Reflecting on 2008

Over the past couple weeks, I've been doing some reflecting on the past year. Although there were times when it felt like the days of 2008 were dragging by at a snail's pace, I'm having a hard time believing how quickly the year passed.

2008 was certainly a year that was full of difficult challenges and incredible stress. I will not deny that for a second. I don't know that I have ever had a year in which I have spent so much time stressing and worrying about work, injustice, family, relationships, poverty, my future, faith, etc. etc. etc. It was not an easy year.

But it was not a bad year by any stretch of the imagination. Although 2008 had its difficulties, it was also a year filled with good times, with great fun, with amazing adventure, with incredible friendships, with tons of ridiculousness and laughter, with unbelievable experiences, with an abundance of travel and with just enough hope for the future. This year I was blessed to be able to visit, experience and get to know some of the most incredible places, sites and things in the world. And I was able to do so with some of the most incredible people I know. Here's a brief recap:

I celebrated the arrival of 2008 at a Clemson football game. I wandered the streets of Amsterdam at daybreak. I paddled a dugout canoe across Lake Bunyoni in southern Uganda. I experienced my first earthquake on the shores of Lake Kivu in Kibuye, Rwanda. I went on safari and saw some of the most beautiful landscapes and incredible animals I've ever seen in Tanzania. I visited the endangered mountain gorillas on the volcanoes of northwest Rwanda. I camped in the middle of a Rwandan national park. I mourned the anniversary of the 1994 genocide alongside the entire population of Rwanda. I made matzoh and celebrated my first Passover Seder. I celebrated my birthday in typical Mexican style (quite a feat in the middle of Rwanda!). I spent three months living and working in Zambia. I was soaked by the spray from Victoria Falls. I flew in a microlight aircraft over the Zambezi river. I set foot in Zimbabwe. I rode an elephant. I was reminded that southern Africa is home to the most incredible sunsets in the world. I held wild chimpanzees. I had my first abstract accepted to an international conference. I attended an international film festival. I relaxed on the white sands and snorkled in the blue waters of Zanzibar. I climbed an active volcano during a pause in the guerilla war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I experienced a hurricane in Houston, Texas. I spoke to high school students in South Carolina about Rwanda and about genocide. I moved to Egypt to work for the U.S. Navy. I rode a camel across the Sinai penninsula to camp on the shore of the Red Sea. I traveled to a tiny country most people have never heard of called Djibouti. I floated in the Dead Sea and waded in the Sea of Galilee. I visited some of the most important sites of early Christianity. I celebrated my first Christmas away from home.

By no means do I say these things to be a braggart. Even though I've thought through the things on this list over and over and over again, I am still in complete awe that I was able to do even one of those things, let alone all of them. I had no idea what the year would hold at this time last year.

It leaves me wondering what incredible adventures lie ahead in 2009.