At the beginning of 2016, I wrote that “…adventure only truly begins when you learn to embrace it”. I wrote about the things I learned in 2015, and how those lessons would arm me for the year ahead. Now I am not one for New Year (and in my case, Birthday) resolutions, because I’ve never been able to keep a diet longer than two days. But I’ve always been about learning. Learning through mistakes, experiences, and time. And through a pretty rough 2015, I did indeed learn. I learned how to embrace change and adventure, and I took some pretty amazing leaps too. Thus making 2016 one of the most exciting and fulfilling years of my life.

So I’ll be honest here. I couldn’t get on the “Can’t wait for 2016 to end” bandwagon. Sure, we lost a lot of beautiful, magical people. *All hail The Half Blood Prince and General Organa! Wands up and Sabers off!* And that depressed and pained me as much as the next Wizard, Witch and Jedi. But 2016 was special to me. (So special in fact, that I didn’t have a single free day to write.) My year was wonderfully full. 2016 changed my life for good, and showered me with enough happy thoughts and pixie dust to fly through the years to come.

These are the happy thoughts that stop me from complaining about how old I am and about the fact that I literally add another year to my existence at the start of every year. (That’s what happens when your birthday comes so close after the New Year.)  So as I turn 29, I’ve decided to list the 29 things that 2016 gave me. I’ve decided to count my blessings instead of sheep, if you will, and to share with you the adventures I’ve so wholeheartedly embraced.

Well past 16 going on 17

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