Year in Review: 2019

Before fully immersing myself into 2020, I want to spend some time looking back on what happened in my life in 2019. Here are my top moments of 2019, both the good and the bad.

JANUARY

NEW YEAR’S IN NYC

A few days into my time off between Christmas and New Years, my friends Lindsay and Meaghan invited me to join them in NYC to ring in the year. Of course I said yes and headed up to NYC for a busy 24 hours. We stayed at Lindsay’s grandfather’s apartment and went to a bar called Public House for the night. Our night was filled with great drinks, wonderful friends and dancing our way into the new year.

MARCH

CHARLIE PASSING

On March 9th my 11 year old Bichon Frise, Charlie, passed away from congestive heart failure. Charlie was the first pet that I ever owned and I got him when I was 11 years old myself. When I was a child I was afraid of dogs, even though my mom was a dog lover, and I knew that in order to get over my fear I would have to get a dog myself. I fought to get Charlie for months before my parents agreed and it’s a decision they’ve never regret. Even though I was the driving force for getting Charlie, Charlie quickly became my mom’s dog. They were inseparable and their bond was beautiful. 

He was diagnosed with congestive heart failure in early 2018 and was given 1 year to live, which was pretty accurate. While losing Charlie was hard, I found comfort in the fact that he was no longer in pain. Throughout the last year of his life I could see the toll that his illness was taking on his body and how his quality of life had drastically declined. It was definitely his time but I’ll always love and miss him.

APRIL

PROMOTION TO JUNIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Around mid April I was promoted to Junior Graphic Designer at my job. I’d initially started in a different role and department entirely but my goal was always to be a Graphic Designer. After 7-8 months of doing my actual job while also showing my design skills, I transitioned into the Marketing department as a Junior Graphic Designer.

ROCKTOWN BEER FESTIVAL

The weekend after getting my promotion I drove down to JMU for Rocktown. Rocktown is a popular Beer Festival that takes place in Harrisonburg, VA during springtime. It’s commonly referred to as the “Homecoming of the Spring” because lots of alumni come back for it. This was my first year attending Rocktown and I had such a great time catching up with my friends and experiencing Harrisonburg not as a student. We rented a house in Massanutten and me and 5 of my closest friends spent the weekend drinking good beer (and cider), eating pizza bagels, and having photoshoots on the back deck.

MAY

5 YEAR HIGH SCHOOL REUNION

Weirdly, this year was the 5 year anniversary of me graduating high school, so me and my best friend Gabby decided to attend our 5 year reunion. We attended both the official school events as well as the social events with my classmates. While it was a little unbelievable that it had been 5 years, when I got a chance to speak with all my friends and classmates it felt like no time had passed. I’ve got to say though, it felt great being back in the halls and campus of my high school. I actually attended the same school from 1st to 12th grade, so this is the place that I’ve spent the largest part of my life and a place that I have a lot of great memories. I’m someone that doesn’t get very attached to places, but this is a place that I really hold dear and feel welcome and comfortable in.

MOM’S 30TH COLLEGE REUNION

On a whim I decided to accompany my mom for her 30th college reunion luncheon. Obviously I had little to no knowledge about my mom’s time in college and had never even stepped foot on the campus. It was very cool to be able to see my mom in that environment, reminiscing on her memories and catching up with old classmates. While it was only a few hours, it was definitely a small but mighty moment of 2019.

JUNE

23RD BIRTHDAY TRIP TO WASHINGTON DC

For my birthday this year, I decided to plan a solo trip to Washington, DC for the weekend. I spent the weekend going to museums, doing a little shopping, eating great food, and seeing/learning about the National Mall.

Stay tuned for a dedicated blog post on my experience and tips for solo traveling.

JULY

HAMILTON

My mom surprised my dad and I with tickets to see Hamilton while they were in town. Like most people, I’ve been a fan of Hamilton since it blew up a few years ago. I know most of the songs and had been anticipating the moment when I’d get a chance to see it for myself, and luckily it did not disappoint.

LAUREN’S BIRTHDAY IN NY

The Friday/Saturday before leaving for Hawaii, I went to New York for 24 hours to celebrate my friend Lauren’s 22nd birthday. It was a mini reunion of my friend group from when I studied abroad in London. I left work early on Friday afternoon and took the train up to New York, arriving at Penn Station around 6:30pm. I met up with my friends at a bar right outside the train station and then we took a cab to our hotel. We ended up snagging a beautiful corner room in the Turtle Bay area. After dropping off our stuff we headed out to grab some dinner (a couple of slices of pizza) and get drinks, before heading back to the hotel to catch up and get ready for our night out. 

