2015 has been an interesting year.

This is the of the most drastic roller-coaster years I’ve had so far- the ups and downs of it were so intense that sometimes I ended up with a little whiplash. 

In one of my previous posts, I mentioned that in a few weeks, I’ll be going on sixteen years old. I always imagined that I’d have so many things done and ongoing by sixteen, I thought I would be sure of my direction in life. At this point, I don’t know if I could be any more unsure. (My friend Sabrina said it best.)

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in 2015, it’s that a lot can happen in a year. A lot. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to use that to my benefit as the new year comes and goes.

Last year, I had one primary goal for this blog:

I want to be more honest with my writing, I want to work more on really finding my voice, and I think I want to try to write more for myself.  – last year’s wrap-up

Looking back on the material that I’ve put out this year, I think I’m slowly starting to make progress in that direction. I’d say that’s a pretty good sign. I’ve created things that I’m happy with, things that I look back on and stay happy with (mostly… sort of). I finally updated my about page to be more relevant to my life today.

But somehow I still feel like I’m holding back. Maybe I need to define honesty a little better for myself?

This year, I’ve also found that I really enjoy writing shorts and doing free-writes (I even made myself a prompt jar for my desk the other day). As the year is wrapping up, I’ve been addicted to writing that series that you might have seen on here, Letters to No One. (Shoutout to Natalie and her friends for inspiring/writing portions/putting up with my weird experimentation with the idea.) I’ve found that I really like writing in the format of letters, and I think I want to see if I can come up with something good out of this idea. Who knows where that will go, but depending on how I feel in the next few days, it may or may not be a reoccurring thing on this blog.

In 2015, I created art, wrote stories, traveled to India, discovered new materials, and even went to a recording studio.

It was a pretty eventful year, and even though I’m a little nervous going forward, I’m excited to wipe the slate clean. I am not going to hide anything in 2016. I am not going to hold back in 2016. I am going to do everything possible to make this my year.

See you in ’16, guys.

Love,

Arya

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Some favorite posts of 2015:

When You Spend 24 Hours On A Bus In India

On Perspectives + Biology Class

Words Of Advice From My Eleventh Grade English Teacher

Coyotes can’t take the heat

New Voices: Recollections from my Mexican-American Youth

Dear October

Welcome, December.

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