Word(s) of the Year 2019

I am a word addict.

I spend an immense amount of time thinking about words. I choose a word or phrase each new year to tie my hopes to. I spend a large amount of time around New Year’s reflecting on the previous year and set hopes and goals for the future. Grit and grace defined 2018. They became my mantra. There were a myriad of situations that required me to demonstrate both grit and grace. They were well chosen words. And they remain on my wall as a reminder of the goodness, the striving, and the struggles that are always a part of the story!

I loved my words for 2018, and wanted 2019 to live up to the same awesomeness. I made a list of over fifty options and began to prioritize. I though one word had a good sound; it was fun to say. Another option had a secondary connotation that was lovely. A third would be easy to find on a t shirt (as I buy a reminder of my year, this actually was part of the decision!)

But I still couldn’t decide. There were just so many good options. So I decided to break the rules… and choose two.

Words of the Year 2019 (drumroll please)

Gumption

and Defiant Joy

Gumption is defined as the ability to decide what is the best thing to do in a particular situation, and to do it with energy and determination. 

I loved the idea of doing something with energy, vigor, perseverance and determination. There is a light at the end of my doctoral school tunnel, but it will take gumption to get through it. Gumption means working with integrity, doing what is right, and doing it whether you get recognition or praise for your work or not. I want to be a lady with gumption.

Defiant Joy has been a meaningful phrase for some time. There are an immense variety of irritants in life. We cannot escape from them, but we can choose what to do when they inevitably arise. I want to make pearls. I want to be an oyster. And when sand gets into the tender spaces between my shells, I want to spit on it and make a pearl! I hope to take all the irritants that come by way, smooth them out and make something beautiful. I chose defiant joy, because “the year of oyster mucus” just doesn’t have the same ring to it. I bought myself a pearl necklace to commemorate this hope for myself. I pray for defiant joy in 2019. Defiant joy is not dictated by situations, it rises above, eye on the prize. Defiant Joy has gumption 🙂

2019, here we go!