I do not like the phrase, “2015 will be my year.” It seems like people judge whether their year was a success based on how many monumental life moments that happened that year. Events like getting into a college, finding love, or getting your first job all are considered big life events and are certainly worth celebrating. However, there seems to be an attitude that if a person did not have a year full of huge noteworthy occurrences, then it was a failure of a year -- and that just is not true.              

What is true is that all the little moments are why the big events in our lives happen. Nobody would ever achieve those big life moments if it were not for the day-to-day mundane little happenings that slowly lead us to the important stuff. Zora Hurston’s quote, “There are years that ask questions, and years that answer,” perfectly illustrates this idea. I seem to spend a lot of time wondering how something will be in the future, and then once that something happens it seems dumb that I spent so much time wondering how it would turn out.

Some years are just naturally important ones, like milestone birthdays or the year you spend traveling abroad; others are quiet and less glamorous. All the same, you cannot have the good without the bad, and you have to live the years that ask questions in order to find the answers.                

You do not have to believe in destiny to see that cause and effect are real. Things happen for a reason. It seems like a hackneyed cliché, but if you take the time to look back on everything that happened this year, it becomes blatantly clear. There were so many tiny events that seemed insignificant, and even dumb, that actually led to my best memories of the year. From delayed planes to bad sushi dinners, sometimes the best memories come from the most unexpected events.                 

Of course, when you look back on the year it is hard not to judge yourself in terms of what has or has not happened for you, but that doesn’t mean it was a useless or unimportant year. It could be that all those little moments are working together towards something that you just don’t know is happening yet, and it will find you in the future. That is why I think it is impossible to pin your hopes on the vague concept of the next year being the best one, yet, because that is an empty statement until you give it meaning.

The way to make the next year the best one, yet, is to embrace every single one of the 365 days so that next New Year’s, when you turn around and reflect on yourself, you don’t have any what ifs. In 2015, I want to remember that rainy days, canceled plans, and burnt cinnamon rolls might be tiny moments in the grand scheme of the year, but those are the moments that might led to answers to the big questions.