Last year on a whim, I downloaded the 1 Second Everyday video app. The concept is that you do a video a day and pull one second from each to compile a video snapshot of the entire year. At the end of the year, you have a video that’s a few minutes long and showcases a little bit of your life from each day of the past year. How wonderful!

I will say upfront, I am usually terrible at sticking with something that has to be done every single day. I forget. I get tired of it. I get behind and then quit altogether. Something like this is most definitely not the type of thing I’d say I’m good at. However, I finished the year with only missing ONE DAY from my video. Just one day! Not only am I thrilled to have this documentation of such a big year, I’m incredibly proud of myself for sticking with it.

That being said, we’re nearly six months into 2019, and I’m just now sharing it with everyone. My intention was to post this in January and encourage everyone to download the app for themselves. To be honest, I held on to it for at least a month, reserving it for myself. I showed a few family/friends by handing them my phone and outside of that, I liked having this little private keepsake from the year, just for myself. I circle back around and share it with you all now (much later than I planned) for two reasons. One, this site is where I document my journey. I feel it needs to be saveds here. Two, Taylor Spann McCarty asks me when I’m posting it every other day. So, here it is! A video compilation of my 2018!

This video montage includes lots of birthdays, a few trips out of town, a week in the hospital with Zach after his freak incident, me acquiring two precious littles to love, me adopting my adorable Hank, buying a really old house and renovating it. There’s awards ceremonies, work days, get togethers with friends and family, lots of play, and a little bit of rest. There are sneak peaks of things in this video that I feel certain that I would have eventually forgotten, and now this little video will always help me to remember. I watch it now, a year later, more or less, and I smile. I smile as I’m reminded of so many wonderful times that I might not think back on otherwise. I smile because so. much. happened. in 2018. I’m happy that I’ll always have this video to jog my memory.   

I will say, if you think this is something you’d like to do yourself, go ahead and download the app. It’s perfectly fine to start in the middle of the year and I promise that you’ll be thrilled to have something rather than nothing at the end of the year. Instead of using the new year as a starting point, some people have used birthdays or anniversaries, the start of the summer or a new season, or just a random day! Again, the entire purpose is to have a tangible reminder of all that you experienced. The starting point really doesn’t matter. If you decide to participate and need any pointers, let me know! I learned a lot by doing this for a year and I’m excited to be doing it again for 2019. Maybe I’ll share that one a little sooner after its completion. 🙂