At the end of 2011, I declared 2012 the year of Good Things. And . . . that little declaration delivered.

January

• Jay, who might I add is the guy behind the phrase Good Things, guest posted about his type 1 diabetes story early on in the year. This has gone to be one of the most read posts on this blog–it also proved to me to just ask. I’ve learned a lot from Jay over the last year and a half, and I’m blessed that he chose to share his story here, too.
• Thanks to my friend Steve Richert, I rekindled my love of climbing. Turns out that a youth event would be the only time I got up on a wall this year.

February

• For my friend Sara’s birthday, I started leaving Positive Post-Its places. Little did I know that I’d actually be able to see a response!
• On a tough track workout, I realize: If you don’t push through the shit, you don’t grow. This mini-mantra has come through my had dozens of times since then.

March

• I touch on a permeating theme in the last year: being intentional.
• I’m still in awe when I think of the zen of this night.
• The allergist diagnoses me with rhinitis despite my lack of allergicness to anything other than dust.
• I realize that my life revolves around playing in a gym [tough!] when i get hit in the face with a basketball at work and break my glasses.
• I get out of yet another exercise lapse.

April

• I unsuccessfully take on the Health Activist Writers’ Month Challenge.
• I sever my ties with MedicAlert.
• I write a letter to my sixteen-year-old-self about how far she’ll come in four years.
• A top 10 HAWMC prompt turns into a top 10 about music in my iTunes.
• I go on an epic road trip across the prairies and meet my friend Danielle for the first time.

May

• World Asthma Day 2012 means being intentional: a bike ride decked out in Team Asthma apparel.
• I go public with my Stanford Medicine-X Scholarship deliberations.
• I realize I am the only one in charge of my choices, even if circumstances change how I am thinking and I have to make it happen.
• I turn twenty-one — and announce that I’ll be going to Quebec City with the Asthma Society of Canada for the World Congress of Asthma and making my way to California for Medicine-X!

June

• June kicks off with the Day of Visibility for people with invisible illnesses.
• I find out that my thyroid is starting to bite the dust.

July

• I officially fail anatomy and learn that “Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.” [–Randy Pausch]
• I write about Good Things! [Finally.]

August

• As the summer wraps up, I realize yet again that as much fun as I have at work . . . that fun is super important.
• I get way out of my comfort zone and find myself in Quebec City with the Asthma Society of Canada and a bunch of amazing people.
• Realize I am supposed to be training because I have a race to do.
• I do a brutal training walk (and Steve reminds me that I’m having problems because I have asthma).

September

• I walk my second 10K race in support of my friends with diabetes through the Canadian Diabetes Association.
• I re-start anatomy and try to keep it in perspective.
• Seven years later, I reflect on how God saved me from myself.
• Four friends guest blog to share their stories of invisible illness for Invisible Illness Week 2012.
• Despite my functional pancreas, I participate in Diabetes Art Day.
• I go to California for Medicine-X!
• I meet my “Cali-bestie” Steve for the first time and he shows me around San Francisco [and unexpectedly saves my ass].
• [And my asthma goes crazy in California and I get pretty sick.]

October

• I guest blog for my friend Mike about Medicine-X, and how much the Diabetes Online Community meant to me . . . offline.
• And, right before I started coaching my Special Olympics team, I posted about waiting to get started on the Special Olympics Manitoba blog.

November

• Spiritual apathy and dissonance–I cover all the stuff I’ve been thinking about for far too long.
• Steve comes to Winnipeg en route to Churchill to see polar bears, so we get to hang out a bunch on his first visit to Canada (and between the two of us, never shut up).
• Allison guest blogs to wrap up Diabetes Awareness Month.

December

• Carly kicks off Crohn’s and Colitis Awareness Week by guest blogging about how you can support a friend living with Crohn’s or Colitis.
• Michael Jagmin and his three-octave vocal range sink their way into my brain and my tagline.
• Spark. I go to church for the second time since May with mixed feelings . . . and remain in anticipation of what is coming.
• I philosophize about the concept of Make Yourself by Incubus and how it applies to my own life. i’m thinking Make Yourself will be the theme of the year.

Except for a few blips, I feel that 2012 was a pretty darn good year.

Year of Good Things? Check! Time to bring it home.