Y is for Year
One thing was for certain- it had been quite a year.
For Rachel, there had been winning the winter showcase and getting her first minimum wage job, dating a gigolo and having a pregnancy scare, getting her first tattoo, a style and sometimes attitude makeover. This year Rachel had started to realize that although she was and would eventually be a star, she would have to work harder than she had ever anticipated to get to that point of recognition she wanted, and she would need, much more than she had ever understood before, the support and love of her friends, every step of the way. This was the year Rachel received her first break, in winning the role of Fanny Brice, and this was the year that she finally felt herself really growing closer to being the woman that she had always envisioned herself as one day being. This was the year that she formed yet another family outside of her fathers, outside the loose inclusion of the Glee club, a small group of only herself, Kurt, and Santana, who had become for her the best friends she had ever had, and she loved and was loved by them more than she would have thought possible.
For Kurt, this was the year of branching out, of losing and gaining in love, of engagements and making it into NYADA, experimenting with his work, his style, and his talents in an arena where he would only be appreciated rather than scorned. This was the year that Kurt had the confidence to start a band, to date outside the box, to let himself blossom as he never could in Lima, and this was the year that he truly understood that he genuinely could become whatever he chose, exactly as he chose it, if he continued to grow and to try.
For Santana, this had been a year of struggle, but also a year of gradually working towards success. Trudging through cheering in Louisville, breaking up with and cycling through her ever changing relationship with Brittany, stripping and struggling in New York City, had given her much pain and much confusion, and it was only now she felt like she was finally breaking through. She was dancing, she had a job that was only occasionally demeaning and much more frequently awesome, she had a girlfriend who she didn't' have to worry would ever ditch her for a man. She was in a band and still thinking about trying for NYADA, she had been in a national commercial, even if it was lame, but most of all, she had Rachel and Kurt, who in spite of all odds against it, had become more than her friends, but rather her family. With them she felt loved, accepted, and strangely safe, as she never fully had in her life.
Of course, Finn's death had shaken them all, but in a way it seemed to have bound them more tightly together as well. They knew now how terribly short and sudden life could be, and now more than ever they were determined to make the most of theirs, to continue to strive for their dreams, and to remain closely bound and supportive of each other all the way. They knew what it was to no longer be able to be with the people they loved, and so they made sure, in their own ways, that each knew that they mattered, that no one would ever leave without this assurance.
It had been quite the year, and undoubtedly the next would be crazier still. But they had learned from it, they had grown from it, and overall, they could not have said that they were sorry for it.