Sitting, a little tipsy on a fewe glasses of wine thinking about the year gone by and wondering about the year ahead. It’s been quite a year and I guess the next will be quite a year too. In some senses we could say that about any year I guess. Each year is packed full of ups and downs, ins and 
outs, goods and bads, triumphs and challenges.
Two thousand and fifteen has certainly been that for myself and family. Life goes on and it will continue to go on, that’s the way life is. Our job is in essence to keep on going day by day and make the best of what we are presented with.
There is always going to be a lot we can moan and complain about and there is always going to be a lot that we can celebrate and cheer about.
There is something about the turning of the year though, something that seems to strike a cord with us western humans, and gives us pause to reflect and consider. For many to make resolutions about the year ahead, fitness plans, giving up vices and such. Even though it is just a passing of another day we seem to ascribe a level of importance to it.
I myself realise how each year I reflect how it always, without fail, appears to fly by faster than the year before did. Time seems such a curious phenomenon, at times it seems a week is like a blink of an eye and at times like a month of Sundays. Yet we ascribe such potency to this single night of December 31.
Don’t get me wrong I believe this is a good thing. Not becuase of our tendancy to make crazy promise to ourselves that more often than not we simply are unable to keep. Not because there is any real physical significance to the particular moment of passing from one year to the next, but from that perspective that it provides an opportunity to stop and take stock, to pause and think, to allow our business to subside and our minds to think about what has been over the last twelve months and what may be over the next twelve.
I’m not making resolutions this year. I have done before and sometimes they have worked pretty well and other times not at all. That’s Okay, it really is. Sometimes things work and other times they don’t. That’s just the way life is.
I will do my very best to ensure that the year ahead is a good one. That I achieve as much success as possible, that I rise above the challenges as they present themselves. That I acknowlege there will be some failures and that I do my best to learn from them.
This year though, it really has been one out of the box. It marks the year I truly accepted that I am autistic, and that that’s ok. Not only that it is the year I came out publicly as an autistic man, a proud autistic man. It is the year I discovered my autistic tribe and community. It is the year I discovered self-advocacy and what that means.
Along with these moments came the first time I was able to accept that I am indeed a capable writer. That I am able to contribute through my written words. For the first time I had my written work published by other 
websites. It was a thrill and a moment of pride for me.
Along with this cam moments of challenge. It has been a difficult year in other ways. A difficult year in my personal relationships. Challenges that continue but make me stronger.
If this next year has even a fraction of the greatness of this year it will be a great year again.
I wish you all, my readers, a happy and successful 2016, may it be full of achievements, challenges and opportunity.
