Dear 2014,

You’re on your way out, and we here at Speed4Sarah would just like to say thanks for the memories. You were the year we got our first wheelchair, and rode it at top speeds until the battery died; the year we moved into a new house; the year we got a better wheelchair with a stronger battery, and rode it into all of the walls; the year of the Ice Bucket Challenge. Evidently, you are also the year in which we started referring to ourselves in the third person.

You are the year our daughter started her final year of preschool, the year our niece got married, the year our brother-in-law lifted us into a Ferris Wheel and we rode to the top, looked across the sky and thought we are nothing without the people who love us. Then our daughter started rocking the car back and forth, and we were like, who brought this kid?

You are the year we started this website and began sharing our experiences with the world, even though it scared us. You are the year we raised over 100K for ALS. You are the year we traveled to Boston to meet some friends who are on the same ride we’re on, and the year we joined a study that we hope will one day change the trajectory of this disease.

2014, you brought excitement, novelty, and even clarity. But now it’s time to welcome 2015, and we have some resolutions for the new year to share here:

Laugh every day. Even if this means laughing and pointing at whatever our husband is wearing that day. Actually, scratch that. Our husband is pretty fashionable and doesn’t particularly care about our opinions, anyway.

Find something to laugh at our husband about. Maybe something age related.

Drink less. But just, like, a little bit less. On Mondays.

Acquire a new skill. We are losing a lot of our skills, so it’s time to step up our game in other areas. This will be the year we master the Italian language. We’re not bragging or anything, but this will probably be the year we learn how to read minds. Maybe we’ll become a song writer. The options, while not limitless, at least include those three possibilities.

Tell our MVPs that we love them. Do this liberally.  

Turn 37. It’s good to have goals. We would really like to be 40 one day. One day at a time, one year at a time.

Win the battle of our daughter’s 5th birthday party. Wherein we want to have a big party with all of her friends, and our husband wants to take her skiing in Lake Tahoe because he thinks that will be less expensive. Whether he is right or not is beside the point.

Go easy on ourselves and on others. Let’s assume everyone is doing their best. In the words of the late philosopher Easy E, “You be good to me, I’ll be good to you, and we’ll both ride home in my automobile.” We realize we are co-opting his lyrics to make a point quite different from the one he was making. We are ok with that.

So there you have it, 2014. We are entering our 5th year with ALS, and we are feeling resolved. We know there are many things in our lives—moments, abilities, that black bra we can’t find—that we’ll never get back, but we’re ready for what’s up next. Simply put, there is so much to look forward to.

Including returning to first person narrative.

Love,
Me

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