2015 was a big year, though it was largely one of transition.
I graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary with a Master’s in Biblical Counseling, bringing to conclusion three awesome years in Texas. Moving from Dallas meant saying goodbye to my friends at DTS, at Trinity Fellow Church, and at the Saranac House. I never felt more fully myself than when I lived in Dallas, and I will miss the security of having so many amazing friends.
I moved back to my hometown of Peoria in July, where I reconnected with family and my home church. I had a bit of an existential crisis, which always happens when I return home. It’s hard to leave and change and bring that change back to somewhere familiar. But in the midst of my own confusion, I reconnected with friends from my old church and my old high school. And I got to relive old jobs, first as a church secretary, and later as a public librarian.
I spent the majority of 2015 working on fundraising for my upcoming trip to Athens, Greece, and I learned some fun fundraising tactics in between being incredibly stressed out. Although I’m glad it’s over, I really do think I could do it again. I liked stretching my creative and managerial muscles. I enjoyed experiencing support from people both expected and unexpected. There’s no way I could have raised $27,700 alone, and thankfully, I didn’t have to.
2015 also marks the birth of this blog: ItIsTrish. Before this year, I was running three separate blogs: one for book reviews, one for traveling, and one for personal epiphanies. My friend Libby suggested that perhaps I was splitting myself into pieces because I didn’t think anyone would be interested in All of Me. She’s very wise, and I couldn’t ignore her subtle challenge. Thus, this blog was born. I combined all my discordant interests and hoped that people would stick around through it all. I also wanted to be more intentional about blogging, and I spent this year experimenting with a variety of posting schedules and weekly topics. I had a lot of fun, and looking at my blog’s statistics, it seems like some of you did too!
2015 Blog Statistics
(as of 12/14/2015)
Total Posts Written | 465
Total Views | 17,248
Total Followers | 183
Total Likes | 827
In the coming days, I’m going to look more closely at my year in Books, Travel, Favorite Posts, and Looking Forward to 2016!
It Is Trish 