Thank You for 2014

Here's the word from home base about the past 365 days:

2014 is almost over and the emerging consensus is clear:  it was a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad year.  Disappearing airplanes, Ebola outbreaks, the emergence of the Islamic State, the self-induced deaths of (among others) Robin Williams and Philip Seymour Hoffman, the police-induced deaths of (among others) Michael Brown and Eric Garner, real median incomes lower than they were 15 years ago…the only thing more depressing than that list is how quick and easy it was to make.

But I'd like to make it clear that I am not a part of the "emerging consensus." If I had one song to sing about 2014 it would be this one (I know my church family knows how this one goes):

I just want

To take a little time right now and thank you, Lord

For all you´ve done for me

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

A year is a tough thing to judge and review. It's a really long time. So much happens in a year, much of it good, and much of it bad. But despite the difficulty of generalizing a whole year, I can say with confidence that 2014 was the best year I've had in a long time. Definitely the best of the past 5 years, and probably better than the 2 years that came before that.

Why did I like 2014 so much? A couple reasons:

1. I got out of college! - If you know me (and if you´re reading my blog you probably do), you know that expensive four year hobby (to quote a wise cousin of mine) that is the traditional post high-school activity for many US American students (especially the middle class ones) was highly unenjoyable for me. I'm not going to waste space or emotions railing against undergraduate education in general and Brandeis in particular. Instead I am celebrating that this year included the wonderfully freeing moment on the morning of May 18 when President FML used the power invested in him by the board of trustees (invested in them by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts) to pronounce my classmates and I graduates of the university. I can remember clearly the smile that crossed my face as I thought the two beautiful words "It´s over." 
2. Fornax - Freed from the tediousness of college life, I had the time to throw myself into what I loved best about the college years. From May 19 for most of the rest of the year I worked as many shifts at Fornax Bread Company as I could. At Fornax I was surrounded by a family of co-workers, and led by two of the best bosses in the city. I learned skills that I have put to use as recently as yesterday (when I made bread to go with our New Year's Eve dinner). I had the honor of making the daily bread for the people of my neighborhood. I had the satisfaction of meaningful work. Over the past four years, I grew up at Fornax. When I entered college, I thought of myself as boy. After college, I think of myself as a (young) man. But it wasn't the campus in Waltham where that change took place, it was the bakery in Roslindale. 
3. I found something to do for the next 2 years - Not everyone is lucky enough to have a post-college opportunity lined up before they graduate. But, thanks in large part to the insistence of a dear friend, I applied to JVC an opportunity that will push me to keep growing.
4. I moved back to Peru - I don't plan to live here forever. I don't plan to come back with a Peruvian wife, whatever jokes I may make with my friends. But in July of 2013, when I had just returned from studying in Lima, I felt a pull to come back to Latin America, to come back to Peru. This place has more to teach me, so it called me back. And now, here I am at the start of a new year and a new life. 
5. Certainty - I miss my home. Boston is a wonderful place and it holds almost all of my favorite people. But I know that this is where I´m supposed to be right now. I haven't felt so sure of something in a very long time, maybe ever. A little over a year ago, while we walked the hills of Roslindale and West Roxbury in the wee hours of the morning, my best friend and I discussed the state of our lives. We used the metaphor of a meal setting. At the time my place setting was all sides. Some of them were wonderful (like Fornax), and some of them were terrible (a certain class that bored me to tears). But there was no main course, no focus to the meal. But now, I have a main course, a focus to my meal. And I've still got sides. I know this is the right place to be because I am living in spiritual and emotional abundance. 

So that was my 2014. There's more to it, but those are the biggest bests of the years. It's why, despite the year 2014 according to Grantland, I look back on the past 12 months and, seeing that She's been so good, I can sing:

Thank you, Lord

Thank you, Lord

Thank you, Lo-o-ord

I just want to thank you, Lord