To be 100% honest, sitting down and writing this post intimidated me beyond all belief. How do you adequately express your profound gratitude for 365 days full of love, laughter and immense personal and professional growth? It feels as though there aren’t enough positive adjectives in the English language to properly acknowledge what an incredible year of my life 2016 was. The best I can do is reflect back upon the highlights of the last twelve months of my life.
Travel
The most unbelievable aspect of the year by far was the amount of traveling my husband and I were able to accomplish. We went to Europe a total of three times, spending nearly a full month abroad overall. That month encompassed our honeymoon in Amsterdam, Prague, and Paris at the beginning of 2016, an unplanned bonus trip to Paris in September and the trip to Venice and London that we are on as you’re reading this.
Travel has always been a central part of my husband’s life and I have long wished for it to be of mine as well. Unfortunately for me, graduating college and entering the job market in a recession meant nearly a decade of struggling financially and not having the ability to make that dream a reality. For a long time, there simply wasn’t a viable option for even the most budget-friendly of travel. Eight years later with my career back on track, a generous company vacation policy, and a self-employed husband who prioritizes adventures above all else, I am incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to check some of my dream destinations off my bucket list.
Sharing in those new experiences with my husband during this first year of marriage has been an incredible gift, in fact the best one we could possibly have given our evolving relationship. There have been some beautiful moments abroad and some incredibly painful ones (Prague Castle, I’m looking at you…my knee still hasn’t recovered from your snowy takedown in January.) but we managed to take it all in stride and grow from the good, bad, ugly, and positively unexpected experiences.
Marriage and Homemaking
I touched on it previously but it deserves to be acknowledged again. This first full year of marriage and the process of nesting and creating our home exceeded my wildest expectations.
Marriage brought with it the obvious and expected day to day changes – everything we owned was suddenly linked, taxes weren’t quite the hit that they were in prior years, and I even got a new last name. It also brought with it some beautiful facets I in no way anticipated.
The deep, ever-growing bond between my husband and I continues to astound me. Perhaps there are biological aspects at play behind the continued development of the closeness we feel that were always destined to kick in. Perhaps it all stems from the fact that my husband is a truly awesome human being who I adore spending time with above all others. Whatever the case may be, the intense and deepening love we share for one another is remarkable and has resulted in me changing my tune on the institution of marriage and long-term relationships in general. Long story short, I give both two thumbs up. Two gigantic thumbs up.
Family Bonding Time with Lola
I get it, Lola is a dog and the love I feel for her won’t remotely compare to the love I will eventually feel for a child. However, Lola is a particularly awesome and adorable dog with an abundance of human characteristics and is, as cliché as it sounds, one of my best friends. She’s a rad little buddy, okay?
In the past year we started taking Lola on more “adventures” and exposing her to different experiences. Those came in the form of car rides, outings to dog-friendly restaurants and one very memorable camping trip at Jalama Beach.
Until last February, neither my husband or I had been camping in years. Lola had never experienced anything remotely along the lines of pitching a tent, building a fire and sleeping next to the roaring ocean. She can be an anxious and spastic pup at times (hence why we are trying to expand her horizons) and a camping trip on a relatively secluded beach could have gone either surprisingly well or really, really badly. Fortunately, it went the former and she and I had the time of our lives running through the sand, playing in the waves and both acting like total and complete goof balls. That camping trip yielded many memories with her that I will treasure forever.
Professional Growth
2016 brought with it the most intense and rewarding period of professional development of my life. Not only did I start to find my stride at my 9-5 job, I also experienced the immense growth of my blog (relatively speaking), which led to some absolutely incredible opportunities.
I cannot stress enough how profoundly grateful I am for everything Musings on Momentum has brought into my life. What started as a creative outlet and way to chronicle my day to day for my out-of-state family has led to irreplaceable connections with intelligent, driven and like-minded women all across the globe, not to mention a crash course in running a business.
I threw myself head first into seriously developing Musings on Momentum early to mid-2016 and have been rewarded for my efforts tenfold by the incredible relationships and feedback you have all responded with. This corner of the Internet has become my personal slice of heaven and has prompted profound levels of both personal and professional growth.
I am incredibly excited for what I have planned for MoM in 2017, specifically the upcoming opportunities to work further with my husband in creating travel vlogs. I’m so looking forward to continuing to get to know all of you lovely friends and providing you with increasingly appealing and useful content.
Well, that’s all, folks! My 2016 in a nutshell. What were the most memorable aspects of your year? Are you looking forward to what 2017 brings or are you not quite ready to leave 2016 behind?