a little bit about 2013

 I just looked through my “best of 2013” year via facebook’s choice.  I liked it.  It made me feel like a year is a long time.

This year has been…..a year. I actually even forgot some of my biggest moments….. until I reviewed “best of Jes Kruse”….. facebook style.

This time last year I had all my bags packed and nowhere to go. Literally.  I decided I had to move out of my apartment that had been robbed and I was going to move January 1, but I had no new apartment on Jan 1.

But….. just like life has a way of doing, things turned out, just fine. I found a beautiful apartment that is way too fancy for someone like me and I live there now, feeling safe, feeling comfortable, and appreciating this season of studio living in NYC.

There are so many moments that happened in 2013. Many of which happened that I'll never remember. Those simple moments, that matter, that make up this thing called life but get folded into the next moment and aren’t necessary to be remembered, just lived. Then there are those moments that I scrolled through on my “best of….” on fb that are really beautiful and I’ll keep on remembering them, they are what made 2013 a pretty great year!

My niece and nephew’s birthday parties

       A summer in Paris

Recipient of NYC teacher of excellence award

      Moving into a beautiful apartment

 Dating until it paid off and currently living in bliss

      Giving a presentation at a national educational conference

Celebrating a really good friend’s wedding

I was driving to my sister’s house on Christmas eve and I got completely stressed out with my brownies and doughnuts possibly getting smashed and ruined when I kept slammed on my breaks, in the parking lot of a road, getting out of the city. I was OBSESSED. Like, really into my brownies NOT smashing. It took all the fun out of my Christmas drive. Turns out…..traffic isn’t a moment I will remember from 2013. And even if my brownies had been smashed, it wouldn’t  have been ranked as a moment to remember. I’ve had crisis and tragedy in my life, those moments I will always remember, I’ve learned through the pain and tears of those moments and I am who I am today because of those struggles. But smashed brownies or even less, the thought of smashed brownies, are not struggles. That was not a crisis on Christmas Eve. My hope for 2014 is to better engage with the moments that aren’t crisis and remind myself to not let little stressers take away the joy that can be found all around me.

2013 started when I got home from New Year’s Eve at about 10:00 am, exhausted and fighting the worst hang over of my whole life (thanks to my unawareness that champagne and gin/tonic drinks should not be drunk on the same night! Geez….just another moment in time that reminded me that yes, I was homeschooled, yes, I didn’t learn the basic 101 drinking protocols in order to be able to function properly the next day). So, I was standing in my living room, staring at my boxes, homeless, holding my throbbing head, chugging Gatorade, and close to tears, when my good friend said, “Jes, 2013 can only go up from here.” And he was right, that was just a low moment of 2013.  I am so impress with humans. We are such fighters and I love that about us.

If there’s something humans are guaranteed, it’s hope. Hope for another day, hope for dreams. HOPE. I wish for you all, that your 2014 is full of hope.