bye 24. you were a good one.

Wow. 24, where do I even begin. You completely rocked my world in every way. I’m always going to believe that the best is yet to come, but 24 was such a beautiful, life changing year that, the future has a lot to live up to.

This past year my life changed in a lot of ways. I got engaged.

I turned a hobby into a dream, and turned that dream into a full time job.

Oh yeah, I also got married. 🙂 Photos by Surveyor Creative.

24 took me a lot of places too, from California, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Kentucky, to the Dominican Republic, and finally Wisconsin. I finished a year long goal of making a video from one second every day in 2015. I attended the 1989 concert & fangirled hard. I visited my first National Park, got fired for the first time, realized being let go of a job that doesn’t give me joy was the best thing that could have happened to me, flew first class for the first time, watched my freshman year dorm crumble to the ground, got a job educating highschoolers about AIDS, and had soo many margarita girls nights with my roomies. I saw girlfriends from different parts of my life all come together and stand up with me at my wedding, moved into an apartment with my new husband, and I learned that marriage is so hard, but worth every minute.

I learned some lessons too. I learned that sometimes you may not enjoy doing something, but God asks you to do it faithfully anyway. I learned that if there’s a girl sitting by herself, to go introduce yourself and say hi. You’ll find out you both have a lot in common, and she’ll become one of your great friends, and coincidentally she’ll later ask you to design her tattoo EEEK! (talking to you Janel.) I learned that this life is 100% what you make it. If you see the bad in every day, life is pretty much going to suck. But if you see the goodness of God, and the joy that He brings no matter your circumstances, every day will be an adventure. I learned that for all the meticulous planning and designing and registering and paying you do for your wedding, the best part of that day will always be the person standing at the end of the aisle. I learned that the Dominicans love a drink called Mamajuana and that it apparently leads to making babies (their words.) I learned (and truthfully am still learning) that perfection is a myth, and that nobody’s life is perfect, no matter how pretty it looks on Instagram. And finally, I learned pretty recently that if you want something in life, all you have to do is ask for it. Ask God, and ask people for help. Reach out to others, and dream big. If we don’t ask for what we want, oftentimes we will never get it.

This year was all about life changes and dream chasing for me. It was about not apologizing for the things that set your soul of fire. It was about fearlessly chasing the heart of God. I cannot wait to see what He has in store for me in year 25. I’m now a quarter of a century old. Halfway through my 20’s.  Wow. That’s pretty cool guys.

So 25, I’m pretty stoked to see what you have in store for me, but I just have one thing to tell you: 24 killed it, and you have some big shoes to fill. Let’s go fill them. 😉