All Bets Are Off...it's 2015!

I used to be an overzealous resolution-maker. Every year, without fail, I would resolve to stop biting my nails, to lose 15 pounds, and to somehow get fabulous hair.

Then, in my early thirties, I shunned the resolution. Banned it. Kicked it to the curb.

It had no place in my life. I was just gonna live, and do the best I could, all year. I wasn't going to vow to change every January. The whole idea of it was ridiculous.

In January 2013, I cautiously re-introduced the resolution, and vowed to start doing yoga again.

It worked. All year.

So in January 2014, I upped the ante and started attending Nevada Fitness Club. Suddenly, things like Insanity and Combat Cardio were not only within reach, but mountains I climbed and obstacles I conquered.

And now, here we are on the cusp of 2015, and it's almost too much.

Because there is real shit happening in 2015.

And although I'm going to try a 21-day-to-sugar-elimination program, and although I got a Fitbit and am fascinated with how many sets of stairs I climb every day, there are more pressing things on my 2015 plate.

You see, in 2015, I will stop working three jobs and 60 hours a week.

In 2015, I will turn 40 years old.

And in 2015, my son, the light of my life, will finish high school and start college.

The year 2015 will bring more change than I'd care to think about. I have really enjoyed being a mom, way more than I thought I would when I told people that having kids wasn't really my thing.

I LOVED raising this child. I loved every bit of it, even the post-age-16 years, when I realized that I wasn't going to get out of the difficult times after all.

I remember getting my last driver's license renewal, seeing that it expired in July 2015, and thinking, wow, Hunter will be out of high school by then...that's so far away!

And now it's here. The second half of his last year of public school. It still feels like he should be that little boy with the giant backpack walking into preschool for the first time while I held back tears.

There's a lot to do. Like, actually get him to fill out all the scholarship applications. Like, actually get him to go to school. Like, actually get him to look objectively at more than one college.

But that's a job for 2015 Jen. Right now, I'm still in 2014, trying to remember that although there was a lot of bad in the last 12 months, there was a lot of good, too.

In a few short hours, I will welcome in the year of my son's graduation. And not just my son, but all of the other kids I watched grow up these last thirteen years.

Damn it, you guys. Why are you doing this to us?

Congratulations, anyway.

I'm still going to try that 21-day-to-sugar-elimination plan, though.