Goodbye '09 and you shall not be missed.

The year of '09 has been probably one of the hardest years of my life. It will not be worst because that title belongs to 1998. However, this past year was definitely one of the most challenging. I can remember almost a year ago when I was days away from finishing school feeling as if I had the brightest future ahead of me. I would walk into the upcoming year and seize the day. Then 2009 came and slapped me right in the face.

I'm not going to bore anyone reading this with the detailed events of this past year because that's what all the past blog posts are about. Although I will try to highlight most of them. I've always felt that I was much more mature than my age let on. I think I allowed that confidence to become pompous and I needed to understand that I was ready to handle all that I thought I could. This year I dealt with family hardships, a financial crisis, lost friendships, the seemingly never ending search for a suitable, dependable woman in my life, and a load of other minor stresses that were only amplified because of the major meltdowns I had going on around me. Let's not forget the burden I placed on myself for not finding a job with this degree that I believed would open every door in the world for me. Instead I was stuck at the same retail chain that I was in during college.

Out of all the problems I just mentioned, I think the one that I specifically want to touch upon next is the one regarding lost friendships. This year I definitely lost or severed more than one friendship. In retrospect, I'm not as upset as one would think. I'm not going to say I'm better off without them in my life, but I honestly do not feel like I lost anything. It was just time for each of those people to go their own way and for me to go mine. Often we try to hang onto things that just aren't worth it anymore. Sometimes it's better to just let the world play itself out and react accordingly.

With all this said, I will not miss 2009. Yes, there were some bright spots. There were some times that I will never forget because of how truly great they were. Also, there are a few people I have met this year that I have grown close to and hope to continue to grow with long into the future. I look forward to 2010 with hope that it will bring much better things.

Lastly, I want to mention one of my friends, Abraham. While this year was hard for my friends, myself, and even Abe. He is the one person that I can say really seized an opportunity and ran with it. Congrats, Abe.