As I sit here winding down 2024, I realize that it wasn’t the worst year. Granted, our bar is pretty high when it comes to having a bad year. I really don’t know that I will ever be able to even consider what it would take to make a year worse than 2022.

At any rate, 2024 was a year of endings and beginnings. When I think back to last year, on this very date, A and I were duking it out over college applications and last-minute edits to essays. It was an awful, stressful process that I was both grateful to have over, and sick to my stomach as we started the waiting game. Gradually they started to come in, a few expected acceptances, a few frustrating waitlists, but we knew we wouldn’t hear back from the big ones until the end of March.

Or so we thought. Miraculously, his dream school sent a surprise acceptance letter in February, and just like that, the years and years of hard work, the sacrifices, the tough decisions, all paid off. To see the change in him, from the stressed out, exhausted senior, to the enthusiastic, confident soon to be freshman, was one of the most memorable parenting moments I’ve ever had.

Watching him finish his high school career relatively carefree and relaxed, knowing that he’d accomplished everything he’d hope to do, was probably the happiest that our family has managed to be since we lost Steve. Of course, all of it was bittersweet, but knowing how proud Steve would have been made it bearable. Dropping A off at college was another major milestone for both of us, but he continued to work toward his future and had a good first semester. He is looking forward to getting into more in-depth classes and continuing to get involved in campus activities.

A’s graduation gave us the chance to have a large family and friends get-together for a happy reason. Just seeing so many of our friends and family, and so many of the people who have helped my kids in so many ways over the years, was a truly uplifting experience and one of my few resolutions is to not wait for the “big” events to get together with those people in the future.

Preparing for the get-together led to another happy occurrence in 2024. G discovered that he enjoyed working in the backyard, finishing a landscaping project that Steve had started and enhancing most of our outdoor living space. From planting perennials that will attract pollinators for years to come, to hanging twinkle lights all around our outdoor living space, G worked his tail off, and at the end of summer, had a lovely project to show for it. Even now, the solar lights that he placed glow brilliantly through the snow, or dimly through the fog we’ve been having recently.

G and I worked together on this project, as well as pulling in E and A to help a little bit. Between that time and the time we spend working on his driver’s license training, I feel like G and I finally broke through the barriers that we may have always had, as he’s always been much more like Steve and gravitated toward the activities Steve enjoyed, rather than my hobbies and interests. Finding common ground and working together has been good for both of us.

Although G is very similar to A in many ways, for example, they both excel in leadership positions, his methods are very different. Although I can’t say that he ever took a back seat to A while they were both in high school and on sports teams together, he has certainly stepped out from any shadow A may have cast and has really found his footing this year. Part of it is that he’s realizing that college is right around the corner, but I think part of it is also that now is his time to step forward and take up the reins.

And finally, E. This year we put the dreaded middle school behind us. None of us were sorry to see those years be over. Middle school is tough enough, but a pandemic and losing her father had made it extra unpleasant for her. She was a little bit nervous about the high school, especially now that A had moved on, but she was also ready for a fresh start.

She tried new things, taking up tennis, which she really enjoyed and has improved at greatly. She joined new clubs and made a lot of new friends. She also had the opportunity to join a new swim team. It has been exactly what she needed to focus her energies, and she’s having a terrific freshman swim season already. We’ve also started doing travel swim meets again, which gives the two of us some quality time on the road. We haven’t done these together since before the pandemic, so it takes us back to happier times which is good for both of us.

I am leery of this feeling of accomplishment. It reminds me all too well how I felt at the close of 2021. We had finally started to settle in after our move to the farmhouse. The pandemic was finally starting to end and we were getting back to “normal.” I had great expectations for continued progress in 2022, and within days, our world turned upside down. So, I can’t say that I feel a particular happiness or satisfaction, but I feel like I have to let us take a little bit of a deep breath and appreciate that we overcame some major obstacles and did, in fact, kick a little bit of butt in 2024.

A friend gave me bayberry candles to burn as the year comes to a close and the new arrives. I don’t believe in superstition, but I figure it can’t hurt. Also, I’m a sucker for any kind of candle. This year, we will start another senior year. I will have another battle on my hands as we start another round of college applications. I don’t have to teach anyone to drive, so that’s a positive! I am hoping for, at best, a calm and quiet year. Nothing major has to happen at all.

If I can arrive at 2026 maintaining the status quo, I will be very content. I hope the same for you and your family as you begin a new year.

Liz Pinkey’s column appears on Saturdays in the Times News