Alexander Hamilton would have been 260 years old today, and I can't help but wonder what he would think about the hit Broadway musical that now carries on his legacy.
What is a legacy?
I've come a long way in the last year, and I've learned so much about who I am and who I hope to be. I can only ever hope that each year that follows is as full of adventure, growth and love as 2016 was.
It's planting seeds in a garden you never get to see...
I am brave, true, and resolute. These three things I have learned are certain. And yes, I have known that I was brave on some level, and even loyal. Resolute was new to me, but it's just as a part of me as the rest. It took moving half way across the country, 1200 miles from my friends and my family and my home to make me realize that I am stronger than I ever could imagine.
At the beginning of 2016, I spent six months working at Walt Disney World and while there I met a handful of people who challenged my soul and who affirmed my importance. Nothing quite tests your inner strength more than removing yourself from your safety net and just jumping, but nothing gives you more freedom, either. I was immensely homesick, and then I learned how to love deeply and find happiness within myself. The friends, now family, I met while in Florida will forever play a part in the story of my life.
Raise a glass to freedom, something they can never take away...
Returning home, I was worried that I was going to leave my happiness in Florida. That the small shell of a girl who lost her first true love would be the only thing I found upon my arrival back in Iowa. But something happens inside a person when they experience freedom, real spiritual freedom. I have long since removed myself from the church in any traditional sense, but I have always known that something bigger than myself existed in the universe. I realized that the universe was calling to me, so not only did I find freedom from the home I had know and also professional freedom, but I know that I found spiritual freedom in my experience at Disney. Home has been a challenge; it feels kind of like trying to force a puzzle piece into the wrong spot. I have experienced freedom, and no one can take that away. Trying to re-cage my soul is not going to work. And so instead of forcing the puzzle piece to fit somewhere it doesn't belong, I've decided that I need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. This year is going to be about discovery and healing. Every year from here on out will be for me, every moment will be lived in search of finding happiness, contentment, and freedom.
Life doesn't discriminate between the sinners and the saints...
So that brings us back to Hamilton, and the influence the musical and the man has had on my life in the months since I've been home. Alexander Hamilton was non-stop, he refused to sit back and let the world pass him by. He knew what he wanted and he took it. So this year as I learn to find my purpose and my place in this big universe, I'm going to challenge my inner Hamilton. I'm going to learn as much as I can, I'm going to take what I can get, and I'm going to work for what I don't have. I'm going to keep my head up and take each moment as it comes. Alexander faced some pretty tough times, granted some he brought upon himself, but nevertheless he came out on the other side.
In my search for freedom and happiness, I am looking to the world around me for signs. I firmly believe everything happens for a reason, and I believe that some things are just too much to be a coincidence. After struggling through the last two weeks of December, on the first of the year I found a ten dollar bill in my till at work that had the words "one day at a time," written on it. To me, it was a clear sign; maybe one from the universe, maybe one from the founding father himself. Either way, my new mantra.
So goodbye to 2016, and all that you taught me, and hello to 2017 and all that you have yet to show me. Let me remember my worth, and my happiness, and my freedom.
One day at a time.
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