12.16 review

Here we are at the end of the year. People are posting about how 2016 was rough and they want to watch it die. Maybe you accomplished your goals, maybe you didn’t. But for me, 2016 was a great year. One I will look back on with happiness. I’ll keep it brief as I plan to post a reflection from the past year and my goals for 2017.

This year I wanted to be happier. I knew I could find and create happiness all around me in my day to day life. This is something I feel like I can say I accomplished. I enjoyed writing about what made me happy each day so much, that I plan to continue it. I learned that I can find happiness in every day and is has made such a difference!

I set out to run one half-marathon this year as I didn’t run one in 2015. I ran the Phoenix half in February, Drop 13 and the American Fork half in June, Revel Big Cottonwood half in September, the St. George marathon and the Haunted Half in October, and the South Davis 5k on Thanksgiving. I am so proud that I was able to keep my running up all year. Never before had I run over 150 miles in a year. Usually I would train for a race and then pretty much stop. So this year, I set out to run 200 miles. I thought it was going to be hard, but then I ended up running over 800 miles. I suppose I didn’t give myself enough credit.

Last December I graduated with my Master’s degree and set a goal to get a job that would use it (as in it’s on the list of qualifications). I applied for a job in December and then was hired for it in August.

I knew I wanted to travel somewhere new this year. My sister Lisa and I had talked about visiting our other sister in Romania, but nothing had been planned. We were able to go to London and Romania in May and had such a nice time! I can’t wait to go back to Europe in 2018! 

As always, I made a reading goal this year. In 2014 I set a goal to read 100 books (which I did) and last year I didn’t know how to top that, so I didn’t read much. This year, I knew I couldn’t top 100, but I still wanted to do something. I stumbled on a reading challenge that had you read 52 new books with certain categories. I thought this would be pretty easy, but it was definitely harder than I thought it would be. I finished in plenty of time and was able to read books I wouldn’t have read otherwise. 

The first two years I had a temple recommend, I didn’t go very often. And in fact, I waited about 4 months to renew it as I didn’t ever go. After I renewed it, I made it a goal to go once a month. I fell in love with going to the temple as it brought me so much peace while I was living in Arizona. For 2016, I decided to step it up and go twice a month. I love going, but at times it felt more like a chore and less like I wanted it to feel. I spent time in 6 different temples this year. I will probably always miss the Mesa temple, but I consider myself so blessed to live so close to so many temples.

The two goals I didn’t accomplish this year were buying a house and becoming foster parents. I was really upset about not accomplishing these two goals. They were the goals I most wanted to see succeed. But sometimes, things are just out of your control and you have to reassess and move on. 

2016 has been wonderful, but I can’t wait for 2017!