It is impossible to reflect on this past year without smiling. I mean, I got freaking married. In my early twenties I convinced myself that was just something not in the cards for me. In my mid-twenties when I went back to school, I had my entire life planned out and it did not involve marriage. Of course, mid-twenties Kyle had not met the weird, hilarious, socially awkward, intelligent, independent, beautiful Martina Sauceda. It would have been gross if he had, because Martina would have been a teenager. This is not a relationship recap or anything, but I have to write a little bit about the wedding, and the first five months of marriage. First of all, wedding are insane. I mean we kinda, sorta, maybe, understand that. We see movies. We hear people talk about them. We attend them. Until you are having one, though, you really have no idea. Luckily, we are surrounded by the best people. As overwhelming as it all should have been, we both knew that even if it was not perfect, we were still marrying each other surrounded by those best people. The rest was icing. It turned out the icing was BOMB. After I proposed and we sat down to plan the wedding, our biggest goal was to make sure our guests had fun. We were going to have fun regardless, because we were marrying each other. The music, the food, and the booze had to be on point. I believe we succeeded. The photos show a ton of people having a blast. It was the beautiful culmination of the first four years of the relationship Martina and I have shared.
Mexico was the perfect place for us to start the next chapter. The honeymoon suite, with a private balcony overlooking the gorgeous ocean, provided a flawless view to wake up to every day we were there. Even the weather agreed with us, providing sun during the day, then sexy storms at nightfall. I got burned because I refuse to listen to Martina. We drank a lot. Lounged even more. Ate two fancy dinners. Celebrated my birthday, and her getting a new job. I read a book on the way, a book while in Mexico, and a book on the way back. She finished the novel I wrote, and we watched Big Hero 6 together on the plane home. Magic is real, folks.
Beyond wedding/honeymoon parties, 2015 was spectacular for the first eight months, then less so at the end of the year. Health wise, I hovered around the same weight all year, give or take ten pounds. I set a goal to avoid candy and chips, and this was the first year I did not succeed in giving up a food for the year. The first seven months were pretty solid. The wedding threw everything off though because we decided to have a Candy Bar. The internet told us to have half a pound of candy per guest, which gave us roughly fifty pounds of candy. What the internet does not say is that when MOST PEOPLE DO NOT EAT THE CANDY, YOU TAKE THE CANDY HOME! We took home a solid thirty pounds of candy. There is still taffy in the coat closet. Candy was consumed in mass quantities from August until now. Chips are a slippery slope, because we decided chips and salsa were okay, mostly because when we do tequila nights, we like chips and salsa. But I did not do a good job of sticking to that. It turns out that chips are a serious weakness for me. I learned that this year.
I read forty-one books (a detailed post about this will happen Tuesday). my goal was twenty-six. Nailed it.
I did not work out nearly as regularly as I wanted. I have beaten myself up pretty good over it too. If I have learned one thing about myself since I began this journey four years ago, it is that I do not cut myself any slack. We are all our own worst critics, and I get that, but this some next level stuff. The thoughts that run through my mind as I decide to sleep an extra forty-five minutes in the morning is abuse. I am still looking for a way out of that fog. The clarity will come. I will fight my way through it. Hell, I have lost nearly one hundred pounds in four years. I can figure this out, and I will. The first part of that is cutting myself some slack. Understanding that I need to start slowly. My brain is ready to run mile after mile, and my body is ready to run...nowhere. It hates me when I even attempt to run. Like everything else, it is a work in progress. Oh! I did a 5K in January. My goal for 2016 is to get myself ready to run one in January of 2017.
2015 also saw my first class of juniors graduate high school. There is no optimism like newly graduated high school kids. I miss them tremendously. It was fun to be at graduation and see all of their smiling faces. We are all expected to graduate so maybe to an adult it does not seem like a huge deal, but I see what these kids go through every day. I know how hard it is. I know which ones lost parents, or which one has to work to keep the lights on because mom and dad are addicts. I see these things. I also started teaching AP Literature which had been a dream of mine since I decided to go into teaching. It has been a blessing. They give me a renewed sense of love for analyzing literature and this is my second time having almost all of them (five out of twenty-eight are new to me), so I am seeing them grow and blossom as writers and critical thinkers. Without fail, one of them will see something in a book or a poem that I have never seen. They have the ability to change my perspective weekly. It has been a life saver this year as I have also hit my first bad class. The rest of my English classes have been challenging to say the least, but I am figuring it out. Our Critical Theory Movie unit went well, and I start the year with Gatsby, so it will not be all bad.
In 2015 I saw love everywhere. Besides my own wedding, I got to see my best friend (Erik) get married, which was awesome. I was touched to be invited to see it happen. At eleven years together, they found a way to keep it fresh by getting married. Then a few short months later, Erik hosted a killer party to celebrate hiswedding, and he of course, planned an epic bachelor party for me. A month or so before I got married, I got to attend the wedding of a long-time friend. It was a beautiful wedding, even if the weather was disagreeable. I mean it had a Smores bar. Do you really need anything else? Toward the end of the year, I attended my last wedding of the year, seeing someone I have loved for fifteen years get married in a gorgeous ceremony. Another friend got married, one of my best friends got engaged. A few other people I know got engaged, setting up a fun wedding year in 2016.
2012 was the best year ever, until 2013, which was the best year ever, until 2014, which was the best year ever, until 2015. 2016 has big shoes to fill, but I believe it can be the best year ever.
No comments:
Post a Comment