As I look back on this year, one of the things that I will remember is how I handled the highest of highs, and the lowest of lows, all in the span of the past 365 days. This year began with a lot of hope, promise and momentum from the last three months of 2020. I had lost almost 30 lbs to start the year, and managed to stay healthy, given that there was a pandemic to start the year. Fast forward to the end of this year, and some of the progress has been undone (given some unfortunate circumstances) and no end in sight to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The highlight of the year was the 2021 Pelotonia Ride Weekend back in August. After months of training, I successfully completed a 20 mile ride from the Arena District in Downtown Columbus, to New Albany, OH in just over 2 hours time. Running several 5K’s through out the year also contributed to my improved health, including running the CBJ Virtual 20K over an eight day stretch back in January.

The other major highlight of the past year has been the improvement to my mental health. For most of the year, I did not have any major issues at either job this year. One of things that helped me was completing a series of self-guided meditation courses on the Calm app, with some work on Headspace thrown in as well.

Despite the positives, I had a few negatives to deal with as well, ranging from major surgeries (dealing with my grandmother and her slow recovery from hip replacement surgery in September and getting an wrist injury myself in October), and emergency home repairs (HVAC and the Water Heater were replaced in the span of three weeks in November.) As a result, I have been unable to resume working down at my other job (and unlikely to do so this season.) As the year comes to a close, I have to look forward to my sister having heart surgery in January.

The biggest lesson that I will take away from 2021, is that I need to do a much better job of taking care of myself, whether it be getting my weight under control or taking some time to do the things that I want to do. That goal is the number one priority in 2022. As for my other resolutions………that’s a subject for tomorrow’s blog post.