I feel like this every year, but it seems like time continues to accelerate. It feels like only yesterday that January 1st, 2015 rolled around. Yet, here we are almost ready to begin another new year!
It'll be really hard to capture the year in just a few words but here goes:
This year, I quit my first job - back in May, I gave the first two week notice of my post-college career and opened another chapter. I really appreciated all the opportunities I had at my first job, and I'm really thankful for the folks I had a chance to work with. It wasn't necessarily easy working with all of them, but just having to work with them and deal with challenging situations really prepared me for now and, I'm assuming, the future. With the job change came a move - I now live in an apartment and pay rent. This is an interesting one. My landlady is definitely nice enough - she hasn't tried to rip us off or charge a whole bunch of extra money so far. We did have a little scare with the gas stove for a while before we convinced her to replace it. It smelled like gas whenever we used it and was finicky when we tried to light it. One time, I had to jump back from the flames when I lit a burner. No worries, I do not have burns on my face, and my hair is still intact. I love the fact that we have hardwood floors because, well, hardwood = less dust and it's easier to keep clean. I've got my own room with just enough space for a bed, bookshelf, desk, and rolling closet. Funny story about the closet in my room. It's shaped like a triangular prism, so that's why I use the rolling closet. I've had a blast decorating this room - bed, mattress, and balance ball (read desk chair) purchased on Amazon, bookshelf and desk courtesy of the previous occupants of the apartment, and simple pastel-colored canvases hung on the wall with push pins to offset the dark brown trim that came with the room. I've confirmed my inability to paint anything besides solid colors and in turn further confirmed my suspicions of perfectionistic tendencies. (It's only getting worse as I get older) I bought my first christmas tree! It's artificial and only 18" but I put lights on it and set it on top of the grey bookshelf in my room, which serves as a mantel of sorts. The radiators require a bit of attention - at least it gives me the excuse to keep my window open this winter! Meanwhile, "Mer," one of my roommates, is stuck living in an icebox. Speaking of roommates, I have really been blessed in this area. I only knew one of them before signing the lease, and I'd only met Mer at new hire orientation a few weeks before. But none of them do drugs or anything extremely crazy and we've all gotten along fairly well. We're all wacky in our own sort of way - P likes yogurt and squash and candles and fancy bar soap, A is a lab rat who is never home, and Mer and I nerd out in the evenings or vent about work. We make trips to Michaels for DIY projects and use all the coupons because well, it's effective and it saves a lot of money. Mer and I dream about the future and we sing along to Disney songs. We laugh at Buzzfeed pictures of silly animals and wish we could get a dog. We go to different small groups and different churches but that's another long story in and of itself. Mer claims she's Elsa and I'm Anna, but I think we're actually pretty similar and maybe that's why we've become good friends. I'm really thankful to have a good friend - especially as a roommate. Looking back on 2015, I have so many things to be thankful for.
As I think about it, I realize that God has really blessed me with His protection in many different ways this year. Over the summer, my sublet was a room on the third floor of a house built in 1862 and it was next to a park in a slightly less safe area. It's only a few streets over from where I live now, but I've learned that in a city, a few streets can make a huge difference. I remember speed walking back late at night after working on essays at school - those were tough days that I just really don't want to think about right now. I also remember hearing a group of guys walk by my window late one night talking about a knife fight super casually. I remember being freaked out because I went running one evening and a couple of hours later, someone was shot on a street I had run along. Along with the physical protection, though, God also provided a good boss at work with a capable team. There are challenges; I am no Pollyanna, but I know the things that I am struggling through today will make me stronger tomorrow. He's provided roommates so that I don't have to come home to a lonely apartment. It may not seem like much, but I am so thankful for this one. It was one of the things I dreaded most about getting a job and living on my own.
There are many other things that I am thankful for - a good church where I can get plugged in. A small group where we can all be real about life and encourage each other. The opportunities to share life and my faith with friends and coworkers. I didn't make it to Africa this year and who knows if I will in the future, but there are many people that need the Gospel right here around me. There are people that I can share my faith with halfway around the world in a perfectly natural way through my work. For this as well, I am thankful.
I could keep on rambling, but I'll stop here for now. I don't want to make it sound like 2015 was easy. In the future, my memory will throw out all the hard stuff and remember only that it was "easy." It was, in many ways, one of the hardest years so far. It has been so stinkin hard, whether I say it very often or not. With applications and a new job in the summer, an evening class and long hours at work this fall, I was so burned out in December. So very burned out. I work really hard but I reached a point where I didn't want to work anymore. I was battling a cold that lingered for weeks and I don't often admit that things are too difficult, but it felt that way for a while. So yes, I am very thankful, but I'm also a realist. Just because you see God working in your life doesn't mean that He's making everything easy. Chances are, He's stretching you and molding you, and that doesn't always feel so wonderful. But I choose to trust that He knows me and cares for me - far more than I ever will. As I say goodbye to 2015, let me quote this verse:
"Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass"
1 Thess 5:24
No comments:
Post a Comment