This week I made a crazy realization… I did not write a single blog-post during 2013.  Is it just me or was last year a super-short year????

It seems like it was just yesterday that I was celebrating New Year’s Eve 2012-13 with one of my closest childhood friends who had just shared the news of her engagement.

When she told us that her plans were to get married beginning of 2014,  I remember thinking it would take forever for that day to come…and now the day came and went.  I just returned to from her AMAZING wedding.

The happy couple at the amazing wedding 🙂

Personally, I found 2013 to be underwhelming, and perhaps therein lies the reason for its perceived brevity. When I look back, I will think of 2013 as a “gap year”…

2013 in Retrospect

Just like almost every year in my adulthood, I began 2013 with a bunch of goals, well-crafted, SMART goals…however, this year was exceptional; I did not realize most my goals, and the ones I realized -albeit major (finally got my PhD)- turned out to be underwhelming.

Since 2013 went by so fast, I did not have time to prepare any goals for 2014, but to my surprise the year has been unexpectedly great…and to my dismay neither my planning nor goal-setting skills (or lack thereof) have played a role in it.

2014, what next?

So far, 2014 has been great mainly because of 3 things;
1. I welcomed the year in El Salvador, my home country, spending time with my sister, childhood friends and family (whom I hadn’t seen in over 10 years).
2. I saw my friend get married to the love of her life.
3. I spent the first Sunday of the year listening to an encouraging sermon at the largest church in Latin America.

Normal people would be thrilled about this, right?  They would think of it as “starting the year on a good note”… But it turns out, I’m not the most normal case (no surprise here), and instead of feeling hopeful about all the excitement ushered in by 2014, I get this sense of dread…”What if this is the highlight of my year? What if I do not experience anything better for the rest of the year?”

The combined experiences of 2013 and 2014 (so far) left me with some valuable realizations:  

1. Most of the plans we make (including new years’ resolutions) will take longer than expected…regardless of how S.M.A.R.T. our goals and resolutions are. 
 2.. It is not just bad things,  good things also happen unexpectedly and all we can do is be mentally prepared to make the best of any situation.
3. New years resolutions and goal setting at the beginning of a year will NOT ALWAYS bring us closer to our life-goals, but surrounding ourselves with the right people might WILL ALWAYS make the process a lot smoother (shout-out to my friends).
4. A sense of humor makes good situations better and bad situations less painful.

In the end, I can say that the fact that 2014 has taught me such valuable lessons in such a short time is a good sign…regardless of what the rest of the year may bring…no need to dread.

May both the goal-setters, and the laissez -faire inclined among us have a great 2014.

God bless.

Ecclesiastes 9:11 (NIV)