A Reflection

This year has been an incredible year full of firsts, mending, and great adventures.
I thought I'd write a post to share a bit of a reflection on some of the highlights of this year.

GOING BACK TO SCHOOL
This was a huge thing for me to quit my jobs and put the company I own on hold to go back and finish my goal and finally get my degree.

I am only one semester done, but I worked hard and stuck with it. So much so that I pulled off straight A's and have a 4.0. I know, crazy! I'm still shocked I was able to pull that off! I am really enjoying the experience and I am actually learning quite a bit too, go figure, LOL
I am so much so enjoying my 3-week break right now, but I am also looking forward to a couple of weeks when my next semester begins!

BLOGGING NOT SO MUCH
So years ago (2011), yes I have had this blog for longer than some stick with blogging. I set a goal to always post at least once a week, and try to mostly maintain a 2-3 post a week schedule.
I have for the most part kept to that since 2012, well that was until this year.
Blogging had to take a back burner, and even though it was hard at times (like an addiction) I had to force myself to work on other priorities than the blog itself.

However, I thankfully have not let it go. I still actually live (well eat) off the income my blog and social media accounts provide me with. Yup, that is how I am paying for my meals these days, LOL
I've seen many great blogging friends come and go through the years. Sadly more go than keep it up. It always saddens me when bloggers have to leave entirely especially when I have enjoyed their blogs so much. But I get it, life should always come first.
I am not ready to let this blog go, while you may see less of me, I am going to continue to figure out ways to keep it up!

FINALLY HEALED
Anyone who's read my blog over the (almost) past four years may know a little of what I have been going through. With the tendon injuries I acquired from a work injury back in January 2013. It's been years of mending and recovery, physical therapy, setbacks, flare-ups and other injuries because of the injured tendons. I won't go into more details on that, but I am happy to announce it appears I have nearly 100% recovered from this work injury!
What did it?
Changing my lifestyle entirely, my routines pretty much everything when I quit my jobs, moved away and went back to school that is what healed me.
It may sound funny, but it's true that is actually what did it, what helped me finish healing and the reason I am able to get back to being so active and running and enjoying an adventurous lifestyle again!
For that I will always be thankful for the idea to go back to school and change my lifestyle entirely, it fixed what no amount of doctors or PT could!



READING
I set a Goodreads goal to read 52 novels this year. Earlier this year I was way ahead of schedule and I love to read so I was sure I'd hit it and then some.
Yeah, not so much. I will probably finish a couple books shy of my goal. I'm halfway through book 49 right now.
But I've read over 18,000 pages this year, and that is in part to many of the books being heck of long, LOL So I won't hit the 52 book goal, but pagewise I well outdid even last years pages.



ADVENTURE
Last spring my sister and I set out on a fun adventure to hike so many of the trails that we haven't done that were only 20-30 minutes from our front doors. While we didn't do as many as we would have liked, (she got pregnant, LOL) We did do many and had a lot of fun seeing the different trails along the Wasatch Mountains.
I also summited Butterfield Peak this year, that was something I have wanted to do for a while, heck of a climb and I did it sick too, LOL
I continued with those adventures when I moved south, I have thoroughly enjoyed hiking and getting out and enjoying the desert again.

RUNNING
Well, I only ran 1 race this year and it 5k that I decided to do last minute, so I don't really count it as getting back into racing since distance running is more my thing. But it was fun to be in a race again even if I did only run it for fun not to race.

I had to pull out of the fall marathon I entered because I wasn't trained well enough for it, I volunteered instead. I learned volunteers are awesome and there is a big difference between a participant and a volunteer and rarely they are mixed much. Most volunteers have zero desire to run and think runners are inspiring but insane.  I'm not much of a volunteer, I'm a participant and there is nothing wrong with that!

However, I did build up a great base as I've been getting back into it. I've really enjoyed running new trails and places in the new area I live.

What this year has taught me is this. I don't have to run a race to enjoy running. I don't have to get a medal to feel accomplishment and success. Those things can be great, but when you run purely because you just love it and your goals are subject to whatever mood your in that day when you put on the shoes and head out the door. There is almost even more gratification than any pronounced finish line can give me.
I will eventually get back to marathons, don't get me wrong I absolutely love the thrill of them. But until then I am thankful for this opportunity to learn and get to know myself better, to train just to train for fun, to run any distance I want because I want to, not because I have to. It's been interesting and I'm glad I had to experience this!

Well, I've had a fantastic year, and I've only shared 6 of the subjects with you. I can tell you this, I cannot wait for 2017, it's going to be epic in so many ways both little and big!


What is your favorite memory or reflection of 2016?

7 comments :

  1. Being a goal oriented person, I love reading reflection posts. Good job on all the tiny successes. 49 novels!!!! That's no easy feat. That deserves a huge kudos. My 2016 goal was definitely lesser social media and more of reading actual books. Definitely worked towards it and want to continue it into 2017. The joys of holding a real book - priceless! Good luck on your next semester and have a wonderful year ahead. Happy New Year!!!

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  2. Yay for being 100% healed! That's great news. And congrats on that 4.0! That's really impressive.

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  3. 49 books? I thought I had a good year with 28 :) I'm already putting books on my wishlist for Amazon as they are put up for release next year.

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  4. You've had a wonderful year! I'm so happy to hear you are finally healed up and are back running and enjoying the trails you love. And I think it's great you took a leap of faith and went back to school. Congrats on the 4.0!

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  5. Great news about your being fully healed. I know you can't wait to get back on the running path.
    Sounds like you did great with your reading goal too. Have you set your 2017 goal yet? I set up a book club on my YouTube channel to keep myself motivated to read consistently too. I was ahead for a lot of 2016 and then fell so far behind the last few days of December were a race to finish my goal.
    I also miss a lot of bloggers I used to follow and then they just disappeared. I get it. Life changes but I always wonder what happened to them, especially when I comment several times on their last post and reach out via social media and... nothing.
    As for for your site, you are one of my fav bloggers to follow and I hope you stick with it and keep doing the blog hops in 2017. You've brought me some of my other fav readers.
    Happy New Year, Kristy!

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  6. Yayyy!!! Congrats on your 4.0! It took me effing ages (seriously ages) to ever get one of those, hahaha. Hope you're enjoying your very well-deserved break!

    I eat off the income my blog/social media accounts provide me with too, ahaha. Glad I'm not the only one! ;P I'm glad you're not ready to let your blog go! Life definitely has to come first, but I like following along on your adventures! :]

    Super super glad to hear that you're almost completely recovered! :D!! So happy for you! <3

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  7. Thanks, this was actually the first time I've ever done a 4.0 with a full semester, I don't know if it will happen again, but then again I would have never imagined it would have happened now so who knows, LOL

    That's awesome, yes using our blogs to eat well is a great idea!!!!!
    Thank you so much, I love reading your blog as well!!!

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