The Year That Was

(i.e. the last one, the one that ended like 7 months ago)

So.. I may have jinxed myself with my last travel blog (the one where I finally visited Canada) and talking about putting up a post within a month. At this point in time, I have visited THREE more countries, two new places in the USA, and there are no signs on the horizon for even edited travel pictures, forget a full blown blog post. Wow I am truly terrible at this blogging thing.

There were so many things that changed after the last time I blogged here – some for the worse, but mostly for the good – that for the last 7 months or so it feels like I have been on a roller coaster. I even started writing about ‘the year that was’ (as one of the recent among my 80!! drafts indicate) – but I just never followed through. Oops.

2018 felt like one of those blink and you’ll miss it years. I don’t know how to summarize it because there were so many ups and downs, but such a wild ride all the way through, that I feel like there are just not enough words (not like there were for 2017 anyway).

Here is a bullet point list, in no particular order –

• Saw cherry blossoms in DC (finally!) and it was awesome
• Visited two new countries! Canada and Argentina (the travel blog for the latter is indefinitely postponed because I seem to have lost all my pictures??)

This is the only thing I have “written” from that trip hah

• Despite deciding that I did not want to return to a full-time job, I started one anyway in Feb 2018! It was unexpected, but it ended up being good.
• Made up with a friend (totally unexpected but as cliched as it sounds, I guess things have a way of working out if they are meant to?)
• Broke up with a friend (still bitter about it ugh)
• Got into an accident and totaled our car (y i k e s but also don’t tell my mom she still doesn’t know LOL)

• Replaced beloved baby with a Tesla  AND OMFG STILL NOT OVER IT this car is a dream y’all it’s gorgeous and gives a fuck about the planet #win
• At the beginning of 2018, I set a certain amount in $$$ as a savings goals for the year, and was able to cross that off by September! #adultingsohard
• Slacked TF off on other goals like creating more art, taking more pictures and writing more letters (… I did send a bunch of postcards tho)
• Physical and mental health nosedived in the last few months of the year, until it came to a point where I was convinced I had some sort of a neurological disorder because of how messed up I felt (WedMD had me convinced I was dying and that shit is crazy yo!). Eventually got my ass to a doctor to figure out what TF was wrong with me, and thus discovered I was in fact not dying, but I had a severe vitamin B12 deficiency that I now need shots every week to cure. Apparently, this deficiency is really common in Asians? Wow, thanks genes. /sarcasm
• Remember kids, depression is a disorder in itself but it is ALSO a symptom of other illnesses. Take care of your health. We’re too old to be winging it anymore.
• Actually completed a Project 365! I started tracking my mood everyday as a part of a self-care routine that I found while bullet journaling, and I ended up doing it for the whole year! YAY!
• FINALLY saw the West Coast and was left severely underwhelmed by San Francisco because of Karl (who prevented us from actually seeing the Golden Gate bridge even though we were at a wedding RIGHT THERE), the miserable rain, and the frankly shocking levels of homelessness in the city. It was depressing.
• Turned into a full-blown plant lady that grows her own shit (currently on a self-imposed ban on buying any new plants for the rest of the year….)
• Started applying for new jobs at the end of summer 2018 and ..wow was that a roller coaster?!
• Spent 13 hours on flight to Buenos Aires completing a writing assignment for this new job, decided to nap in our cute AirBnB that first day in Argentina to get over the subsequent sleep deficit, only to be woken up by a phone call telling me I got the job #wild
• Found out two days later while heading into the wilderness, that I got ANOTHER job that I also wanted (what is this chappar-phad type luck?)
• Learned to trust my gut for career decisions and just went for it.. 2019 proved how right I was to leave when I did and pick what I picked
• Technically this is 2019, but given we are 8 months into it anyway, dropped my resignation email and got planning on how to move from Princeton to New York City in just under a month
• Y’all I am New Yorker now and who TF would have thought this possible, definitely not me wow

So that’s it – that was 2018. I feel like I am missing some things, but that was the gist of it. Today, out of the blue, I started writing about our most recent travel stories (finally!) but there is no saying when I will actually finish them, so who knows.. maybe we’ll meet next after another year has gone by hah 🙂

Love and light,
Annie