The year 2015 proved to be a memorable both for me personally and people around the world. Last year my family and I spent New Years in Madrid where the tradition is to eat a grape for each of the twelve chimes of the bell marking midnight and the New Year.

Standing there eating my grapes and counting the chimes of the bell I could not have predicted how 2015 would go.

It was a year of change in my life as I wrapped up my stint teaching in Spain and returned home to search for a job, a search that eventually led me to Bainbridge and The Post-Searchlight.

My sister and best friend moved to Indiana to pursue a job working with Autistic Children as a Board Certified Behavior Analyst.

My family welcomed a new member as my cousin (on my Dad’s side) and her husband had their first child, a little boy, at the end of July.

We also lost a very important member of our family as my Dad’s mom passed away in June while my sister and I were in Paris. Her adult beverage of choice was a Heineken so my sister and I found one and we toasted her under the lights of the Eiffel Tower.

Then just a few months after we returned to the states the news broke that there had been attacks in Paris. Then the attack in San Bernardino happened. It was a year of turmoil, but also a year of great hope. Pope Francis visited the United States and Cuba after brokering a new relationship between the countries.

From the highs to the lows 2015 was a year of change and memorable moments.

The New Year brings new opportunities and changes. We will elect a new president in November. Maybe we will have the first female president or we might have a bombastic real-estate mogul seated in the oval office. Whoever it is will have his/her work cut for them as they deal with enemies foreign and domestic, continue to help the economy to recover.

As I settle in here in Bainbridge I can’t wait to see what 2016 has to offer.