My One Word for 2018

On New Year's Day, I go out of my way to do two specific things in the middle of all the revelry with the people I love. First, I think about the year that's just ended - the memories I've made, the lessons I've learned and the people who were central to my experiences. It's a nice way to take the time to appreciate what's gone on in the year past, and to see how far I've come from its beginning to its end. (P.S. If you're interested in the specifics of my year, you can check out the recap!) But I'm digressing from the real topic of this post, and it's the second activity I take the time to do on New Year's Day: thinking about the word or phrase that will define the year to come.

Even though it doesn't always happen this way, I can't help but find it amazing how the word I've chosen for this year simply popped into my mind one day and wouldn't leave me alone. It's one of those random coincidences that life throws your way, and I live for moments like that. But again, I digress, and clearly, I'm just building up the anticipation as to what my word for 2018 is (though anyone who follows me on Instagram will already know what I picked out).

It's fitting that I'm writing about my word choice, because it is part and parcel of what that word currently means to me and what it means for my year. Capture has multiple definitions, but the one that is particularly applicable is, quoting the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, "the act of recording in a permanent file". 

I've always been sentimental, and I've always recorded memories in a whole slew of journals and diaries and planners over the years in a tangible way. Why? Because memories have power. They remind you of good times when you're feeling down, encourage you to keep pressing on when you see how far you've come, reminds you of the lessons you've learned over the years, if just to name a few. I've always been pretty great at capturing my memories, so you might be wondering why I still chose capture as my word for the year.

It occurred to me that, apart from simply writing down the specifics of my day-to-day, there are other ways to capture moments and feelings, other mediums to explore... and I wanted to do that. It also occurred to me that capture has another meaning, also from Merriam-Webster, and it's "an act of catching, winning or gaining control by force, stratagem or guile" and it made me think of the way I wanted to gain control over certain areas in my life. I chose the word capture with these specific thoughts in mind:

• Capture the moments... with words, with photos, with music, with videos. I love my daily journal, and I'll continue to do that through the year, but I want to explore the other mediums as well since I don't really indulge in any of them quite as often! It would also be really cool to be able to scrapbook my year, but I'm not entirely sure how that would work...
• Capture the ideas... with stories.  If you're one of my people, also known as a writer, you'll understand when I tell you that I'm always coming up with ideas but finding it hard to stick to one and actually finish an entire piece of fiction. 2017 actually marked the first time I was able to finish something, and it encouraged me to set my goals a little higher for 2018.
• Capture the skills... with practice. There are two practical skills that I want to be in control of this year: 1) driving (I know how to, mind you, but it's been years and I'm sure I'm rusty), and 2) budgeting (I'm terrible at adulting, but I already started working on this and its oddly satisfying?). 

These were the three main things on my mind when capture slotted itself as my word for the year, and I'm hoping I can manage to "live my word". While I generally find that my word always morphs as the year goes on, gaining depth and meaning with every day that passes by, I'm going to stick to my guns... and hopefully, manage to make it happen to the best of my ability. So here's to me being able to capture my year in all the ways that I'm hoping to and more! And here's to you, with the fervent hope that you have an amazing 2018 ahead of you no matter what's in store <3

(P.S. Might I encourage you to hop on over to my little sister Rachel's blog where she talks about the word she chose to encapsulate her 2018? We came up with the idea of doing our posts on the same day in our first mini-collab, and her word choice is a really good one too.)