Goodbye, 2011. Hello the rest of my life.

Well, 2011 is sure not the year I had hoped or imagined it would be. Last year at this time I thought 2011 was going to be a great year for me. I was going to have the opportunity to work as a personal trainer! I had big ideas to start a blog that would help reach and inspire people. Certainly I was going to be much closer to my weight loss goal. But none of those things happened. 2011 denied my dream to work as a trainer (at least for the foreseeable future). That led to my changing gyms which resulted in losing a huge chunk of my support system. One of my oldest friends (and at that time my roommate) went off the deep end and disappeared. It was almost a week before we were relieved to find out he wasn't dead. That was a week I hope I never come close to reliving again. Ever. I lost three dear friends. I got two of them back. The third is a lost cause, which is heartbreaking. My mother has been struggling with some things and that's been hard to watch. And I am no closer to my goal weight than I was a year ago. That's the reader's digest version of my year. There were some things to be proud of, to be sure. I attempted my first 5k. I finished the Warrior Dash. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone physically over and over this year. And while I'm not any closer to my goal weight, I'm not any farther, either. And after this year, that is saying A LOT. I need to take a little more credit for that, really. So as 2011 comes to an end, I am looking forward, not looking back. As much as I would love to change almost everything about this year, I can't. All I can do is reframe, refocus and redefine my dreams. Ever onward.