Decade Challenge 1/10

I've decided to do this by school year, rather than calendar year... As I've been thinking about the last 10 years, I've realized it's easier to think about them in terms of grade/age. Memories are more prominent to me that way. Plus as I've thought about them all, there haven't really been any completely terrible years that went January to January.

Overall, I guess the "worst" year would have been 2005-2006. 

I was 15. A sophomore in high school.

That was the year that I thought my life was over. 

That was the year of the move from Utah to Arizona. 

Now, in retrospect, it was the best thing that could have happened. As the years went on, I saw how much I needed it. But little 15-year-old me didn't think so. 

I had been at what I then thought was the perfect point in my life. I had my friends, choir, everything. 

I was less than thrilled when we left.

That was the longest school year of my life.
I moved in to groups of friends that had been established for years. 

Though the walls opened up eventually, it took time to find my way in. 

I was new to a place that was familiar and comfortable to everyone else. 

I was in a land where Christmas wasn't white. It was 65 degrees.

I was away from everyone and everything I had ever known.
I was 15 and good at it. 

I was miserable. 

However, by the next August, things had changed...

People came into my life who helped me realize it would all be ok. 

They helped me reflect on the year and realize the good that had come from it.
I hope these people realize how important they are to me.

I started to find myself among people who I knew cared and were there for me.
I spent some time with some of those people tonight. 

I have been working on this post in my head for most of the day, so it was interesting to watch my friends from that perspective. The relationship I have with all of them has changed so much over the last five years. Each of them had a part in making me the person I am today. 

So going at this in the "at the time" view of things, 2005-2006 was definitely the worst of the last 10 years. However, I learned a lot and I know for a fact I wouldn't be the Megan I am today if I hadn't experienced that year. 

And Faf, you were right. This whole thing is emotionally exhausting... I was going to try and do two years tonight... Nope. It's bedtime.