2016 Year in Review: There Were Lots of Ups and Downs

It seems like everyone is doing a 2016 year in review right now and since I haven’t been around much lately, I thought I’d explain.

2016 Year in Review

2016 was supposed to be a fabulous year. 2016 was the year that I was finally getting married! This should have been a joyous year filled with celebrations and happiness. Unfortunately, I got way more than I bargained for this year.

Winter/Spring 2016

The second semester of the 2015 – 2016 school year was way harder than I had ever imagined it would be. It lead to me writing the post the life of a special education teacher. I took on way more than I should have that semester. While I experienced great growth as a teacher and an individual, I won’t be stepping up to the plate like that again. I learned a lot from the experience and it changed my outlook on my job as well as those I work with. It left me tired and bitter to have worked so hard and for it to have been expected of me.

One major highlight of the spring was attending Disney Social Media Moms in May. I truly never thought I would be invited to that conference and I about fell over when I received the email. I feel so lucky and thankful to have been able to go. If I never get to go again, I consider myself blessed to have been chosen in the first place and I look forward to seeing all of the magical posts from my friends attending next year (and beyond).

Summer 2016

Summer 2016 was to be a much needed break from all of the stress of school. However, since I had taken on so much at school, I had neglected to do some serious wedding planning. So, I took a trip to Disney World in June to kick-off the summer and then jumped in with wedding planning. I spent the majority of my summer looking up and researching various vendors for my big day. So, that ended up being more stressful than I planned. We also ended up picking the music and writing the entire ceremony ourselves.

Fall 2016

School started back and things returned to the new normal at work. Unfortunately, with all of the wedding planning, I hadn’t really had a chance to re-charge this summer. So, I returned to my job a little anxious already. Then, add to that my department head thought that because I had handled so much last semester so well, I was able to do it again this year. I quickly became burn out with the whole thing.

Then, two weeks before my wedding, my grandfather died. Along with the last minute stresses of the wedding and the work stress, this brought on a depression I hadn’t felt since my father passed away. I became angry trying to deal with it all and I didn’t really have time to deal with all of my emotions.

I can say that my wedding was beautiful. All of our hard work paid off and it was perfect. I will never plan another wedding though. It was too stressful. However, I am happy to report that we are happily married and it was totally worth it.

Late in October, we took our Disneymoon and that brightened things up also.

Winter 2016

That brings us to dark and dreary winter. I have continued to deal with being burnt out and depressed. I can say that this winter break has done me some good. I have been able to enjoy a long break with my new husband and it’s been fantastic. It’s allowed us to chill and re-connect again. We even had time to get rid of lots of stuff and clean the house.

Looking Ahead

For now, I plan to return to my position and stick it out for the remainder of the year. Beyond that though, I have no idea what will happen. I’m unsure if switching schools will help or if I just need to get a new position. Time will tell, I suppose. I love my kids and I don’t want to leave them, so I’d really like to try to stick it out in special education.

I felt like I needed to do a 2016 year in review and get all of this out there, to let everyone know why I haven’t been around much. I’ve been too busy and it’s certainly caught up with me. I’m hoping to take more time for me in the new year.

Happy New Year! Here’s to bigger and better things!