The first episode of my new (and first-ever) podcast is live! Listen below.
Category: Miscellaneous
Looking Back on 2016
Alright, so it’s already a few days into 2017, but I’ve been meaning to take some time to sit down and reflect back on the year that was 2016. By and large, it was a fantastic year for me, and I’d be lying if I said otherwise.
In my personal life, I got married! July 16, 2016 was an amazing day, and I’ll always be able to look back on that day with fond memories. A few days later, we did our New England honeymoon, which was eye-opening and a new adventure in many ways for me. From my first time seeing the ocean, to whale-watching, to visiting six (Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island and Connecticut!) new states… it was a trip to remember, and certainly one I’ll never forget! In the process, I also checked another MLB park off my list: Fenway. In other pieces throughout the year, I also saw cities like Syracuse (my first time really visiting), Cleveland (where I got to see Good Charlotte), Toronto and more.
I look forward to more traveling in 2017, including the trip we’re currently planning – a drive to & from Texas, which will be a whole new horizon for me (and possibly six, maybe more, new states!)
Q&A: The Photographic Interview
Doing a Q&A: The Photographic Interview has been on my bucket list for…. well, as long as I can remember. This one came via http://sh1ft.org/ years and years and years ago (2007, maybe?) and now, some nine years later, I’ve finally gone and done it.
Take 1 photograph as your answer to each of the 10 questions below:
Reflecting Back On The Year That’s Passed
With the beginning of each new year, I always like to take some time and look back at the year that’s just passed: what I accomplished, what I learned; where I succeeded or triumphed and where I may have failed. How I grew, or how I didn’t. I’ve always thought it was important to look back before you can look forward.
Overall, 2015 was a huge growth year for me, arguably the biggest growth year of my life thus far.
Continue reading “Reflecting Back On The Year That’s Passed”
25.
Here we are. Today is my 25th birthday – I’ve hit the quarter-century mark. Wow, even just typing that makes me feel old or something. But that’s besides the point; I always like birthdays, because it means that you’ve made it through another year. No matter what life threw at you – obstacles, challenges, difficulties – you made it through, and got to this point. And we do it over and over again.
With that, I want to reflect on the past year. It was a huge growth year for me, I think. A lot in my life changed in my 24th year. I got engaged after asking my then-boyfriend to marry me. I moved out on my own, out of my mother’s house. Even those two things on their own are pretty huge, and they only begin to slice the surface of the past year.
I opened my 24th year with my mother and boyfriend singing happy birthday to me over a cake near midnight. I worked that day, then went to Cracker Barrel for dinner. It started to snow as we left – seemingly harmless – but that would turn out to be Snowvember, where so much snow hit that there were driving bans and travel advisories. My birthday was a Monday, and that was the only day I ended up working that week. Instead, I spent the rest of those days cooped up with my mother and boyfriend watching all of the Harry Potter films. I can’t complain.
I got to see some pretty cool places over the past year, including my first-ever visit to Letchworth State Park, a place I’ve wanted to visit for years. I also visited Sodus Bay and Elmira for the first time, and added another Finger Lake (Keuka, in mid-winter) to my list. The standards Pittsburgh, Erie, Toronto, Rochester and Hamilton were in there too, as was a July trip to Muskoka that I really enjoyed.
I went to my first FC Buffalo soccer match, and my first Shakespeare in the Park. I saw a bunch of wonderful theatre shows: Motown, Chicago, Phantom of the Opera, Kinky Boots, Newsies and Matilda, all at Shea’s, plus “Let it Be” and Singin’ in the Rain. I saw my older nephew graduate from Pre-K, and my younger one start walking.
Honestly, I wanted to write more, but to sum it up: the past year was a huge one for me. I feel like I grew in so many different ways and I’m honestly excited to see what 25 has in store for me!
thoughts of Melissa 