What I've Learned This Year

"Fate loves the fearless." ~James Russell Lowell

Well 2013 is coming to a close.  It was certainly a year of change.  As I do each year (2009, 2011, 2012), I sat down to come up with a list of the things that I've learned in the last 365 days.

1.  Sometimes, you just have to take a chance.  I've learned to just do it.  Say yes to the date.  Interview for the job.  Book the vacation.  Run the half marathon.  Put an offer on the house.  Try it.  Take the chance.  Great things might happen.

2012 OKC Half Marathon

2.  Change can be good.  I'm completely change averse.  I don't even like it when a restaurant changes their menu layout.  So the fact that in the last 12 months I have pretty much turned my life upside down was cause for some pretty serious concern.  This year I moved to a different state, bought a house, sold a house, quite a job, got a new job, got a new vehicle, got a new boyfriend, visited 4 new countries and two new states. But what I've learned is that change can be good if we can just let go and see how things work out.

3.  I do my best thinking in a quiet church.  Whether it was at Adoration on Monday nights in Albuquerque or while sitting in Pope John Paul II's favorite pew in Krakow, Poland or knelt before a Grotto in South Bend, I'm convinced that this is where my brain works the best.

 4.  When someone wants to be with you, they make that clear.  There were years and countless boys that caused me to say, "Do you think that means he likes me?"  And what I know now is that if you have to ask that question, the answer is probably no.  Because that Boy from Texas has shown me that if someone really likes you, they let you know and you don't have to question it.

5.  Watching someone else get a bucket list checkmark might be better than getting your own.  I watched two of the toughest grown men that I know stand in stadiums with tears in their eyes this year.  Taking my Uncle Buddy to his first football game at Notre Dame and then standing with him on that field and then sitting with my dad in the Thomas and Mack Center as he watched Round 8 of the National Finals Rodeo in person after having watched it on tv for the last 25 years were memories that I will never forget.

Me and Uncle Buddy at Notre Dame - Sept. 2013

Me and my Dad at the NFR

6.  Auschwitz is something everyone should have to see.  Despite writing two blogs attempting to do so (here and here), there really are not words to describe the feeling of standing on the ground where such horror occurred.  It changes a person.....and I think maybe it's the kind of change that the world could use.

 

7.  Long distance relationships are hard.  Since I started dating The Boy from Texas about a week after I accepted a job that moved me 9 hours away from him, people told me from the beginning how hard a long distance relationship would be.  I laughed at them.  I had been perpetually single for, like, ever.  That was hard.  And then I figured out that they were right.  It's hard getting on that plane on a Sunday afternoon and it's hard going a month without seeing each other and it's hard having a bad day (or a good day, actually) and him not being there in person. 

8.  Despite #7, The Boy from Texas makes it so worth it.

 

 

9.  Business class is the ONLY way to fly overseas.  I don't think I can ever fly internationally in coach again.  It was SO worth helping Cousin Swiss Mister to hit on the waitress at the Hooter's in Budapest to get that upgrade.

 

10.  It's the people next to you that matter.  In the end, it doesn't matter how much your house cost or what kind of car you drive or how many degrees you have or how much money you make.  It's the people standing next to you who are important.  When 9 girls got on airplanes and took time out of their lives to be there to celebrate me turning 3-0, I was reminded there are no better people in the world than my friends.