Another year is ending. When I think of this year I immediately fall into the trap of grief. We lost friends, family and promises this year, and thus it was a hard year.
However, to delve into my memories I find a lot of amazing things that also occurred. Chef and Gypsy got married and I officiated their wedding! I got a raise at work in the beginning of the year and a promotion at the end of this year. I got engaged and had a wonderful engagement party. I went on four amazing vacations, one to Oregon to visit the Costello family whom I love and adore, then we went to Coloma with Patrick and Bobbi and camped for the weekend which was great. We lived a glorious week in Las Vegas with Michelle's family and it was heavenly. And we made our yearly trek down to So-Cal with Patrick to the blizzcon and got to hang with Michelle's sister and brother in law at their new beautiful house (it has a pool!).
I finished my year of volunteering committment at the Contra Costa Crisis Center, and continue to volunteer there now, almost six months later. I've even been trained to do some staff shifts. I look forward to seeing how my time there evolves over the next few weeks, months, years.
I ended my time at Family Support Services of the Bay Area after a year and a half. My duties at Windrush and grad school just didn't allow much time to support any families other than my own, so I resigned.
Windrush has given me so much in experience. I really hope it survives. If you wanna learn more about it check out the El Cerrito Patch, warning on the comments they get ugly.
I started grad school and while it was one of the hardest most harrowing experiences of my life I made it through. I met some amazing people that I will be working with for the next three years and I'm excited to learn and gain more experience.
And I published my novel, which makes me feel like I'm more in line with my own personal wants. I feel balanced with work, school and writing. Getting engaged and working on wedding plans with Michelle is making me feel like "family" is more balanced, we really want to nest and create our own little clan and every step gets us closer to that. We're trying hard to re-connect with family as adults and create a support system for ourselves, as well as offering support and love to reciprocate.
I've been narrowing down my social committments. Trying to keep it to band practice and dinner here and there, it isn't what I want, but school and work and wedding plans kind of demand it. I look forward to re-connecting with some of my friends in the new year, I need to be on more of a schedule to hang with them.
I normally kick off a new year with a long list of todos, but this year I'm really going to take the time to just be more healthy. Less meat, less soda, less sugar, more veggies and fruits, water and whole grains and more exercise. I really want to look and feel great at my wedding and even if I don't lose a single pound, as long as I've changed my lifestyle towards a healthier one I truly believe I'll have achieved that.
So wherever you are I wish you a happy and safe New Years Eve!
PS- I published my book here is a link to it- Qualia
The best way to help if you're interested is to obviously buy it, but to also post about it on social media sites, buy it for people that you think may be interested in it and or tell people about it. Also writing reviews on amazon.com or wherever you purchased the book is great too! Thanks, sincerely yours,
Stephan Lawrence Theodore Clifford
