“There are years that ask questions, and years that answer.” — Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
While 2017 and 2018 were hard years of keep-you-up-at-night, loss-of-loved-ones, identity-altering questions, 2019 was a year that answered in so many ways. I look back on where I was a year ago, and 2 years ago, and how eager I was for 2019 to begin just so I could leave 2018 and 2017 behind and move on with my life, wherever it was headed. This year, I leave 2019 behind with such hope and excitement for what 2020 has in store, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that 2019 was my first full year of running since 2013.
In 2019, I
- started a new business
- joined a running group of badass, inspirational women
- ran personal bests in the 5k, 5-mile, and 10-mile
- cooked more, with good nutrition to fuel my fitness in mind
- reached my goal weight, meaning the weight my body and I both like
- hipthrusted and deadlifted more than I ever weighed
- slept through the night most nights
- ran a half-marathon with my siblings, full of gratitude for every mile
- coached women to feel comfortable in the gym and strong in their bodies
- spent more time with my kids
- traveled to new cities
- made new friends
- saw Hamilton
- worked on being kinder and patient
- ran every month
- celebrated people I love marry people they love
- read more books
- realized brussel sprouts actually taste really good
- troubleshooted pain that had plagued me for years
- created big goals for the coming year
I truly believe that if you do what feeds your soul, your outlook on life changes. There will always be years that are more challenging than others, years that take too much, years that ask too much, years full of questions about who to be and how to live and what’s next. But the years that give, the years that answer, fuel you for these years. I’m going to store 2019 away for the future challenges to come.
We can’t bend the universe to our will and always get the kind of year we want, but we can control how we react to our circumstances. Whether you’re in a question year or an answer year, my advice is the same: Find your people, move your body, work on your goals, grow.
A new year and a new decade is before us — what are you going to do to grow?
