Farewell, 2015

2015, I'm kinda glad to see you go.  But as with your previous counterparts, you taught me a lot this year.  You showed me how strong I was, and then later on, you showed me how not so strong I was. 

The end of February, you showed me that I could be stronger than I ever thought I could be when The Old Man had his emergency quadruple by-pass surgery.  I knew I had it in me down deep, but you showed me how truly strong I was.  On that night in the emergency room, I truly felt all alone - my best friend in the world was 500 miles away on a business trip, and my two cousins who are like brother and sister were in California and Alabama.  So it was up to me.  And thanks to my upbringing and the good Lord, I exhibited some super-hero type strength dealing with everything.  

Then later on in the late fall, you showed me that it was OK not to be all that strong.  During some very tough times at work, you showed me that I wasn't made of metal.  You also gave me an annoying recurring case of the hives, but I'm working on getting rid of that along with a lot of stress. 

I can't honestly say I'm sorry to see you go, 2015, because it was a pretty rough year all in all, but thanks for teaching me some things while you were here.