I’m back. After two weeks of no Friday Five and very few posts of any kind, I’m back and ready to go. The past few weeks have been filled with a lot of friends (new and old), family, reflection, and preparation for the year ahead. 

I know it’s always easy to look back at a year and say it was filled with big things, but looking back at the past twelve months, I can honestly say 2011 was my most change-filled year yet.

I started 2011 off in a much different, very safe place. I was pretty sure of what was to come and how my life would look come at the end of the year. If only I could talk to that “me” now. That me would be living in Cincinnati with many of the same relationships and friends that I had had for the past 4 years within miles or blocks. That me would be going to the same coffee shops, restaurants, grocery stores, and parks I had grown to know and love so much. That me would still be very dependent on all of those people and things and probably would not know much about myself and what that me was truly capable of. 

If you’ve ever read Don Miller’s A Million Miles In A Thousand Years you know about inciting incidents. Miller explains that characters don’t change without being forced. An inciting incident is the event in a story (real life, novel, or film) that causes upheaval in a person or character’s life. I credit my transition and unexpected change to a few inciting incidents that came along in the first half of 2011. Some are people, some are decisions, and one is a conversation on Skype that happened in May right before graduation. That conversation went something like, “Mom and Dad, I’m think I’m going to move to Nashville.”

One thing that all of my inciting incidents have in common are that they led me to Nashville after 22 years in Ohio. That move was much more than just picking up my stuff and starting a job in a new place. Moving to Nashville has allowed, and forced, me to figure out who I am, who I want to be, and what I’m truly capable of after 22 years of security and consistency.

After a lot of reflection lately, I can honestly say that my rather last minute decision to leave what I knew and come to Nashville was absolutely the right decision and has left me reflecting on not only the year of the most change, but the best of my 22 years. I could not be more thankful for the opportunities, friendships (new and old), challenges, and lessons that have come with every change in the past year. I have a true sense of who I am and what I want to become thanks to each step of the way.

So to 2011 and all of the people and experiences that filled the best year yet, thank you.