An Honest Look at 2021 (& the Year Ahead)

It's that time of year again.

Between the snowflakes, the stars, and the fireworks, we bid farewell to 2021.

In my case, there might be a bit of regret, but there's also a lot of celebration. Because guys, there's a new year up ahead. It's a completely blank canvas, one that is brimming over with so much potential. Who knows what God has for us next?

And guess what, friends? We survived. In spite of the craziness of the world around us and the struggles we all dealt with ... we. survived. That enough is cause for celebration. (and if you don't think so ... welllll ... *throws confetti and autumn leaves anyway* 🎉🍂)

So fair warning, this post will be a bit rambly, but in it, I'll be reflecting on 2020 and 2021, announcing my WOTY, and highlighting my favorite things about this past year, as well as displaying a bunch of random photography experiments while I'm at it just because. 🙃

Let's get right to it, shall we?

I don't do new years resolutions.

I've done it in the past, but to be honest, this process always goes something like this: I make a huge list because I'm an overachiever, around February forget them all, fail to get accountability, and then ... well, it just dies down until I realize at the end of the year that I accomplished next to nothing on my list, or the year didn't turn out as planned. And then the cycle repeats itself. Fun times. 😅😆

Well, not this past year, at least! Thanks to some writer friends, I decided to toss my new year's resolutions list out the window and start afresh with one word—the Word of the Year™️ or WOTY.

To be honest, I was a bit skeptical at first (and maybe a bit annoyed over giving up my new year's resolutions, heh 😆). But I picked a word and prayed that it would lead my year. And guys—it. actually. worked.

I started living out that year with intentionality. And as it unfolded, I started to see God direct my path to opportunities and situations that forced me to grow in the area of my word of the year.

My word for 2021 was ...

At this point, you're probably wondering: what was my word of the year??

Well ... God showed me through a series of events in 2020 that I was really struggling with trusting Him and others (I think you can see where this is going...). When COVID hit, I was discouraged and crazy anxious about ... well, life, and it made me feel like I had nowhere to turn. After all, where do you turn when the unknown looms overhead and even the people around you don't know what will happen?

I don't think my whole heart believed that God was only willing to accept and hear from me at my Sunday best, but a good part of me did, and that's why I felt so genuinely lost and confused.

It was a hard journey, but as months passed and COVID showed no signs of stopping, I began to pray again. I began to open my Bible again. God guided me out of that dry season—slowly, but surely. He taught me that it's okay to just be. To come to Him at my worst without judgment. And guys, that was literally the thing I needed to learn that year. It's brought such tremendous peace and comfort in those crazy times, and even now.

So as a result, at the end of that long, gritty, but also beautiful year, I chose a word for 2021. Trust. I had re-discovered a God who loved me no matter where I was at—and I needed to really trust Him no matter the circumstances. After all, good relationships are not built on ... well, distrust or suspicion. And more than that, I had to trust others. I had to trust that God had brought them into my life for a reason, and that they weren't all trying to stab me in the back despite what my anxiety said. 😝

I feel like I say this too often, but y'know, it wasn't easy. 2021 brought many new (and old) people into my life. Decisions were made, and I dealt with a lot of issues (specifically with the aforementioned anxiety), but through them, God used them to help me understand my limits, and also that trusting Him isn't always easy. We live in a broken and sinful world, after all.

I think the biggest thing I learned this year is that God has a plan, and He always knows best. Even though it rarely makes sense to you, it's so so vital to trust that He's got it in His hands. If you're dealing with something hard, remember that He can—and will—use it all for His glory. All things will work together for the good. And through the ashes of pain and confusion, blessings will undoubtedly appear.

My word for 2022 is ...

As this method seemed pretty effective for me, I'm going to be choosing my word for 2022!

And in 2022, it's going to be beyond.

This year, I realized that I needed to start working on living beyond my comfort zone.

Beyond the expectations of society.

Beyond the lies I've believed—about God, about myself, and about life.

Beyond all the times I've messed up ... because they don't define me. They don't define any of us.

As I watched The Chosen this holiday season and made my way through the New Testament, I realized that when choosing to follow Jesus, the disciples faced a decision—to leave their old lives behind and enter into an unsteady, and possibly dangerous future beyond everything they had ever known and their comfort zones in the process. In the same way, as believers, God has called us to a life beyond the places we first started.

So in 2022, I want to say "yes" to Christ again. I want to trust Him to help me live a life beyond everything I've ever known—metaphorically, and also maybe literally.

I want to start living beyond.

Highlights of 2021

As I flip through a journal I kept throughout 2021, I realize that there were such enormous blessings God brought into my life. It was not only a year of trust, but of growth overall, and I'm really grateful for that. 😊

For one, I discovered that I'm a very task-oriented person, and can often find myself getting caught up in the craziness of life and my world of to-do lists and planning. So near the end of this year, I've taken bits and pieces of time to slow down and do quiet things, like scrapbooking, listening to audiobooks (specifically When You Reach Me, Stargirl, & Sunreach), photography, and snail mail. When I was younger I loved doing those things, so this year I spent some time really re-discovering my love for crafting. In 2022, I plan on starting a sweater as a fun project (and also because I love sweaters, haha), so I'm looking forward to it!

I made a bunch of (very sudden) changes to my blog (special thank-you to my Elysfable Squad for putting up with my craziness, as always 😜) and scrambled over how to explain them besides just "I got bored of my current state and needed a change" (which is really partly the truth 😂) and I can't say I'm never going to change anything again, but I've learned a lot about platform growth and reaching readers this year. So ... maybe there'll be fewer changes in 2022. We'll see. 😉

I wrote my first dystopian! For those who don't know me, I am—or well, I was—a bit of a dystopian nerd, and I literally read all the dystopian novels I could get my hands on earlier this year, and that led to me eventually writing my first dystopian set in space, The Library of Lost Cures. It was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot from it ... particularly that this genre isn't really my forte. 😉 But that's okay. Maybe someday I'll try again.

I started digging deeper into God's Word. One of the most beautiful things that came from 2020 that I mentioned earlier was just how much more valuable the Bible is to me personally now, and how much wisdom God has started to show me through it.

This section could really go on and on, but those are the main things! All this to say, I'm very excited for 2022 and whatever it may hold ... trials and otherwise.

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Now it's your turn!

Do you do new year's resolutions? Are you excited about 2022? What's your WOTY for 2022?

I hope you have a great New Years, and stay tuned for more exciting things. 😄

'Til next time!

~Em ✨ | E. C. Colton