Objectively, a lot of really terrible things happened in 2016. Violence, war, terrorism, natural disasters, the deaths of many beloved celebrities, and, of course, the election of a fascist Cheeto.
For me personally, though, this was actually a very good year. Although it wouldn’t take much for this to be a better year than last, honestly, considering that in 2015 I lost my apartment in a fire and, as you could probably tell from this post, was suffering from some pretty intense depression. Three days after Christmas last year, I started taking EffexorXR, and on New Year’s Day, I started feeling more like myself again. And thus began a much better year for my personal life.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of things that happened this year:
- I completed the Insanity workout and tried some workouts I’d never done before, like Bodypump.
- I saw Les Mis on Broadway one more time as well as A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder right before it closed.
- I saw Ramin Karimloo in concert three times- twice in Indianapolis in March and once in New York City in July.
- I saw The Sound of Music and A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (again) in Boston.
- Over the course of the month of April, I ran 100 miles.
- I went to New York and saw Hamilton (with the original cast!), Waitress, She Loves Me, and Bright Star.
- I had my ten-year college reunion in June. It was wonderful- I got to see a bunch of friends I don’t get to see enough, including Christina, Jon, Steph, and Jackie. It was just as much fun as the five year, although there was the weirdness of seeing how many people have kids now. (There were some “WTF? She had a BABY?!” moments.)
- I did an open-water swim, which had been on my bucket list for years.
- I got an unexpected but quite welcome promotion and raise at work, and I also got a bonus for some extra work that fell on my plate over the summer. I continue to be happy with my job and coworkers, people seem happy with my work, and I’m actually kind of shocked at how little I miss publishing.
- Since this was the first full summer I spent at my apartment, I got to take advantage of the nice pool my complex has.
- I went to my friend Caroline’s lovely wedding in Connecticut.
- I went to Zimbabwe, with a bit of Botswana and Dubai, with my friends.
- Erin and I joined a kickball league in the fall, which was fun. It also enabled me to go to a fun Halloween party, where I dressed as a tree.
- I continued to sing in my chorus, volunteer at the soup kitchen, and be involved in my church’s young adult group.
- For the first time, I sang with the choir in a Christmas concert at my church.
- I’m keeping my apartment tidier and cleaner than I used to. I still have work to do, but I’ve come a long way.
- I read a LOT. 108 books, to be exact, almost twice as many as last year. Thank you, longer commute. I’ll blog about those books in more detail in a future post.
- I made a lot of good food, although not as often as I would have preferred.
- Towards the end of the year, I saw a lot of good movies.
- I watched, or finished, Making a Murderer, Friday Night Lights, The People vs. O.J. Simpson, Stranger Things, Fuller House, The Path, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, Catastrophe, One Mississippi, and Outlander. I also got hooked on This Is Us and Full Frontal.
- I had a lot of fun times with friends and family.
So, what DIDN’T happen this year?
I wish I had better news about dating, but…I don’t. Dating continued to suck this year, and I still have moments of loneliness and despair. The best thing I can say about it is that I’m not giving up.
I surprisingly did not do any road races at all this year. Next year, I’m aiming for another half-marathon.
Despite starting off strong, I did not exercise as much as I wanted to.
I obviously did not blog as much as I wanted to.
And I’ve fallen out of writing fiction, which I’m sad about.
So those are all things I’ll work on changing next year. I don’t know what’s going to happen with the state of the world, but I hope to keep the state of the world around me doing well.
Wow, 2016 definitely sounds like a grand year for you. I am so glad you accomplished so many thing. I sure hope 2017 is just as great.