As the year comes to a close I believe it’s important to look back and reflect on what has happened and the lessons that have been learned. This year marked a lot of firsts for me: I got my first tattoo, experienced my first taste of small unit leadership in the Marine Corps, left the country for the first time, took out a loan for a new car, and experienced a year working at a full time job. It has become obvious to me that every year will bring new experiences and new memories, good and bad. While I spend time reflecting on everything that happened this year it’s easy to focus on the bad things. The things that feel like failures, the times I had my feelings hurt, and the moments I made mistakes. I learned a lot this year, a lot about myself, and I learned the difference between open mindedness and compromising. 

This year started off difficult for me. 2014 marked the end of a long and serious relationship that made me question my definition of love and commitment,  but in the questioning of that definition God took me on the journey of answering a question that only he could answer. It took me a couple months to recover and realize where I needed to look and to study in order to learn what love really is, and of course the answer had been right in front of me all along. I learned this year that the true meaning of family lies much deeper than anything I had ever imagined, and that there truly is no bond stronger than blood. As the days and months progress and I try and organize my priorities and prepare my life to be shaped and molded to what God’s plan is for me, I’ve realized that there is always a reason for everything, but the reason that I see might not always be the reason why.

Because of drill and my work schedule over the last year it has been hard for me to become regularly involved in a church, and on top of that I have had a hard time finding a church that I feel at home in. This lesson taught me the importance of taking church with me everywhere, and how important it is to remember that no matter where we are or what we are doing nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. (Matthew 18:20 and Romans 8:37.)  This year, after having been with my unit for a year and a half I finally began to find my place and my role as a fire team leader. And although I have much to learn and it feels like forever to go (four years on my contract), I am excited and eager to learn and see where my time as an infantry Marine takes me. The idea of deploying soon is daunting yet thrilling, but rumors are rumors and I won’t believe until it actually happens. There are times when being a Marine is the most frustrating aspect of my life, however, it has taught me a level of respect, selflessness, commitment, and discipline that I know would be hard to learn anywhere else, and for that I am thankful.

As I reflect on my favorite moments from this year, and the most painful moments from this year, there is one aspect of 2014 that stands out to me as the most important, and that is my relationship with my parents. Despite the fact that we haven’t always agreed, I have been blessed by the fact that over the course of my life my relationship with my parents has never become broken or nonexistent. By no means is it perfect, and yes, there have been times where it is stressed and strained, but this year I experienced my relationship with my parents change in a manner that was unexpected to say the least. At 22 my relationship with my parents left the awkward stage of “we know you’re an adult but we still feel responsible for you,” and progressed to a very different stage. One where my parents made it clear that just because they respected my decisions didn’t mean that they supported them. But above all my parents have shown me that their love for me is not dependent on whether or not they support me or agree with what I do, and although they are not perfect, my parents have taught me to love the way that God loves through how they have loved me, and that is a lesson that I believe is unique and hard to find.

I am a little reluctant to say that I am excited for what 2015 holds, but I am excited for what I know 2015 will teach me. Adult life has carried more responsibility and stress than I ever imagined. I am thankful for 2014, I am thankful for what I’ve learned, and I am thankful for how I have been blessed. I am thankful for a job that I enjoy, coworkers I love, friends that support me no matter what, and a family that will love me through thick and thin. 2014 taught me that to remain humble, one must listen rather than speak, ask instead of answer, and study instead of teach.