A bunch of Lauren’s friends met up with us later on in the evening and we all headed out for a night of bar hopping. The next day we all went to brunch at La Cava where we had bottomless drinks and amazing food. Unfortunately (but not really) I had to leave right after the brunch because I had to catch a train back to Baltimore in order to leave for Hawaii the next day.

VACATION IN HAWAII

Mid July, me and my family spent a week in Honolulu, Hawaii. The week was a mix of exploring, relaxing and sightseeing. Here are some of the highlights:

• Renting a Jeep and driving the entire island, stopping at scenic views and beautiful beaches.

• Laying on the beach and having 2 seals swim up on the shore a few feet away.

• Getting Garlic Shrimp like 3-4 times (lol it’s soooo good!)

• Walking along to beach in the mornings

• Seeing sea turtles multiple times (they’re my favorite animal, like I’ve worn a sea turtle ring everyday since 8th grade)

OCTOBER

JMU HOMECOMING

This year was my second JMU Homecoming and it was definitely one for the books. About two hours into the drive to Harrisonburg, I heard a loud popping noise coming from my car immediately followed by the smell of oil/gas. I pulled over right away, turned off my car, and called my dad to figure out what had happened and get some help. He ended up getting on the road and I sat in my car for about an hour and a half waiting for him to come and help me.

Luckily right around the time this all happened with my car, my friend Meaghan was driving down as well. After contemplating for a few minutes on what to do, I sent my friends a video message letting them know what was happening and what the plan was going forward. Without having to ask, Meaghan called me and let me know that she was only about 15 minutes away and wouldn’t mind driving me the rest of the way to Harrisonburg. This really was a case of divine intervention because if you know me well, you know I struggle with asking for help, especially with large potentially burdensome tasks. I’d kind of decided that I would just miss out on homecoming because all of the options seemed very uncomfortable. But thanks to Meaghan (and God), I was able to alter my plans and still have a great weekend with my friends.

Some of my other highlights from the weekend were:

• Harry being on the Madison Royal Court and walking around like we were with a celebrity.

• Talking with Laura about both of our aspirations of moving out and getting motivated by our combined passion.

• Driving with each one of my friends individually and getting a chance to really catch up and hear how their lives are.

• Spending time talking with Meaghan while driving to and from JMU.

NOVEMBER

WISDOM TOOTH EXTRACTION

This wasn’t fun at all but I got my wisdom teeth removed which I guess was a highlight. It pretty much ate up the month of November so I did very little else.

DECEMBER

SANTACON IN NY

A few weeks ago I spent the weekend with my friend Meaghan and we participated in Santacon. Santacon is a day drink/bar crawl that takes place in NYC in December and supports local causes. We decided that Santacon would be a good replacement for spending New Years in NYC.

Friday night we went out in her small town of White Plains, NY and I honestly had so much fun even though there weren’t that many people. We chilled at a dive bar for a few hours, listened to a live band at a bar where we were to only people under the age of 35 and then danced for hours to salsa music. The next day we got bagels, headed to the train station and met up with Meaghan’s childhood friend Marlena. We made mimosas on the train and then spent the rest of the day hopping around to different bars/restaurants dressed in Santa hats. We kicked off the day in a super Christmas themed bar, then walked to get pizza, before taking an hour long walk around Murray Hill. We then headed to Times Square and spent 3 hours in an Irish pub having some great conversation and trying almost every drink on the menu. After taking some basic photos in Times Square, we had dinner at a nice Mexican restaurant and then headed over to the train to head back home. Sunday morning consisted of brunch at a diner, saying goodbye to Meaghan’s family and taking the 5 hour trek back to Maryland.

BLOG LAUNCH

And finally for one of my biggest highlights is launching my blog on December 31, 2019. I first came up with the idea in late September/early October and quickly became overwhelmed with everything that came along with it. I started to break down all the steps and then got started creating my blog a little each day. It took me 2-3 months, but I’m super happy with what I’ve built and I’ve discovered a new passion/love for writing in the process.