18 Significant Events from 2018

For me, 2018 has been an ordinary year with some very difficult points, but during the past twelve months, I have had the opportunity to learn, grow, and do some exciting things. Here are some highlights and touchstone moments from the year, in approximate chronological order.

1. I finally learned how to declutter. Moving into a new house gave me the chance to start fresh without feeling trapped in old mindsets and habits, and as I set up life in my new room, I got rid of items that I no longer need or desire. Even though it was difficult at first, I quickly saw the benefits and felt motivated to continue.

2. I went to a Jon Foreman concert with Melissa. We had tickets for balcony seats way in the back, but when we arrived, the guy at the ticket window moved us up to the third row. It was an absolutely amazing night, and sitting close to the stage made it even better.

              3. Matthew and I played Connect Four games every day for months. I'm not sure how this started, but for a long time, my brother and I played these quick games every day, our strategies growing more elaborate as we learned the board's logical possibilities. This was really fun, and is one of the quirky details that I will remember about 2018.

4. I read the Harry Potter series for the first time.  My parents didn't allow me to read these books when I was a child, and when I was older, I never wanted to read them. Because people were always so horrified to hear that I had never read Harry Potter, I didn't want to try the series and dislike it, because I anticipated social censure. However, one of my coworkers persistently pleaded with me to read the Harry Potter books this year, and once I extracted a promise that she would still be my friend if I didn't like them, I borrowed the books from her.

              It was a good experience. I wasn't impressed with the books' pacing or prose, but many elements of the story were enjoyable, and it was fun to see where familiar cultural references had originated. Also, I confirmed that these books would have terrified me as a child, and that my parents made the right decision. Reading these books as an adult, I liked the last two best, because even though they are darker, they have important themes. Suddenly, the books were about making great personal sacrifices to resist tyranny, rather than about breaking every single school rule and then being honored as a hero. As I read about the characters in this more serious context, I realized how attached to them I really was, and it was a good way to end the series. I'm glad that my coworker persuaded me to read it.

5.  I attended two homeschool friends' high school graduation events. One weekend in May, I celebrated with Makenzie, a family friend I have known since the day she was born. I am so grateful for all of my memories with her and her family, from staying with each other when our mothers had new babies, to our annual state fair trips, to creating dramatic reality TV show parodies with Miss Patty Poundcake, her Webkinz pig. 

The following weekend, I celebrated with Owen, Sophie's younger brother. I first met him when he was eleven, and it has been wonderful to see him grow up into exactly the kind of wonderful young man that I expected he would. Middle school boys usually aren't the most admirable people, but when they are, you know they're going to be wonderful adults.

6. I celebrated my tenth anniversary of journaling. As I wrote in a blog post about it, I never imagined that the habit I started in 2008 would last this long, expand so much, or fill my life with such joy. I made a lot of bad decisions when I was twelve, but beginning to journal consistently was a very good one!

7. I went back to my childhood church for a Sunday morning service, and it was such a thought-provoking, nostalgic experience. I was there to see Emily and Michael, some of my mentors, get commissioned for church-planting in Michigan, and it was really special. I wrote more about that experience here. I also got to visit this couple in their new home later that summer, when my dad and I were in the area for a family reunion.

8. For the third year in a row, I volunteered with a local refugee ministry. This organization helps children maintain their literacy skills over the summer by reading with volunteers and receiving swim time opportunities as a reward. This was my second year helping with swimming, and I really enjoyed it. I worked with different children throughout the summer, but also reconnected with the girl I taught how to swim last year. I taught her more complex strokes and appreciated how, despite my fraught history with the water from my childhood, this little girl can swim because of my instruction.

9. Twice this year, my siblings and I temporarily moved back into our childhood home while construction workers fixed warranty issues in the new house. It was really weird to pack up necessities and return to our old home, but I enjoyed it, and it was a good opportunity to keep going through stuff there. I finally had the freedom to trash things that had been sitting in storage boxes in my former bedroom for years! However, even though I threw away the two floppy disc computer games that were already obsolete when we got them hand-me-down, I kept AOL '95 as a historical artifact.

