Dear 2016,

What a year you have been.

It looks like you didn’t make it easy, not just for me, but also for so many others. The world seems to be getting less kind and more violent. Maybe someday there will be a book telling the harrowing tale that is 2016.

I read somewhere that the Greeks believe you shouldn’t think things couldn’t get any worse, as you would offend the gods and they would prove that things could indeed get worse. Maybe I have offended the Greek gods.

For me personally, 2016 has been a year full of struggle. It took everything to stay afloat and not let dark thoughts and depression bury me.

This year hasn’t been an easy one. It feels like Let Your Heart Hold Fast by Fort Atlantic is the soundtrack for this year.

In the oceans deep, in the canyons steep

Walls of granite here I stand

All my desperate calls echo off the walls

Back and forth, then back again

I’ve learned that sometimes you couldn’t get anything you wanted. I’ve learned that some people are vile and heartless, and it’s okay to stay away from them. There are people who aren’t worth for love, trust, and respect. And while we’re at that, I’ve also learned how delicate those things are. Love, trust, and respect are the things that you shouldn’t mess with.

I’ve learned how to be strong, too. Stronger than I’ve ever been in my entire life.

In the previous years, my achievements were noted with things I could quantify. How many countries I’ve visited, how much salary I got, that kind of thing. But this year, I told my boyfriend I felt like I hadn’t done anything and had accomplished nothing.

He then reminded me that I survived 2016, the hardest year of my life. I’m still coping and going, and that alone is an achievement.

I also mustered enough courage to take a leap of faith and ditched a career that wasn’t for me, and started something else from scratch. That was one of the very few good things about 2016.

I can count with a hand the good things that happened this year, and I’m clinging to those things to be grateful.

This was a year of survival, and I know that at the end of this, I’ll come out stronger. And braver, maybe. I’m gonna step out of this year bringing the lessons, and the memories of how this year has changed me for the better. Like the song says, ‘Let your heart hold fast, for this soon shall pass.’

So let 2017 be a year of healing, hope, and new chances.

So long, 2016. 2017, bring it on. I’m ready.

Other end-of-year notes:

2015

2014: A Look Back on 2014