A Mississippi Year

If someone asked me in January what I expected from this year, I probably would have said that I want the year to slow down a little. But here we are, almost eleven months gone in a blink. It feels like the calendar has been sprinting ahead without waiting for any of us to catch our breath.

Still, in the middle of all that rushing, something beautiful happened. I completed my four years in the university as an English major. And honestly, that alone feels like a whole lifetime’s worth of gratitude. I didn’t think it would happen as smoothly as it did, not with the strike threat that hung over our heads like a storm cloud. For a moment, I thought the year might slip by without that long awaited milestone. But surprisingly, the strike ended almost as quickly as it began, lasting barely a week, and just like that, one of my biggest hopes for the year came to pass.

If there’s one thing this year taught me, it’s how time can move like the Mississippi river. It literally slips through your fingers even when you swear you’re holding on tight. I didn’t expect the months to run this fast. Honestly, I deluded myself into believing the year would drag its feet, especially with everything going on around me. But somehow, between the chaos, fear, deadlines and uncertainty, the days kept piling into weeks and the weeks into months, until suddenly, we’re here, almost at the end.

But thing is that even with my big win, completing the four tedious years, there are still things I thought I’d have figured out by now, plans I expected to be in motion and answers I hoped the year would deliver into my hands before it rolled out but, some of those things are still hanging in the air, half-formed and I guess waiting for their time.

I tell myself it’s okay because when I sit with myself and look at the year honestly, I realize I’m still grateful. Grateful for what happened and strangely, grateful even for what didn’t. The unfinished parts are the ones still giving me hope. They remind me that the year isn’t over. Those good things I’m hoping for can still unfold in December who knows. I mean Christmas could be my room for a surprise.

Right now, as the year winds down, I’m holding on to just one simple wish and that’s a Christmas filled with peace. Peace in my mind, peace in my home, peace in the little corners of my life that kinda feel scattered.

This year, so far, has really been fast, unpredictable, tiring, but still quietly generous. And as it edges closer to its ending, I’m choosing to walk into December with gratitude for what I’ve lived through and hope for what I’m still waiting to see.

My response to the IU weekly contest

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