I started 2018 basically fleeing Nepal (after our Everest trek), thankful to get my daughter out in one piece, and facing this fact: Man, I am capable of making some pretty dumb choices.
’Nuff said.
Professionally, 2018 was a huge year. I wrote 8 books, released 7. Four of those releases were with a traditional publishing company. The other three were through a publishing company I started because I realized I could make a lot more money doing it myself.
Of course, at the time I didn’t realize how all-consuming and exhausting working for yourself is. My boss is a b*tch who makes me work 80-hour weeks, nights, weekends and holidays.
2018 saw all my kids in high school, and one graduating. I still have four teenagers, and it’s amazing how even the one who who lives across the ocean still needs money and chats at midnight. And memes. All the memes.
2018 allowed me to celebrate milestone birthdays with two of my most favorite ladies, on two different continents. And to get into scores of trouble in all these countries: England United States(3x) Austria Greece Norway (saw the Northern Lights!) Spain (2x)
But also in 2018: I poignantly felt the loss of one of my best friends from college the same year I sent my first child off to college. Nearly everything about that circle of life gutted me.
So, as always, there was both good and bad this year. Things I can’t remember, things I don’t want to remember, and things I never want to forget.
I end 2018 in some ways a little similar to how I started: fleeing some of my own dumb choices, thankful, and in one piece.
Here’s to 2019 and all it holds for all of us.