Happy Birthday To Me
Today is a Wednesday which means I've released this blog post, but it is no ordinary Wednesday because today is ALSO my 23rd birthday! 23 is not exactly a milestone year (I still overpay for rental cars), but for me, it was a huge year. Unluckily, my birthday takes right after Christmas, BUT right before New Years when everyone is reflecting back on the last calendar year. So just remember that I'm posting my reflection as a result of my BIRTHDAY, not the New Year. Good, glad we got that squared away.
The Biggest Deal of My 22nd Year: I moved to Canada. I've posted tons about this already, but feel free to go back and read the saga thus far, here, here, and here. This one is actually twofold, because not only did I move to Canada, I moved in with my boyfriend which I've never done before. DOUBLE WHAMMY.
The Biggest Trip of My 22nd Year: I travelled a lot for business in the last year -- Riverside, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Everett, Boston, San Francisco. But I also got to do some travel for pleasure -- U.S. West Coast Road Trip, Calgary, Vancouver, The Grand Canyon. But by far the biggest and baddest trip I took was to Peru in the spring. I saw some incredible Incan ruins, ate some amazing foods, and am finally starting in on visiting South American locations! I wrote a couple travel guides if you've been researching vacation destinations, so you can check those out here if you want.
The Saddest Moment of my 22nd Year: The weekend before I left for Canada, one of my friends treated me to a trip to Disneyland with a group of us (I had NEVER been, shocking, I know) and we stayed there all day until the World of Color show and I got so sad because I realized that even though there are a lot of things to hate about L.A., I had grown rather attached and I was going to miss my friends so much (also the nostalgia of disney movies was really tugging at my heartstrings).
The Biggest Milestone of my 22nd Year: My current relationship is the longest relationship I've ever been in. At the time of this posting, my boyfriend and I will have been dating for a year and a half which is DOUBLE the time I have dated anyone else. What can I say, he's a keeper.
The Worst Things that Happened to my Body: I've slowly been learning to ski over this past year, which has equated to many, many large and ugly bruises. I sprained my ankle before hiking Macchu Picchu in Peru. I'm pale now that I moved to the Great White North. AND, for the first time in my life, I have started getting dandruff sporadically. Don't know how, but it was bad enough to make my scalp bleed. On the bright side, I finally started using foot cream and I don't hate my feet anymore.
The Biggest Career Moves: I've been at the same job since turning 22, but since starting it a little over a year ago, I've moved from knowing nothing about the field or the job to running my own projects and feeling comfortable sticking up for myself against colleagues or clients with decades of experience on me. Plus, I just got a raise which is always nice.There were, of course, tons of other little things that happened this year that made me feel the whole range of human emotion but I wanna give a little shout out to some specific people that made my life pretty great. In no particular order:
Kiki - My sister, my biggest entertainer, and my best supporter, with the best taste in everything
Mom & Dad - You guys are lumped together because I have another post planned on how much I appreciate you :)
Michael - You've been so patient and so amazing in helping me move, and you're a pretty awesome boyfriend/roommate.
T - We didn't talk much this year but I know you're always there, no matter what
Alex - We both left the U.S. and you're still the friend I talk to the most. You never fail me, and I hope I never fail you.
Hannah - Even though you left me to get married haha, I know I can talk to you about ANYTHING and that I couldn't have done Pepperdine without you.
Tiff - Where would I be without our deep talks? You are so warm and wise and I miss getting coffee with you so much!
Clara - I think we're kindred spirits. Dark, sarcastic, and love a great steak. You never fail to cheer me up or send me great memes.
Ash - You're an amazing friend to have. You're whip-smart and your energy is infectious.
23feature
I know there are a ton of people I didn't list (that's the dangers with these damn things) who affected my life this year in a great way, but the people I called out were the people I really leaned on. It was tough to put the following in a list format with the rest of my year, but I went through a lot of periods of being down, lonely, or just not feeling that awesome and these were the people that were always there no matter what and who could always make me smile, so thank you!In any case, that about sums up 22 for me and now that I've thought about everything this year held, I'm pretty excited for 2018. I already have trips planned, activities on my list to learn, and career moves to explore. Bring. It. On.