of saying that 2018 was a dark cloud with a silver lining, which is apropos, but severely clichéd, let’s say another line from my favorite movie, “that which does not kill us, only makes us stronger,” and let’s rock the hell out of 2019.

Good luck, everyone!

And please, remember this: you’re all important and worth it and special. Have fun out there!

(PS: I know Clairee wasn’t the first person to say, “that which does not kill us, only makes us stronger.” But I love her and she is amazing. Period.)

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originally posted on women and words