One Year Ago, Today

I'm taking a weekly journal prompt from Sometimes Sweet this week and the subject is advice I would give myself looking back at the past year. 

They say hindsight is 20/20, and with good reason- looking back at something always gives us a better view. We're often able to really see how our choices and decisions then shaped our today, and examine what we would have done differently given the chance. When looking back though, we often look way back, but for this exercise stay a little closer to present time and look back just 12 months. If you could go back just one year, what would you tell yourself? What advice would you offer about everything you've experienced?

It seems like 12 months wasn't really that long ago, but after I really thought about it, just one year ago was when Joe finally moved up to Alaska. Since that time everything changed. Only a year ago I was hauling my stuff out of the army barracks and moving to an apartment. After two years and four months in a long distance relationship, including one year of officially being married, this was the day I had been waiting for.

Let me tell you, things were pretty rough leading up to this. At this point last year I already knew that things were finally looking up. If I could give myself advice on this day last year I would say, All the little things you are going to worry yourself over aren't as serious as you think. 

I would definitely tell myself that I won't be disappointed anymore and to just let the past be the past. 

I might also want to give myself a few warnings, like, "Your landlord will scam you!" and how my boss would be a total jerk in my last few months of living in Alaska. But who wants to talk about boring stuff like that?

Aside from trying to avoid a few disappointments here and there, I would let myself know that a ton of great things are coming my way. I will find my soulmate kitty, Mrs. Peacock, at the pound. Joe and I will decide to have a baby and it will happen just like that, so there is no need to worry about timelines! That cross country road trip I had been dreaming about for almost a decade? It will happen. I'll even get to catch up with a bunch of old friends along the way.

Now that we have been living a family life for a year now, it's hard to imagine that it was ever any other way. Even Murray, or newest puppy addition, feels like he has been around for a longer time than he has been. 

Speaking of the silly boy, this is Murray wondering where his Daddy went off to... (he was taking out the garbage.) He gets so upset when his Dad leaves without him!

...and, of course, Miss Kitty-face is posing for the camera as usual. I can't believe we have had her for just one year! It feels like she is my oldest friend.