A year in review…..

Although the year is not yet over (there are still 25 eventful days left), this has been a major theme in my thoughts as of late. It always happens as the year begins to wrap itself up that I look over my life to determine what I have learned, where I have grown, things that have changed, what I need to work on, people that were/are involved in my life, places I've visited and overall, if my being alive has benefited the world in even the smallest way. I know I should take out half the pack of Hubby-Bubba bubble gum because that is a huge chunk to chew.

My year started off with a boom. I was in Disneyland as 2005 turned to 2006 watching fireworks over the castle with great friends. I guess with a starting like that I shouldn't have expected anything less than an eventful year.

Within the first few days of January, I felt the pains of a friendship dramatically change and then almost completely disappear. However it wasn't long after that another friendship which I sorely missed made a grand entrance back into my life. These would not be the only changes in friendships over the year. New friends would enter, some dear friends would exit. I have an incredibly hard time letting go when someone has touched my heart, but sometimes growth requires letting go.

I was able to travel a bit. I started out by making a visit out to Spokane, Washington to spend some time with a friend whose husband is currently in law school. Then off to Moab for the third annual Spring Break campout. Although I had just visited Boston the year before, the itch to travel hit and I was out of here. Luckily I have a wonderful friend that decided she could put up with me for an extended weekend and allowed me to crash at her little apartment. I then had to contain myself clear until November when I took off for Mexico.

A very few of the things I have learned (some of which were re-runs from previous years….I'm slow sometimes):

- Life doesn't turn out like I expect it to

- Forgiveness of leaders is not easy, but it is possible

- Teaching and being in front of people is one of my favorite things

- The Old Testament isn't as scary and hard to understand as I thought

- Saying "No" can be extremely hard when that isn't what I want to say, but it is what I need to say

- The older I get, the faster times goes by so I really have to be careful what I choose to do with it

- The University of Utah is better than BYU regardless of that ending score :)

This isn't even the tip of the ice-berg, but just some of the random thoughts that I have been going through as I scale the mountain of what 2006 was for me. I still have some days to fill in with memories and lessons to which I am looking forward. I have yet to determine my addition to making the world a better place, but if I have made but one person smile a day I think that I will count that and sleep peacefully.