2012: A year in review

2012 has been a crazy year for me. Good, but crazy.

At the beginning of 2012, I was having a hard time looking forward to the year ahead. Snookums and I were newly married and I was about to send him off to Afghanistan for 9 months.

It would be our first deployment, and I just was NOT looking forward to it. (Could you blame me?)

However, now looking back over the year, that very deployment is what shaped my entire year. All my best and worst moments were somehow tied in with it. But, for just as many “no fun” moments it supplied, it also made available some of the GREATEST moments of the year!

Yes, it definitely SUCKED having him away. It was hard on both of us. But, because my husband was deployed, it brought us closer, it made us a team!

2012 and our deployment provided the time, and funds for me to do a lot of traveling, and enjoy some really cool experiences with my friends and with my family! Without that time, I would have missed out on some once in a lifetime events! 

(One example is seeing my brother graduate Navy boot camp!)

It also allowed me a lot of alone time, to figure some things out for myself, dabble in some of my hobbies, and start to really decide how I want my career and life to play out. 

(Of course, no matter how well laid our plans are, they will ALWAYS change.)

2012 taught me A LOT about my husband, our marriage, and it taught me a TON about myself.

2012 really made the phrase “you find out who your friends are” ring true. It taught me that your family will always be there, it helped open my eyes to the way things work, and also helped me “draw a line in the sand” about other things. In 2012, I learned how to stand up for myself.

I grew up a lot in 2012. I learned that a positive attitude is important, and decided that speaking positive, and surrounding yourself with likeminded people is 90% of the battle in being happy.

I learned what it truly means to MISS someone, I learned what it feels like to be totally helpless, and I learned how it felt to have no control over things.

I experienced true JOY and RELIEF after finally seeing my husband safe and sound in front of me again. I also learned thankfulness.

I did a "Top 11 of 2011" post, last year, which you can read HERE. But, this year I am going to do something a little different.

For the next 12 posts, I’m going to look back on each month. It will not only be a way for me to relive a few of my favorite memories of the year, but it will also help remind me of what I learned along the way!

2012 was a very good year for me, even with the deployment. Looking back, it was honestly a BLAST.

I hope 2013 holds just as many “lessons” as 2012 did.

Happy New Year!