🔙 REFLECTING ON 2020
I’m definitely not the first one to say 2020 was an interesting year, a year none of us were ready for. However, we’ve now had nine months to figure out how to adapt and how to make the most of our current world.
I remember starting to hear about COVID in February, but that it wasn’t anything to worry about and that it was just an overseas virus. Not ten days after returning from my business trip, everyone starting rapidly transitioning from the world we knew to a locked down world. I started working from home on March 16th and only thought I would be home for a few weeks during the first 2-week mandatory lock down.
I think it really hit me when many retail and indoor dining were closed down. I just remember having this overwhelming feeling of sadness and feeling this burden like I had to help save these businesses (especially small).
All of a sudden, social media and all news outlets become even more overwhelming. Keyboard warriors seemed to have grown in strength even more this year and I really started to see online bullying rear its ugly head in a powerful way. I’ve hated seeing people so divided on seemingly every topic and also not knowing how to have a constructive debate.
BLOGGING & SOCIAL
I’ve wanted to remain that positive place you can escape to. I started blogging about all of the books I was reading as well as continuing on by blogging about trips I have taken. I also got paid collaborations this year! I didn’t set huge goals for 2020, so being able to get some paid collaborations was definitely a highlight. I also worked on getting more comfortable in front of the camera and connecting with my audience a bit more.
✈️TRAVELING
As we have learned more and more about the evolution of this pandemic, my family has chosen to take “calculated risks.” We visit places that we know are following the rules, we wear our masks and we largely are still at home most of the time. If you have chosen to weather the pandemic in a different way, I respect your decision as well.
✈️ Las Vegas: In late February, I traveled to Las Vegas for my annual work sales summit week long event. This was my fourth year helping with the event and I look forward to it every year! Check out my post on 8 Poses to try at Seven Magic Mountains.
✈️ San Diego: Immediately following my trip to Las Vegas, I flew directly from Vegas and met two of my girl friends in San Diego, where we spent a long weekend! If you missed those blog posts, you can read about my girls weekend and the most Instagrammable places.
After these trips, that is when everything started to shut down. Here are the trips that we ended up canceling in 2020:
- April trip to San Francisco to see Harry Potter (this trip has been moved 3 times and is now planned for August 2021!)
- May trip to Europe (Iceland, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Estonia, Russia, England). We hope to try and re-schedule this trip with my dad in May 2022.
- 4th of July trip to Whistler
- August trip for my friend’s bachelorette party
- September trip to Europe (last planned trip was: UK, Ireland, Iceland, Germany for Oktoberfest)
- December trip to the Big Island (my friend has postponed his wedding to April 2021).
Here is what we ended up doing instead:
✈️ Mid-May took a ten day trip down to Arizona. We ended up working for a week in an Airbnb and then taking a weekend trip up to Sedona.
✈️ June spent 5 days in Coeur-de Alene, Idaho where we worked for a few days and then did a bit of site seeing.
✈️July we spent 10 days in Oregon. We first went to Medford for a few days to visit friends then drove over to Bend for a week where we worked and enjoyed lots of beer!
✈️ August I took a weekend trip to Las Vegas with 4 of my girlfriends where we ate and drank a lot and had an amazing pool day complete with a cabana!
✈️ September / October we got brave and went to French Polynesia for two weeks. You can read all about how we traveled to Polynesia and the other posts I wrote here.
✈️ October right after Polynesia, we headed down to Arizona and helped our friends get their new Scottsdale place ready for Airbnb. We spent a month working, eating, drinking and relaxing! We even took a weekend trip to Tucson and Tombstone.
✈️December we decided to take a relaxing weekend trip over to Suncadia. We didn’t do much as indoor dining is closed, but we did axe throwing and then had a nice relaxing evening in our room.
NEW HOBBIES
In 2019, my friend decided she wanted to run a half marathon. To be a supportive friend, I took it on to support her and also to try something new. I have never been a cardio person, but this was a new challenge. January 2020 ended up being my first organized run (5k). The rest of our organized runs this year did get deferred to next year! My reading increased about 1000% compared to 2019. In 2019, I read just 8 books the entire year. In 2020 I read 108 books!
OVERALL
POSITIVES
➕ Spending a lot of time with my husband
➕ Picking up reading again
➕ Being able to save a lot of money
➕ Got to re-finance our home
➕ Did a small update to one of our bathrooms
➕ Got to work on our home gym
➕ First paid collaborations!
➕ Connected with friends over video calling
➕ Strengthened relationships with a few friends
NEGATIVES
➖ Not being able to spend time with with extended family
➖ Not being able to enjoy indoor dining
➖ Having multiple trips cancelled
🔜 LOOKING AHEAD TO 2021
As I say every year, my future looks bright. I am in control of how things go and if there is something I don’t like, how can I change it? There are a few things I am manifesting in my personal life that I would like to keep private, but next year I would like to:
🔲 Start training for the half marathon again
🔲 Complete the half marathon in late summer
🔲 More paid collaborations
🔲 Work with hotels during my travels
🔲 Continue to read a lot!
🔲 Complete some home improvements
🔲 Get back to blogging consistently
🔲 Incorporate more lifestyle content on my social media and blog
TRAVELS
Normally by this time I have all of my travels for the following year planned out. However, because of how unsure next year looks, we just have a few domestic trips planned:
✈️January we are having a staycation in downtown Seattle
✈️February we are taking a quick weekend trip to Denver + see an ice castle! Later in February we are taking a long weekend trip down to Bend, Oregon with two of our friends
✈️March / April we are heading to The Big Island to (hopefully) attend my friend’s small beach wedding.
✈️August we are hoping to go to San Fran to see the Harry Potter play that we got tickets for 2 years ago!
Our number one international travel destination for September time frame is the South of France, Spain, Portugal and Morocco. If we aren’t able to do that, we would also like to go to Egypt.
Overall, after the shock of all the changes in the world this year, I chose to look at everything from a positive angle. There is no use in having a negative attitude about a huge change in the world. I would love if you shared some things that were positive for you this year!
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