I was thirteen when I first laid eyes on Jessica's coat. She was the oldest daughter of my father's employer at the time and I practically worshiped the ground she walked on. To me she was the epitome of godly young womanhood, and though I wouldn't have admitted it to you at the time, my one hope and prayer was that I would grow up to be just like her.

       I experienced a whole new obsession within an obsession when I saw her wearing her long, camel-colored, fit-and-flare, 1910's style coat which she'd made herself. At that point in time I couldn't fathom any single, regular person being able to make something that grand, all I could gulp out when I saw it was, "I want a coat like that!" Friends, I was head-over-heels in love. for the next several years I earnestly rifled thrift store coat racks with that one, perfect image in my head. When people asked me what I wanted for a birthday or Christmas, I would list things out in what I thought was a reasonable display, but I would always end with, "And I want a coat like Jessica's."

      Of course this was something nobody could ever get for me, though I wonder if anyone did try. As for me, when I finally decided to get a long coat for myself, my first option was a cheap, costume piece off of amazon which looked somewhat impressive but let the cold right through and had certain annoying features which made me realize that it was still no substitute for the proper coat of my dreams. 

       Fast forwarding to the end of the year 2020, I have a tutorial type video on youtube to thank for planting in me the idea that it would be very possible indeed for me to make a coat of this type myself. So, at the beginning of last year, in the middle of also submitting applications for grad-school, I proceeded to spend a pile of money on materials for the coat. No expense was spared, no shortcuts permitted. If I was going to make the coat that had twirled through my dreams for over a decade, I was going to make it right.

        Thus, after four months of cutting, pinning, seam-ripping, pad-stitching, tears, and sore fingers from the sheer amount of hand stitching required, I produced this:

           It had its issues, but nothing like the amazon costume-piece, and very similar in style to Jessica's coat of so many years ago. It's been a long time since I've seen her, I often wonder what she's up to now, and a part of me wants, so badly, to show her this coat. I think she'd approve, though I know she'd laugh if she knew how obsessed I was with her and all her clothes. It is in part thanks to her and her magnificent style that I dress the way I do. 

         This coat, this beautiful "coat like Jessica's," is my showiest accomplishment from 2021 and it impressed upon me something I've known for a little while now: the little girls just behind us in our generation and the next look to us young women for inspiration, for direction. It's up to us what kind of direction we give them. I hope I can be to some little girl in the way I dress, speak, and conduct myself, what Jessica was to me. Just another reason to spend four months of the year laboring over a new coat.

          Time requires me to cut this shorter but a few other highlights from the year include the many outings and events over the summer with dear friends,

     

Getting to hold a largish concert for friends and students,

     Seeing my brother get married,

Getting to arrange and perform music for a friend's wedding,

         The big one, of course, going to Aberdeen and getting to stand a-top a Scottish mountain,

             Getting to dress-up and do hilarious role-plays with my brothers and good friends,

        Singing in beautiful old buildings with an excellent choir,

       And so many more things I don't have pictures for. All in all, it really was a marvelous year. I cannot thank God enough for it, nor all my friends for being a part of it.

       I don't know what this new year will hold just as I hadn't the foggiest idea  of how much 2021 would hold when it first began. Sixteen days into 2022, I have some idea of what it will be like. I know, for example, that I'm most likely going to be in Scotland until September. I should come out of it with a Master in Music degree and, hopefully more music composed. I'm hoping I shall be a better musician, a better friend, a more responsible adult, and ever so much closer to God than I am right now.

        What do you say to joining me for the journey this year and finding out?

                   Also, I'd love to hear  from you. Has there been an equivalent of Jessica in your life? Have you ever fulfilled one of your dreams seeded by said individual? It would be good to know I'm not the only one who does things like this. ;)

                    Happy new year!

                   ~ Christianna