Obviously, I did not blog 365 times this year. I did rather well for much of the year, but then it just fell to the wayside during #yuppiequest and I didn’t bother to pick it back up when I got home.

No matter. I still wanted to do a bit of reflection.

2014 is/was a wash – not all bad, not all good. I’ve said more than once that I’ve been ready for this year to be over since Jan. 1.

And now here we are, a full year later. I’m not going to pretend I’m a million times wiser because, let’s be honest, there is so much more that I am still figuring out. That will always be the case. Still, this not-bad-not-good year had a few (probably cliché) lessons.

1. Everything in life is only for now. I got a fortune cookie last January that reminded me that all things have an end.

Treasure the laughter, the moments of singing the perfect song at the perfect moment in your car, the coincidences that bring a smile to your face. Deal with the heartache, the terror over a lack of guard rails on a two-lane highway on a cliff, the loneliness. Because this too shall pass and tomorrow is another day (channeling my inner Scarlett O’Hara).

2. If it’s not a right fit, then it’s not a right fit. My graduation shoes are the cutest pair of shoes I own. They have this fantastic black-and-white floral print. They are also magnificently painful after standing in them for more than an hour.

Despite knowing that I should never wear these shoes again, they still sit in my closet and I break them out every once in a while, thinking that maybe this time, it will be different.

Note to self: It’s never going to be different. You drank a lot of Johnnie Walker Black on the rocks the last time it wasn’t any different to numb the pain.

This lesson goes for shoes, people, jobs and basically everything.

3. Opportunity comes in unexpected ways. You never know how making the incredibly tough decision to leave your job and go off on a month-long trip around the country will include grabbing lunch in a city you don’t live in with someone you used to work with, and how that will lead to you meeting someone else, who will in turn recruit you for a new job you didn’t even know you wanted but will find you actually really enjoy.

I mean, it doesn’t ALWAYS happen, but it does, indeed, happen.

4. Above all, family. I saw my parents and my brother for three periods of time in 2014. I also spent time with several extended family members at reunion-esque events for the first time in years. While I’ve always had an inkling that this may not be enough, now I am certain it is not enough.

And for the first time ever, I was not home for Christmas. That came about for a myriad of reasons, but it was the end result.

Maybe it’s time for me to seriously consider how to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.

I don’t know what that will entail, but I suppose that’s what 2015 is for.

Happy New Year, friends.