My top track of 2013, a peaceful yet powerful song that fits with all of the
many ways that things changed in 2013. Feel free to listen as you read:
For me, 2013 was called The Year of Change from the start and it certainly was. I started the year by starting this blog, which I guess makes Just a Thought one year old (happy birthday). Hopefully all of you readers out there have gotten something out of the ten posts that I wrote over this past year. I know I certainly got a lot out of writing them, as they often allowed and forced me to do deeper reflection on the various events happening in my life. As always, I write them for my readers to really consider the points that I'm making and think of how they can apply what I've written to their own lives. I plan to continue this blog into the next year, making my writings more crisp and hitting my readers with a lot of powerful points. For those who have read Just a Thought in 2013, I thank you for your time and appreciate any response you feel that you can give, as that's what I use to make improvements and know that I'm really making a difference.
Continuing on, in January I started my final semester at UMD, one that was filled from one end to the other and wrapped up my days as an undergrad. Through this semester I was on a mission, one that I described in one of my previous posts (http://asickle.blogspot.com/2013/05/what-and-why-my-mission.html). I came out of a rough winter break searching for answers and landed on the concept that it is critical for you to know what you believe, and more importantly, why you believe it because if you don't then what are you really living off of and how can you expect others to really take you seriously? I spent a good amount of time through the semester meeting with friends and asking them these questions, finally compiling a mix of their answers as well as my own and presenting the whole thing on the last nav night. Since then, I've realized that the mission couldn't end there and I've decided that I'm going to carry it on throughout the rest of my life (see: https://www.facebook.com/whatandwhybeyondthemission). That wasn't the only thing that happened during the semester though. I took one more Nav spring break trip, enjoyed my last days at the Smith school of business, had a few more late night conversations with my awesome roomie/partner in bromance, and picked up my Testudo picture as I walked across the stage. All in all, my time at UMD ended well.
Of course, despite what it may sometimes have felt like, life wasn't over just because I graduated, rather it was just truly beginning. I was lucky enough to have gotten myself a job related to my major before I graduated, something that's hard to do these days. I started out on my own up in Rockville in July at a company called Avendra as a Strategic Contracting Analyst, a position that taught me more in a few months than I learned in a whole year of school. It was a bit of a wild ride between my new job and my living situation but it worked as a starting place...at least to start. By the time October came around it became apparent that things weren't really working out with what I was doing or where I was living. I left my position in search of one that would be a better fit and I'm now still job searching, looking for an entry level role as a buyer, something I believe will fit me much better. I also was given the opportunity to move out of the place I was living in when my brother and his wife bought a house in Greenbelt, with an extra room that they offered to rent to me. I've spent the past couple of months there living solo which has been a great time for reflection, but that's all about to change when they move in in the near future.
With all of the changes happening this year, there were a few times I had the itch to travel. My first big trip was when I got to visit Chicago for a few days with one of my classes. This was a unique experience to a wildly busy city, one that acts as a major logistics hub for the US and has many sights such at the Willis (Sears) tower. After graduation, in June, I traveled again, this time heading up to Pittsburgh to see a good friend who I hadn't seen since his graduation over a year before. We went to a Pirates game, checked out the Duquesne Incline, and I saw a lot of road construction including some that had been going on for a while...as in, a quarter of a century kind of a while. My third and final trip of the year came after I left my job, when I felt the need and had the time to travel south and see what my old roomie was getting himself into down in Atlanta at Georgia Tech. On the way I checked out a couple of museums in Richmond, visited a museum/aquarium/zoo in Greensboro, and an awesome transportation museum in Spencer. In Atlanta, I got to meet my bud's new roomies, check out the campus, see the Coke HQ (did you know the reason we have the Santa figure that we do today as a jolly red suit wearing man is because of a Coke marketing campaign?), tour the CNN HQ, and overall relax for a few days. I eventually made my way back north, stopping in Pigeon Forge Tennessee for a day, long enough to visit the most incredible museum I have ever been to. The Titanic museum building itself is a replica of half of the original ship and the inside had some of the most incredible displays, artifacts, and realistic exhibits I've ever seen. I continued north the next day, driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway for a while and stopping for a tour of Luray Caverns. Overall these trips expanded my view of just how much the world has to offer.
