Answering the Prompt (as stolen from Amythestmoon)

What do you consider to be your one biggest accomplishment this year?
(writing prompt as stolen from amythestmoon)

It’s good to take a moment and reflect back on the positive.  These past few months, I’ve felt hammered from so many directions, it’s sometimes easy to forget how far I’ve come.  In the past year, I’ve succeeded in getting into and through my first semester of Grad School, completing the Odyssey Writers Workshop, doing a 50,000 word/month (novel in a month) challenge, and teaching a class of 22 students how to write (better), as well as maintaining and growing a group of wonderful friends.

So what is my greatest accomplishment?

For me, it is staying in the fight.  This year has been one of the toughest I’ve ever faced in regards to dealing with obstacles, rejection, and loss.  Since reading Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, I’ve held the belief that it’s not what happens to you but how you choose to respond that shows your true character, and this response is the marker for your level of success in this world.  I’ve always believed that I am the sort of person that will stand up from a blow, face my obstacles and jump back into the fight.  This year, I’ve had to put my money where my mouth is.  It has not been easy.  In fact, it’s been harder than anything I’ve ever done.   There are points of memory that make me bleed to even touch them.  I’m ragged on the inside, wounded, coughing blood, fists clenched, pushing myself forward, step by step towards my goals. 

I am in this fight until the end, no matter what. 

And I am proud of that. 

Because the journey is hard, but it’s these hard times that expand for us the dimensions of who we are.