Another year has passed, and all I can say is…2015 was a bitch. It was a bumpy ride, literally and metaphorically. But when I look back and reflect on how my year went, I managed through it. You might’ve had worse or you may think it was nothing for me, but we all have different experiences in life that makes you stronger in the long run. Two of my loved ones got the bumpy ride as well. One battled, but one lost. As for me, I battled and also had bumps along the way, but I went into fifth gear and rode it out.

I was on my way home from Cancun making a connecting flight in Texas. I received a text message from my sister after passing through customs asking me when I was returning and to call her as soon as possible. When I spoke to her she told me her lymph node came back while vacationing. She lost her voice with a fever while her and her family was out celebrating the long Memorial Day Weekend. After a couple of biopsies and tests, they found a bump and said it needed to be removed. When I got off the phone with her, I was letting my heart out. Tears of pain and confusion occurred and people at the waiting area at the gate were asking me questions of comfort while I was waiting to board my flight back to Los Angeles. Even the Flight crew comforted me giving me alcohol, water anything to make me feel better, but I kept it all in. I didn’t know how to respond to people after a great getaway which ended my trip finding out about my sisters condition. Five years ago the same situation occurred and the pain she had to go through effected my family and didn’t want to see her go through this again. Doctors appointments and another surgery date was scheduled for mid summer, July to be exact.

I had planned on going on another vacation, a getaway the same time my sister was scheduled to get her lump removed. That bump needed to go. Prior to Cancun, I knew when I returned I would have to get with a friend of mine who planned this trip to Miami. I go to Miami maybe twice a year. I love that city, that is pretty much my second home. But at this point, what am I supposed to do? What would you do? Should I go to my sister and be with her while she gets her lymph node removed, or do I still enjoy my time in Miami? What is the smart thing to do? Ideally I would love to go to Miami. Coming back from Cancun, and going to Miami once or twice a year, it’s the obvious. My friend sent me a text asking if we can plan and go over trip details for Miami. But when I told her I couldn’t because of my sisters condition she was upset. A day later she calls and yells at me over the phone saying “how rude and inconsiderate I was” for not communicating with the rest of the group and not giving everyone else a heads up. I’m sorry, what difference does it make? I’m not going into other details about that conversation and situation because it boils my blood. After I spoke with the rudeness over the phone, I felt like my sister and the rest of my family was disrespected just because she was more worried about the trip to Miami over my sisters condition. Why yell at me because I’m cancelling out on a trip I would’ve LOVED to go to. Her reasons? Ask the people that were my friends, the ones that do not talk to me anymore, because her side of the story was believable and brain washing. None of them had reached out heard my side of the story, or even wished my sister the best. The other thing, the ones I introduced her to listened to her, and did not bother to reach out to me. MY FRIENDS, not hers. After these peoples relationship breakups, difficult everyday life challenges that I was there for, they did not want to be considerate, reach out to me, be there for me when I needed someone for comfort when I was scared for my sister. Her selfishness got the best of her, and everyone that I thought who had my back fell for it. My trust was lost after the disloyalty of these so called friends of mine. This whole entire time I was aquatinted with them was all a fake, plastic, non existent, time wasted. The list goes on.

During this Christmas season, I found out my cousin was in a coma. They found a tumor in her brain. The surgery did not become successful. Apparently the Doctors who operated on her brain mistakenly did something wrong. It resulted in a coma. My cousin did not make it. Christmas night I received a call from my sister and aunt at work saying that my cousin passed away. I was at the work when I received the news trying to hold it all in. As I walked out of work, I was pouring my eyes out. I knew that my cousin had a bump in her brain, but did not know that she actually went into the whole surgical process until my cousin gave me a call. I thought about my sisters situation. If the surgery didn’t go well that first time around, who would have known what happened. I can’t live without my sister, let alone my own family. God had made the decision, and this was it.

There are a lot of bumps in this road and there are ways that you just need to figure out how to get rid of them. My sisters lymph node is still there. Luckily the week before she was scheduled to go to surgery, her results were looking positive and she needed to follow doctors orders to prevent it from getting worse. Unfortunately, for my cousin, she’s playing with the Angels. In life, we find bumps in the road, we either drive over them, or they’re in the way. For me, I’m still trying to get rid of the bumps and I’m currently eliminating them. I got rid of most of them. Those are the people that I’m losing trust in, but I stepped on the gas to get over it. It does suck that I lost these people that I thought were my friends, but they were never my friends to begin with. We all go through it.

That was 2015 for me. When I think about this year, I look ahead on how I want 2016 to be. I figured, let me just get through the year day by day. No New Years resolutions. The bumps that were in my way to begin with, I learned that I just have to fly by them. As a result in all this in 2015, I was able to travel more with not one thing to hold me down. Cancun, Madrid, Puerto Vallarta, Paris all in a couple of months. 60000 miles total travelled. And I checked off something big on my bucket list. Am I going to do the same thing in 2016? Probably. But like I said I’m taking it day by day. And if there any bumps in the way, get rid of it. How? You’ll know. I did.

I love you Ate. And to cousin Danelle, may you rest in peace. Play safe with the Angels. ❤