“And if not, He is still good.”

The title of this post is a little deceptive.  This post is dedicated to looking back on my 2014 year and putting on electronic paper some of my resolutions going into 2015, not a post about the goodness of God but I can’t look back at this past year and not stand in awe at the constant and consistent goodness of my Creator.  I’m a tad bit of a slacker as I didn’t write this New Year’s Eve but it’s whatevs–at least it’s January 1st.  But, this quote has become this year’s mantra.   And in reality, it should be my life’s mantra.

A Martin Family Christmas Picture courtesy of Logan Klinsky.

This year included my 19th birthday, travel to another country where English is not a thing (well, sort of, but not really), hanging out in LA, the start of my freshman year at UTC along with the gain of some seriously awesome, hopefully life-long friendships, and the removal of an organ.  Now I’ll give you a little detail into these life events.

First snow fall of 2014

19 years behind me: I was fortunate to get to spend my birthday with my family before I left until the end of May.  I thought I was going to leave before it and not get to spend it here in the States but the scheduling worked out well.  19’s not that significant of a birthday.  But it sure does make you think about how you’ve already been an adult for a year and this is your last year of teenager-dom.  Weird.  Good way to kick off 2014.

Baby Snow

To East Asia and Back: January 29 was the day that Atlanta shut itself down because of the snow and ice.  It was also the day I was supposed to fly from Nashville to Atlanta and then on to Korea.  Well, when a city shuts down, international travel is not going to be a thing.  So off I flew after a few minutes of panic from Nashville to JFK then on to Seoul.  Off to spend 113 days in a completely foreign country.  As scared as I was underneath all the excitement, I would not trade a single part of the entire trip for anything in this world.  As cliché as this sounds, I truly learned a lot about myself, which I think was significantly beneficial to my starting college and the “rest of my life.” The food I ate, was OUT OF THIS WORLD, Y’ALL! My tastebuds were spoiled for those 113 days and as much as I love food in general, nothing to date has compared to what I ate over there.  I’d spend thousands of dollars again to fly back and just eat.  But the people I met, they had some of the most interesting stories I’ve ever heard.  Being a foreigner, in a country that was foreign to me, was a weird experience.  Having my picture taken inconspicuously, and my hair touched all the time, and being shouted, “hey!” or “hello!” at was different for sure.  I came back to the US and my “celebrity” status vanished.  I’ve never been more thankful to be a nobody before.  My favorite part was tourists from other parts of the country would come vacation the city I lived in and take pictures of me, not the gorgeous ocean on the other side of the street.  I spent my weeks working in an international dental clinic becoming best friends with South African evangelists and students who got their PhD in France and now teach yoga.  The state of these peoples teeth, however, would probably scare your average person away from ever ever ever going into the dental field and scare them towards always flossing and brushing their teeth.  FLOSS YOUR TEETH PEOPLE, I CAN’T STRESS THIS ENOUGH!  I spent my days off babysitting a special needs baby who cried almost every second of every day but was still super sweet.  I’ve heard from the dad I lived with and he told me she has gotten a lot better from therapy and is doing wonderfully, now.  I’m so thankful for her life and how she touched my life.  I also helped out with a middle school PE class and taught a 4-7 grade English bible study.  I still kind of can’t believe this was all less than a year ago.

Santa Monica Pier

LA layover:  Flying back on May 24 and landing in the US an hour before I even left in the first place was trippy.  I had a 9 hour layover in LA and my aunt and my cousin Chris picked me up from the airport and after an important stop at In-N-Out, took me around LA: the Hollywood sign, Hollywood boulevard, and the Santa Monica pier.  They live in San Diego and I live in not California so I’m very thankful for the chance to get to see them in 2014.

Obligatory picture with Scrappy

OOGA BOOGA CHATTANOOGA: August was the month I started my first year at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.  If you’ve read any of my blog posts you know this was my last choice school but has turned into the absolute best decision I’ve made to date.  The people I’ve met are some of the best humans on this earth.  I’ve made some seriously cool friendships and hope they last me my lifetime.  I hit the jackpot when it comes to roommates and suite mates. (I almost spelled that “sweet-mates” by accident and could have justified it because the three of them are seriously sweet but oh well.  Jokes)  I ended my year with a 4.0 by the absolute grace of God and genuinely loved my French and Environmental Science classes.  College has reminded me how much I love to learn and when I’m paying thousands of dollars for it, I better love it.  [side note: my new favorite joke is: I’m not crying, I just have overpriced college education in my eye. ha. ha. It’s funny because it’s true]  College is my new favorite thing and I can’t wait to go back.

What do books have, that I don’t have?: An appendix.  (Credit to my friend Graham for that joke that I totally didn’t get the first time he told me the joke… I blame recovery drugs)  Well friends, 2 Saturdays before Thanksgiving, I ended up in the ER and after a CT scan was told my appendix needed to be removed.  That was a fun experience.  My friend Hannah is a superstar because she stayed with my in the hospital while I was sobbing in pain when the pain killers didn’t work at all, and then Ashley and Taylor are the best for taking time out of their Saturday to come visit me and try to get me to say something dumb while on Morphine.  These are those awesome friendships I’m talking about in the previous paragraph.  After going back to my dorm and starting the whole recovery thing, I figured out how bad of a patient I am.  I wasn’t allowed to lift anything over 10 pounds for 6 weeks and it frustrated me to no end.  I got asked on a daily basis how I was doing until the day I was “back to my old self” which I think means I was sarcastic again and couldn’t wait to get back to the gym.

2015 resolutions: I have 2.  I might be able to keep 2.  They’re not profound or spiritual or life changing but there things I have people available to keep me accountable for.  That includes anyone who reads this.  Yell at me y’all if you see me breaking these resolutions.

1.  No more than 1 Starbucks drink a week.  This may seem silly but I’m a Starbucks addict.  ADD-ICT.  I don’t even drink coffee but UTC just got a brand new library with our OWN STARBUCKS.  This is dangerous.  So for the sake of my overall health, I’m going to try my hardest to only have one drink a week.  Wish me some serious luck.

2.  Hit that gym every single day.  Most people make a resolution to go to the gym more, or start working out each new year.  I already work out regularly, but I’m going to try to make it to 2016 having gone to the gym every day, or at least done some kind of work out every day.  It’s going to be hard, but I need my abs back after getting my abdomen cut into.  Spring break ’15 here I come.

Christmas 2014 in Tuscaloosa

I have left my appendix in 2014 along with the memories of a lifetime.  Sorry, appendix, we had a good 19 years and 11 months.  Too bad you couldn’t stay to see 2015, but buh bye.  Through these past 365 days, God has still been good.  I’ve had plans go so opposite from what I wanted and in most cases, they’ve been true blessings and I can’t imagine my life going any other way.  But my life being, “good” has no effect whatsoever on the goodness of my Lord and Savior and praise Jesus Hallelujah for that.  That’s one lesson I’m taking from 2014 and bringing with me into 2015.

Here’s to you, 2014, you were great.  Probably the best year to date.  And here’s to you 2015!  Here’s hoping you’ll be even better but if not, God is still good.

Cheers,

M

P to the S: If you want to read about my East Asia adventures, leave your email address in the comments (or text/FB me) and I’ll send you an email to view the private blog, you just have to create a username and password if you aren’t a member of WordPress.com already.