Word of the Year: 2017

Last year was my first time choosing a word of the year, even though I have experience spending my year focusing on goals and ideas I hope to accomplish by the end of it. If I had chosen a word in 2012, the year I catapulted my life to get me to where I am today, I think hustle would have been pretty accurate. But since I've grown into a more is less person, having over a dozen resolutions now overwhelms me, which is why having a word of the year is all I really need to focus my energy.

Somewhere in my blog roll I found a fellow blogger talking about her word of the year, which is what sparked my interest to choose one of my own for 2016. If you know me personally or follow my life online at all, you know that 2016 was a fucking whirlwind. Like I get it, a bunch of people think their year was super terrible but let me speak about mine for a second.

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I got dumped on New Year's Day, I don't think I need to go on but I will. Then my last few friends left the city to leave me literally without a person to call on within a 500 mile radius. Fast forward to the spring where I found myself dating a total commitment phobe, only to later realize I too had developed serious trust issues with men. Oh, and I quit my awesome job at a law firm to finish that damn masters degree that led me to move to Washington DC in the first place.

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2016 was crazy ya'll. Like, your ex boyfriend's new girlfriend leaves half a dozen batshit crazy comments on your blog then turns around and calls you crazy. The point is, 2016 year was one weird moment after another, but it wasn't all bad.

I built a community of women online, who like me, found themselves in a city with no one to lean on. I thrived at my job and found myself receiving promotions I didn't think we're even within my reach. I met a guy who despite my chronic self doubt has found a way to love me and my ability to get hair on every surface of his condo. And best of all, I continued to write throughout the year when I found the time, energy and motivation. No 2016 wasn't perfect, but it was the year I started living for me again.

So here I am at the beginning of 2017, wishing I could travel back in time and tell myself how much better it all gets. Looking into the new year I want to choose a word that builds on the accomplishments I made in 2016, yet still encompasses all the new goals I have for this new chapter. After a little brainstorming and maybe a few lists, I think I found my word. Cultivate.

Cultivate: to acquire or develop (a quality, sentiment, or skill)

Synonyms: improve, better, refine, elevate; educate, train, develop, enrich

My current goals range, yet the overarching theme to them all is that I have a foundation in everything I want to work on in 2017. With my starting a new job the second week of January, one that I have been training for throughout my college experience, cultivate explains my desire to fine tune my skills to better serve my clients.

The past two weeks have been spent literally sorting through my life, everything from clothes to my inbox. My focus on having less to better enjoy everything I bring into my life is so that I spend less time and energy on things that only serve me in the short term. Cultivating my succulent garden, the style of my home and capsule wardrobe will all hopefully work together to rid my life of unnecessary stressors and clutter that inevitably will stress me out after a long day.

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Lastly, cultivate is the perfect word for the community I want to continue to grow online. Both in this blog and in my local group of women, I want to keep working on blog posts and events that help everyday women like me remember that they're not alone if figuring this thing we call the best years of our life.




So tell me, are you more of a resolutions or word of the year type of person? Either way, share one goal or theme you have for the new year below!