2018 was one insane year. Actually, let me be blunter, it was a confusing raging hot mess of a lot of really horrible days, but also a lot of really good days. It was kind of a cluster of a lot of things I am still trying to process and work through.

But also in 2018 (more recently), Ariana Grande released her song "Thank You, Next" thanking her ex's for the lessons that they've taught her. So I thought, instead of a goodbye letter to 2018, I would take a note from Ariana's book. This is corny. Get ready.

2018 taught me love.

I have been with my boyfriend for almost two years now, but at the start of 2018, things were pretty rocky. We were starting to lose interest in each other but putting on a front for everyone else around us so we didn't rock the boat.

We were struggling to find reasons to stay together and make things work. We hated spending time together, the magic of the relationship was gone, and we wanted everything to just get better or stop altogether without really putting in any work.

But for some reason, this year was the ticket. 2018 was the year we found ourselves and our way back to each other. We fought a bit, for sure. But we got our lives in gear, we realized what was important.

We had to learn to be adults and work out our issues like adults. We had to decide to choose each other and we fell in love all over again. Since then it's been the best of times together and I can't imagine being any happier.

2018 taught me an incredible amount of patience.

Listen, you guys, I am not the most patient person in the world. As a matter of fact, I have very low patience for a lot of things. But 2018 was the year that taught me that having no patience was no longer an option.

In 2018 I bought a car and less than 3 months later, that care broke down beyond repair. I spent months without a car, with no communication from the garage that it was at, nothing.

I was used to getting what I wanted as soon as I wanted it and that was not happening. I threw tantrum after tantrum and it got me nowhere. I cried and screamed and kicked because I was running out of patience for the reel of crap that my life was becoming.

But, the second I decided to be patient and let things work out the way they were supposed to, they did.

2018 taught me pain.

I am no stranger to hardships. My life has never been a cakewalk. But I also have not had the worst of lives by a long shot. I thought I knew what pain was before this past year. I was wrong. 2018 brought me and taught me what real pain actually is.

In 2018 I was continuing working through the mental pain of my sexual assault. Going to therapy and reopening all of those wounds caused me a lot of pain that I wasn't ready for. But it's pain I learned to deal with and work through. Now it's pain I have channeled into making me a better, stronger person.

I went through an indescribable amount of physical and emotional pain in September due to some personal things. I felt like a prisoner in my own body in a whole new way for a good month or so. It was a pain I had never encountered before and pain I definitely couldn't get over alone.

I confronted some deep emotional trauma with my family this year as well. I discovered that there's no pain like the pain you feel when you see your family hurting. While it's still something we're working through, we are getting stronger through the pain we had to endure together.

2018, Just like Ariana Grande is thankful for Pete Davidson and all of her ex's before, I am thankful for you.

2018 kicked my little butt. It threw me for a lot of loops and taught me a lot of lessons I didn't know I needed to learn. It made me a stronger, more patient person. And while right now I am still a little resentful of all of the things I had to go through, I know there was a reason. But, I am extremely ready for what 2019 has to bring.

So 2018, for all of that I say: thank you, next.