There Was Something About 2017...

That was completely different than the years prior....

Sitting here on the eve of the new year, I excitedly flashback on all of what 2017 brought me. Doing so has actually made me rather anxious to see what 2018 is going to bring. Ordinarily, when it comes NYE, I experience a host of emotions. It's almost like an extreme energy comes over me and I can't seem to think straight. I don't know why, nor can I explain it, but for some reason, it didn't happen this year.

Could it be that I may have fulfilled some subconscious goal within myself throughout the year that I am okay to end one year and begin another? Even though another year is, in all essence, just another day.

It was something about 2017 that made it stand out more than years prior. I would like to believe it was because I stepped completely out of my comfort zone when it came to my literary career. I published two books, was super active on my professional Facebook page, networked more than ever, posted a lot more to my Twitter and Instagram accounts, I did over 200 author interviews for my blog, I did editing for clients 10 out of the 12 months this year, and I even attended quite a few poetry events and author events (some author events were even out of state). Yet, still, there was something extremely different about 2017.

Dare I say that there was growth? Or could it be that I was more focused than I have ever been in my entire life. More focused than I was in high school and even still, more focused than I was in college. With each of those, I had a goal to achieve. A finish line to reach. Something that needed to be done to move ahead in my life, if you will, but this was a different kind of being focused. I wasn't just trying to achieve a goal or reach a finish line, I was trying to level up. Like the kind of leveling up that only causes you to want to level up even more and then even more after that. I was on a mission.

Even though, I can look back at 2017 and actually say that my mission was completed, I am still able to look forward and see that there is still more to the mission that has yet to be completed. More knowledge that I have yet to obtain. More growth for myself as a person, and as a driving force in the Indie literary world.

As I sit here, staring at my laptop, lost in thought, I can't help but feel as though 2017 simply had that something special going for it. That something that I can feel within my core that is going to carry over into 2018 and beyond. Whatever it was, or even is, I know that it has caused me to level up in life. To climb that mental ladder of success that I so long go thought I would be too afraid to climb.

There was a time where I thought that I wasn't ready for the world, but it turns out, the world isn't ready for me.