I'm not the only one that change happened to though. This fall I got to be a part of my second sibling's wedding as she brought a man, one whom I've looked to for advice and mentorship since starting my time at UMD, into our family. Being asked to do a scripture reading as a part of the ceremony after all that she helped me with in terms of my faith over this past year was really powerful. I realized and shared that day that up to that point, I had spent more time with her throughout our years growing up than anyone else had, and I figured it was time someone else took over. They decided to go and live out in Seattle though, so I suppose I have somewhere new to be travelling to.
One sibling didn't entirely steal the show in terms of change this year though. When I mentioned earlier that my brother and his wife were about to be moving into their new home, I didn't mention that they would be bringing an extra person with them. Announced back in February and arriving in October, I became an uncle this year when a new little squeaker made her way into the world. In just a couple of short months I've gotten to see her countless times, learning the different noises she makes and positions she likes to be held in. This is something that will only increase from here once she's living across the hall from me. It's certainly odd seeing the next generation of our family beginning, but it's something I'm coming to like more and more every time I see her little smile.
The cycle from the old to the new didn't just happen within my family though. Although the year started off rough with one of my closest friends, it seems as though time, a letter, understanding, and some time like the old days may have breathed new life. My moving up to Rockville also allowed me to make some new friends, one of which I've gotten to hang out with throughout this fall semester as she has made up one of the three of the new nav trio, with the trio that I was a part of having made our way out this spring. Getting to hang out on campus some this semester without actually being a student myself was a pretty unique experience, feeling like somewhat of an outsider even though I called the place my own not long ago.
Even Christmas time was filled with change this year. For the first time, I set up a Christmas tree but it wasn't in the same place that I have for the first 21 years of my life. Luckily we had everyone down in St. Mary's for Christmas eve and Christmas day, but this year my father moved next door and we woke up and opened presents in a new spot. Despite the changes involved with my favorite and most tradition based holiday, things went well and the season was great as always.
Well, there you have it, my 2013 The Year of Change in review. Now we're here once again at the start of another year, 2014, which I'm sure will hold just as many surprises as 2013 did. Looking back at my first blog post, the one that reviewed 2012, I noticed that I'm once again saying a lot of similar things in terms of moving, marriages, kids, jobs, and everything else. This annual post is the big one though, the one that causes me to really stop and reflect on an entire year rather than just a specific topic as most of my other posts this past year have. I continue to learn each year more about how vastly different humans can be from each other, even if they come from the same family and grew up down the hall from each other. Despite all of these differences, somehow each year all 7 billion or so of us continue to live in some sense of harmony on this spinning space rock we call home.
One thing is for certain though, as 2013 showed, change is a constant. One of my favorite shows, Doctor Who, just introduced a new actor to replace the main character of The Doctor, something that happens every so often and is how the show has been around 50 years. The actor bidding farewell was Matt Smith, the person who was the doctor when I was introduced to the show a few years ago, and his final words were as follows: "Times change, and so must I... We all change. When you think about it, we're all different people all through our lives and that's ok, that's good, you've got to keep moving, so long as you remember all the people that you used to be." I've been reflecting on these lines since first hearing them a few days ago and I believe they cap off 2013 perfectly.
So here we are, at the beginning of another new year and another new adventure. We can never be certain as to what this year will hold, despite any hopes we may have or plans we may make. One thing I do know though is that as long as we have good people around us to help us go through whatever may come, I'm sure we'll all be back reflecting on everything again this time next year. I know one thing, I've certainly made many impactful changes in 2013. I started this blog, started a lifelong faith related mission, and even started my own EDM radio show called For the Soul. I changed my life verse that I spoke of in last year's new years post to Job 38:3 which says: "Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me." I even made a change right as the new year was being welcomed in by finally winning the annual spoons tournament at the new years eve party that I've gone to for the past 15 years, the first time a Sickle has ever won it (see below). Change is something I've never been fond of but I've been realizing more and more that change is what keeps things going. As some one who is apparently thought of when people think about someone being themselves, I believe that I will continue going from being the one afraid of change to being the one causing it.
Happy new year everyone and thank you for reading what started a year ago now, as just a thought.
The victory spoon with my name engraved! Finally brought the Sickle family into the annually growing winner's circle.
