Jennifer Plesko

A few days ago, we didn’t just start a new year - we started a new decade. That really snuck up on me because the last decade started off with so much anticipation and fanfare and even fear. This one started off with a whimper.

So much has happened in the last ten years of my life. When 2000 rolled in, I was a 20-year-old college sophomore, had just started dating hubby and was completely head over heels. We were spending New Year’s Eve with a few of his coworkers watching “Whose Line is it Anyway?” and waiting to see if all the electronics would explode when the clock struck midnight. When 2010 rolled in, I was a 30-year-old content editor facing the reality that my longest relationship was coming to an end. I was spending New Year’s Eve curled up on the couch with my dogs at my parents’ house as we watched “What’s Up Doc?” The clock struck midnight, and I wished my dad a happy 61st birthday.

What that 20-year-old didn’t know that this 30-year-old does is that you can live your life to the best of your ability, you can do all the right things, you can pray all the right prayers - but storms are still going to come. There will always be things beyond your control. I used to think if I was good enough, God wouldn’t let anything bad happen to me. But nothing could be further from the truth. And, I can honestly say I’m grateful for that.

I lived a life of candy canes and roses for a long time. But until I faced years of trials and tribulations and outright emotional exhaustion, I didn’t learn what it really means to have faith. How do you know how good the peaks are until you’ve had some serious valleys? How can you know what it’s like to be truly thankful for everything you have unless everything has been taken away from you? How can you learn how to truly love someone if there’s never any reason for you not to?

I’m not going to lie and say that these trying years haven’t given me hurt and disappointment that I’ll have to overcome. But I’m aware that it’s something I can overcome.

I am going into this new decade with the knowledge that there is little about the future that I can control, but I can control how I respond to it. And as long as I respond the way I should, I can still find joy no matter what the situation.