2013 in Review: Our Little Baby's All Grows Up

2013 FTW!

It serves us to celebrate both small and large accomplishments, not unlike the earth completing one full rotation around the sun without ramming full speed into a giant asteroid and exploding into a billion shining space particles. In the time it takes for the earth to orbit the sun, your life can change a lot. This year I changed quite a bit. For the first time I experienced what it meant to build a life far away from my childhood home, family, and longtime friends. I made all new friends and stayed in touch with the old ones too. Working in the tech industry for the first time, I talked daily with my clients about stuff that actually interests me. I decided it was imperative for me to continue learning how to code, and help other women do this too, so I started a chapter of Girl Develop It in my new city. In the process of starting the Burlington chapter of GDI, I met and made strong relationships with business owners, government officials, world renowned software engineers, community leaders, and so many other brilliant and amazing people. With the aid and encouragement of these people, I built a community of over 350 members who teach and encourage each other, are thirsty to learn new things, and inspire me anew on a regular basis. If you had told me 5 years ago that this would be where I am and what I would be doing, I would have called you a liar. I feel like what I'm doing and where I am is exactly where I am supposed to be.

Stepping back to this present moment, as I type this I'm smelling the sweet smell of veggies roasting in the oven. I'm making my Dad's Butternut Squash soup for a good friend who just last week found out that he has a rare form of bone cancer and started radiation yesterday. In making this recipe, I am reminded that my Dad needs a new kidney. Life is never all peaches and cream but it is new years day and before we know it the trees will grow back their leaves, the snow will melt, and the year will bring new opportunities for growth and change. Optimism and faith that what will come in the next year will bring us to new heights we never imagined, life will challenge and delight us, and so I just have to keep moving forward. Life is precious. Happy new year.