2016 was quite a challenge, but in many ways a first for some endeavors. The biggest one of all was magic and cardistry in general. Coming from a family of magicians (my grandfather was a magician for fifty years, and at the height of his career he performed for the Treasurer of the United States, Azie Taylor Morton, in the 1970s) I was always surrounded by this incredible art, but never fully grasped it, and it never grasped me. All of this until February of 2016, when I got a deck of Bicycle Premier cards as a gift. I loved every part of them, and that interest took off when I started doing more research on card magic. You should have seen the smile on my face when I was finally able to properly "faro" a deck of cards, or could do a non clumped-up fan. The basic things, while not interesting to the professionals here on this forum and in the field, is what I truly enjoyed. The next chapter in my playing card adventure took off when my best friend ordered a cool looking deck, which I eventually learned to be the Theory11 Unions. After seeing the upgrade those were from Bicycles, I bought my first custom deck of cards- Theory11 Medallions, and to this day, my favorite deck in my collection. I even took the time to write to T11 telling them my thoughts about the Medallions, and I was happily surprised to hear back from Ms. Gerhart from T11.
I unfortunately took all the things I could do for granted when I broke my thumb (on my birthday too, insult to injury!) in a freak accident, falling through a concrete stoop down ten feet. I couldn't fan a deck of cards, I couldn't properly shuffle, and basically sat on the sidelines doing one handed cardistry for three months. Thankfully my thumb properly healed and I am able to continue this incredible journey in magic and cardistry, however the nasty scar I have is a constant reminder to never take anything for granted- magic related, or not.
So my 2017 resolutions are to not only be true to myself about what I can and cannot accomplish, but to also appreciate what I've done in this hobby and look positively into the future. This includes learning more intermediate level tricks, foundations in card magic, and how to do some incredible, but relatively simple, flourishes.
A big thanks to the T11 team for what they do.