Jeremy C Kester

It is the last day in 2017 and the first day my family and I are back in Illinois. For Christmas we had traveled to see our families back in Philadelphia, where we are from. We drove, which after yesterday’s travels of snow through the mountains of Pennsylvania and then white-out conditions through Ohio, was a asinine decision. But we made it back safe into 10∘F (-12.2∘C) temperatures here in Chicago, just in time for New Years.

I’ve spent most of the morning sleeping, then helping with laundry and shovelling out our house of the snow that landed between Christmas and yesterday here. But now it is back to business. Writing business that is.

New Years is always an interesting time for me. It is only days prior to my birthday, so even though I protest the whole ‘resolutions’ thing, I tend to find myself debating on how I am going to make the new year better than the last. It means focusing on the failures rather than the triumphs. And why would I do a thing like that?

Before I became ever so slightly wiser than I was when I was younger, I used to reflect on my failures much like others do, to poo-poo on myself. Now I choose to look at them to see what I can learn from them. Granted, I still poo-poo on myself to some degree (like I said, only slightly wiser). But as I learn, I realize that the failures become a far greater learning tool than any success.

If I look back at 2017, that is its greatest lesson for me. Learning to look at failing as an avenue to better learning and towards improving. So here’s to failing! And may 2018 be full of them!