It’s the second to last day of the year, the holiday swell is about to implode. Wrapping paper is in the trash, and christmas trees are soon to follow. Nostalgic sentiments are at their yearly high, days off work are bouncing around, and maybe there’s a cheese and nut gift basket or year-end bonus on the way for a lucky few. You have Top Song of 2014, Top Movies of 2014, Top Blog Posts of 2014, Top Cars of 2014, Top News of 2014, and so on. “Congrats, you survived the year, here’s a list of our favorite memories.”

But what if 2014 wasn’t all that awesome for you? Sure, we all survived, we’re reading this post, but what about those who didn’t? Or what about those who barely did? Sorry for the grim post, but let’s be honest here. When I look back on the year, I see a whole lot of pain in the world. This was a tough year, for a lot of people. Some of those people you know, some of them you don’t, some of them are you. Everyone has had their own story in the last 12 months, and some of those stories were more of a tragedy than a fairy-tale. Facebook actually received a good deal of backlash over their auto-generated “year in review” feature for this very reason – Lots of people had a pretty hard year and didn’t appreciate the festive reminder.

My point isn’t all doom and gloom, it’s just a suggestion to add a bit of perspective. The “congrats, you survived the year” is actually a very sincere sentiment from me to you. Regardless of what you overcame, struggled with, dealt with, or are still fighting, you are have made it this far. You are a stronger person for it. That strength, that accomplishment, is something to celebrate and carry into the next. So suck it the fuck up. Choose love, choose strength, whatever you want your mantra to be.

I had some amazing moments this past year; I am not taking away from those moments at all. I saw beauty, joy, and a whole lotta love. (thank you, baby) Seriously, some of the best moments happened this past year and I am so thankful for them. So yeah, maybe 2014 was a load of crap. But isn’t crap part of what makes life? Not trying to be deep here, that’s a cliche question with an obvious intended answer of “yea, duh”. But seriously. So here’s to everyone, dealing with all that crap, trying to figure it out, and hopefully working towards becoming better people. There was a lot of LIFE that happened in the past 12 months, good and bad, cheers to that. Thank you for sharing 2014 with me, I’m looking forward to 2015!

Always,

Alissa Jean