As we get ready to ring in a new year at the stroke of midnight tomorrow, I feel the need to take a minute to look back on the previous year. I went into 2016 full of hope and optimism for what was in store this year.

But by year's end, it seems like I might be one of the few people who didn't think 2016 was completely the worst. Yes, in many ways on the national level, 2016 seemed to have a lot more downs than it did ups. Some of those downs will probably have some longer lasting ramifications that I am more than a little nervous about, but I'd like to try to end the year on a positive note.

So with that in mind, I thought I'd share some of what was good about this year for me.

1. I graduated from grad school earlier this month. My two and a half years in my MBA program were stressful and challenging and made me sacrifice basically all of my free time, but they were worth it. Plus, I finished with a 4.0 GPA, and I'm pretty darn proud of that fact.



2. I traveled the world. Until this year, I had never stepped foot outside of North America (depending how one defines North America -- I am counting Mexico here as part of the North American continent). But in 2016 I went to Japan, Ireland and the Dominican Republic on the international front.











I also traveled a bunch domestically -- some for work and some for fun.



I visited

• Columbia, SC


• Charleston, SC (twice -- once for work, once for play)


• San Antonio, TX


• Boston, MA


• Auburn, AL


• Rehoboth Beach, DE


• Philadelphia, PA

Many of these trips were with good friends that I'm grateful to have (both as friends and as travel buddies).

3. I moved apartments. I now living walking distance from my office, five blocks from my best friend and just in general closer to almost everything. The move was back in August, and I've mainly settled in, though I still have a couple of empty walls that I need to figure out what to do with.

4. I read some really good books.



I didn't have as much time to read this year, but I still managed to read a decent amount of books, and now that I'm finished with school, I have a large stack of books just waiting to be read. I promise to share later what some of my favorites were from this year, once I get organized enough to pull that list together!

5. I made new friends, strengthened old friendships and spent quality time with my family.



Despite my school stuff taking up most of my free time, I still managed to find time for some of the things I love, like playing softball, tailgating with my friends and of course, spending time with my family.









This year I got to celebrate many nieces and nephews birthdays (at Star Wars themed parties), play on a flag football team with my cousin and have my brother make a surprise appearance at my 30th birthday party.







I got to celebrate friends' engagements.



And then party at friends' weddings.





I worked really hard, played moderately hard and overall feel like I made the best out of this year. Sure, it wasn't perfect, but sometimes it's just nice to focus on the good things.