Dear 2017.

Dear 2017, 

I’m gonna level with you here. You sucked in a LOT of ways. It’s almost as if you heard me saying good riddance to 2016, calling it the worst year, and you were hovering right there and thought, “What’s that? A challenge?”

So yeah, you sucked in a lot of ways. But you were also really good in a lot of ways. The whole year has reminded me of a quote from a favorite book: “So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and still trying to figure out how that can be.” How can things feel so good, so joyful, so amazing, and so bad, so hopeless, so dark at the same time? 

You were the very definition of bittersweet. 

You were full of adventures and new places. 

You were full of heartache and confusion. 

You gave me the sweetest summer. 

You made it nearly impossible to even turn the news on and still be able to breathe.

You brought me new people, good people, the best people. 

You hurt some of the people closest to me. 

You broke me. You grew me. 

You gave me 365 days of making memories with my sweetest little love.

You made me question almost everything I’ve ever believed in. 

You made me strong. So, so strong. 

I could say a lot about you, (honestly, a few expletives come to mind), but at the end of you, I’m still here, I’m full of good memories and good experiences, and I can confidently say that I’m more myself than I’ve ever been. 

So, I’ll just say thank you. 

But also, you can go now. BYEEEEE.