a look back...and ahead.

every year i say i am going to do the new years resolution thing.  sometimes i keep one or two, but most time by the end of the year, it fades away. this year, i want to try and blog.  nothing particular, but just to write.  i have a lot going on that i could be writing about, so why not share it here. it may be good stuff, it may be rants, but in any case, it will just be thoughts.  and below, i will start my first one.

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today is the day before a new year and a new decade begins.  i have spent lots of time over the past few days thinking about what exactly i have been through this past year, but then it turned in to what i have been through over the past decade.  it's a lot...it's good and it's bad.  it's things that i would love to live over again and others that i could do without ever having happen again.  but in any case, it happened.  and to look back allows me to see where i came from and what has helped shaped me.  

i loved and lost. i stopped playing sports. i graduated high school. i buried my grandmother. i accepted a full tuition scholarship. i went to the border to experience life there for a week. i coached a high school soccer team. i moved over 1,000 miles away for college. i buried 4 good friends - jackie, vanessa, amy & cardell. i got maggie. i found a best friend. i graduated college. i had knee, ankle, and shoulder surgery. i said goodbye to an amazing place and even more amazing friends and moved back to new orleans. i lost a best friend. i realized that i had friends for life. i found the true meaning of social justice through working 2 spring breaks in west virgina. i watched my hometown go underwater during hurricane katrina. i took a chance on someone. i watched as one of my best friends got married and had her first child. i got my dream job. i dad my last first kiss. i was a maid in a mardi gras parade. i fell in love. i lost my dream job. i had thyoid cancer scare. i watch everyday as my hometown is being rebuilt. i got engaged. i began planning out wedding. i had to put maggie, my best friend, to sleep. january 1, 2000 - december 31, 2009

throughout these past years i learned to live each day with purpose and never take people or moments for granted.  hopefully there are many more amazing moments ahead.