10. In July, Sophie and I traveled to the mountains to visit our friends Levi and Caley. We had talked for a long time about doing this, and I'm so glad that it worked in our schedules for the summer. This trip was the highlight of my year, and the four of us were also able to reunite last week, while Levi and Caley were in the area for Christmas. I am so blessed to have kept in touch with these friends.

11. I got to spend time with extended family. Dad and I attended a family reunion in August, and my maternal grandmother lived in our house for a number of weeks while she was in the area for heart surgery. The surgery was a major success, and it was great to spend time with her before and after. One funny detail is that after she gave Matthew the Monopoly game that once belonged to our mom and uncles, she told us, "I called it an antique, but your mom didn't like that."

12. In October, Victoria and I saw Ben Rector in concert. It was really special and exciting to see one of my favorite artists live, and I'm glad that I got to share the experience with this friend.

 He rick-rolled us about halfway through, and it was beautiful.

13. This year, I made time to write fiction occasionally, writing from new story ideas and accomplishing projects that I have been planning for years.

Back in April 2013, I journaled some story ideas I had for a character's wedding, and then I said, "Hopefully I'll get started on that tomorrow!" The next day came and went, and so did the next five years, without me writing that story. Whenever I felt guilty for this, I pointed out that whenever I did get around to it, I would write a much better story than I could have earlier. That is exactly what happened. This spring, I finally accomplished this project, and it is one of my favorite things that I've ever written. I'm thrilled that I finally did it, and I'm glad that I waited this long, since I was able to write the story in a far superior style, with a much deeper understanding of my characters.

In November, when I participated in NaNoWriMo, I wrote a novel that I had been planning for ages. This story was very different than I had originally envisioned, but during the writing process, I referenced a journal entry from early 2012 to follow a scene outline there. In that very same journal, I had lamented that all of my writing was terrible and would never amount to anything, but here I was six years later, laughing over and directly using a story idea that I had first written there.

14. On November third, I forgot to write a quick journal entry before bed and broke my six-year streak of journaling every day. That was very disappointing, but now that the streak is already broken, this frees me from having to remember to journal something brief on other especially busy days.

15. After I read the L.M. Montgomery biography that I mentioned in my influential books post, I reread the Anne of Green Gables series for the first time in six years. I enjoyed this tremendously, but I also realized how old I have gotten, because when I was reading the first book, there were times when I related more to Marilla than to Anne. Every time I reread this series, I encounter the stories with different thoughts, feelings, and memories, so it's never the same reading experience, but it's always delightful.

16. Hannah, one of our lifelong family friends, visited us twice this year. She visited us during spring break, and then she came again in November, shortly before moving to Michigan for a ministry job with Revive Our Hearts. I'm so glad that we got to spend time with her and make special memories.

17. On November nineteenth, my friend Emily M. got engaged. Her family invited me and some other friends over to their house that night to be there when Emily and her fiancé arrived, and it was incredibly special to celebrate with them.

18. The very next day, I attended a funeral for Bennett, a premature baby who suffered from twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome and only lived for a week. This was my first time attending a funeral for a child, and it was especially striking that it came right after celebrating someone's engagement. Life is full of happiness and tragedy, all back to back. It was a very emotional but meaningful experience to honor this life and spend time with the family, whom I have been close to for almost my entire life. Makenzie, the graduate I mentioned earlier, is Bennett's older sister.

The other twin, Beckett, is still in the NICU, and he is healthy and continuing to develop, but we gathered to grieve the loss of Bennett. I feel such deep respect for this family, and for how they did everything they could to try to protect their boys and honor the preciousness of both lives.

Ultimately, as I reflect on 2018, I am struck by how the most significant, memorable, and worthy events involved other people. Life is fleeting, and life is hard, but there is so much joy in knowing and loving family and friends, and in honoring life while it lasts. I am so grateful for all of the people who have made my year memorable, and for the relationships that God has blessed me with.

              Previous posts: 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013