Oh lord, another year and another birthday post. Every year April serves as a time where I reflect, rejuvenate, dance in the rain, nap, eat cake and make some plans for the next 365 days…. let’s start off by saying, this might have been my most favorite year yet. (Did I say that last year? I take it back…. maybe I’m like wine and I get better with age?) Who knows, but I do know that 25 was good to me and my goodness, I’m not sure I’m fully ready for the next one. (However, any holiday that is celebrated with cake and wine is a great one in my book.) One step closer to 30 – from what I’ve heard, 30 isn’t so bad… I’ll cling tight to that promise for the next few years. I’m also not anywhere near the point of female meltdown where you question your existence, crows feet, and the fact that if you don’t procreate now, you will die sad and alone… nope, not near that whole deal yet.
25 was a full year – maybe too full if I’m being totally honest. In the course of a year I travelled a lot, like add up all the trips I have taken throughout my entire life and throw them into one year. Dallas, Seattle, California, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, and a few random road trips across the Midwest. I got to see more of this beautiful world we are living in and got to shoot in some serious awesome places while dipping my toes in the sand and sipping one (or three) margaritas. I photographed so many incredible couples and worked on a million personal projects, I blogged my heart out, and some days I took a nap or two. This whole journey of figuring out life as a photographer became a littler more clear this year and I feel like I truly found my groove and place in this industry (hint: that happens when you stop caring about what everyone else thinks and you do you.)
We found our first permanent home together which was a relief after annual moves since 2006 – it also made me feel way too grown up when I signed mortgage papers and attempted to landscape (that was the beginning and end of my green thumb.) I settled more into my wife role which still looks a lot like my husband vacuuming and me making creative messes… I successfully survived another year of daily work outs, something that I am kind of proud of myself for and did my first CrossFit competition. (What?! A year ago I had yet to figure out how to do a pull up…) We ran another marathon and survived the 26.2 miles in the rain. I blogged my life on this corner of the web and really opened up about the joys, struggles, dreams of owning a business. I photographed 26 incredible weddings for people who more than clients, friends actually. I promised myself that I would make more time for naps and we finally invested in a bed bigger than a full (best money spent all year, for real.)
This year was full – full of joy, full of loss, full of figuring this little life out, full of dreaming. We made some incredible new friends who have become like family and went on a few adventures. It hit a little too close to home that growing old is a privilege and made me realize that I am thankful for each and every day that I wake up breathing and next to in the same bed with the man I love. (Corrected to reflect the fact that our two ten pound dogs are bed hogs.) I am so thankful for an opportunity to go on another trip around the sun and explore what being 26 is all about. It is scientifically proven that people who have more birthdays live longer, so I’m going to live this one up, pop some bubbly, drink some champagne and toast to another full year of awesomeness.
Last year I posted a few goals that I wanted to accomplish while being 25… I have to say, I did alright on those. This year, however, I am not confining my goals to a list that is shared here on the world wide web. I don’t want to look back and be disappointed if certain things didn’t happen because each year has curveballs and opportunities and a little goal list can’t encompass all that 365 days can hold. I want to take life as it comes, embrace it, take naps during it, and go with the flow. I don’t want to be so busy working on some little goal list that I forget to lift my head and look around. So the one rule of being #26 is to embrace life and live it hard and to me, that sounds perfect. (No war paint necessary.) Celebrating life is always an invited thing in our household (especially when it involves cake and confetti) so tonight, I am toasting to life with the guy I love the most.
“There’s so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it all at once, and it’s too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that’s about to burst… And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life…” – American Beauty –
Stick around, you know you want to keep on reading….
