Full Circle

look at us...where we've been...

2011 was a year of ups and downs.

I've changed. I've grown.

I've become closer to friends and grew away from others. I've met new people and made new friends. I've feel like I've grown closer to my family.

I've learned so much. My perspective has changed. I've been challenged. I've been changed.

worrying doesn't get me anywhere because it's like a rocking chair...it gives you something to do but it doesn't get you anywhere.

Circumstances and storms have spun around me. I've worried about...everything. But found encouragement and freedom in the words of friends.

I look back and have to say...I don't have any regrets. Not really.

I try not to let things I can't change bother me.

There are things that happened - hey, it's life after all - that I wish didn't go down the way they did, but I'm all the stronger for it and wouldn't change it if I could.

I have no regrets.

Okay, I take that back. One regret. I wish I had worked harder on math. But that isn't quite the type of regret to which I was referring.

Basically, it is what it is. And I am thankful for it, all of it.

I spent a week on stage with some of my best friends. I was able to go to Fine Arts festival for the first time. Camp for the fourth time. I saw friends lives changed by the power and hope of God. I got to spend a week with my best friend at her grandparents. I learned how to drive. I turned seventeen.

Every moment, every tear, every laugh, every hug, sigh, photograph and scream of frustration was worth it. Sure I don't have a definitive reason why it was worth it right now, but someday I will.

And all in all, this year has come full circle. Sure everything changes, but that's just it; everything comes back around. Full circle. It changes, but it just as surely changes back and into something new. Maybe it only makes sense to me, but here's to 2012.

look at us
where we've been
see the view it's changin' changin'
look and see
how we've come
all the way around this time

on we live
on we fight
now it's all the way full circle
things have changed
and gone away
goin' back just to go forward

here we've been
and here we've come
its come around full circle

we can't go back
no inch no mile
it's past
we've come
full circle

this is it
here we are
the old is changed
to new again
time it flies
flies away
we've come around full circle

people come
and people go
hoping just for a tomorrow
it has come
it is here
yesterday, today, tomorrow

look at us
where we've been
see the world
it's changin' changin'
look and see
how we've come
all the way around this time

on we live
on we fight
now it's all the way
full circle

by me - written over the span of the year - unfinished