2017, you kicked my ass.
You brought me to my knees. you presented me with some of my biggest life lessons. You challenged me. You pushed me.
You broke me and then built me back up,
piece by piece with a bigger bandwidth for pain, for love, anger, for heartache
and for the ability to grow.
You stretched my muscles.
You trained them and had me work them in a new way I haven’t worked them before.
You rewired my thinking.
You had me look doubt in the face. Look love in the face and question it.
Look myself in the face and question if I liked what I saw.
Ask myself what I needed to change. started the real work of self-improvement.
I gotta say, I’m pretty over you, 2017.
You were like that relationship that you enter with so much hope and romanticism and then quickly realize that when the honeymoon stage is over and the real work begins.
You’ve got your work cut out for you.
And boy did we work it.
I gave you my all, and stuck it out till the end.
And now, with a year gone by I can close the book on this chapter and know I have no regrets.
I lived and loved in this year fully.
I grew from this relationship with you, 2017.
I’m ready to take all the lessons you’ve taught me and bring them with me into 2018.
I promise to leave behind the bad stuff. the heavy, emotional part of our relationship.
I won't bring that with me into 2018.
I’ll start this new year with a clean slate.
A fresh start.
With the same bright eyes and hopeless romanticism that you feel at the beginning of any relationship.
With the will to love and be loved. With open arms and an open heart.
I am ready and excited to start something new with myself and to allow loving myself all over again.
And no doubt there will be hard times again. And I will have to grow and learn and feel
and things will get gritty.
And I’ll have long conversations and hard conversations with myself.
And will look myself in the mirror and ask myself if I like what I see.
And will change what I need to change.
And I’ll do those things because like any good relationship
you’ve got to fight for it sometimes
and you've got to work on it
and the work with yourself never really stops.
The muscle just gets stronger
and the more you stretch it
the more flexible you become.
And the easier it gets to have those conversations,
and to feel those feelings,
and to grow.
So here’s to saying goodbye to you, 2017,
and hello to 2018.
I’m ready for you.
-Written and shared anonymously by a tribe member
Image: our Goodbye 2017 Card