Here's to 2015!

**Welcome to this post. I have always wanted a blog, always said I would do it, and have not followed through. And of course, there is a certain degree of self-consciousness when letting people read my writing that is not academic or overviews of my travels or what I have been up to.  Even though I had two previous posts on this thing, here's a fresh start. I can't promise what it will contain, but I'm assuming my stories, adventures, work, passions, and people (and maybe an opinion or two) will have a chance to have the spotlight.**

2015 was the year my adulthood finally clicked into place. A job that I loved and managed to land by the skin of my teeth in 2014 became my first full time, non-consultant position. I moved into my own, perfect apartment in a blizzard, to which I just excitedly re-upped my lease. I got a beautiful car for the first time after deciding to retire the Sara-Mobile. While my job stresses me out more than one would hope, I finally have that comfort of stability that I have been longing for in the past five and a half years since finishing school, and yet have never been able to obtain. I do my job well and people notice that I do my job well, I have a wonderful work family, I am always learning, and most importantly, I see the impact that I make everyday. However, in this current state of stability, I came to a realization about a third of the way through the year: I am not going to have an ordinary life.

This is not a declaration.  I am not just deciding to be different, thinking that I am too good for ordinary things and people. My whole life, I have striven for ordinary! Yes, I do consider myself the creative, artistic type, but I have always dreamed of a steady job, home, family and kids, and I have always worried that if I don't accomplish these things, I've failed, plain and simple. But while I've been "failing" (my words), I've done some incredible things: things I never thought I would do, or things I would not been able to do if I had achieved my ordinary.

Two years ago, having checked into my hotel in Budapest with snow falling out my window, starting my first adventure in Europe after a rough first few months in Israel, I sat and realized that I had been waiting so long to take off that I didn't realize I was already flying. I was doing and seeing things I never had dreamed of, and would not have been able to do if I hadn't been out of work and unattached. This year, I took my first "adult" trip to Israel to be there for my dear friend's wedding. It's amazing to have a job and be able to take vacation now for my travels, but I know that I wouldn't be here without having thrown myself into the unknown and taken chances when I was "down on my luck" (my words then, not now). I firmly don't believe that everything happens for a reason, but I know that everything that has happened has brought me to this now.

So here is to the year past: though it wasn't all roses and no thorns, it was a great one indeed.  I look forward to seeing where 2016 takes me and my loved ones, and to the adventures that I make for myself.