Oh my gosh, what a year.
2019 felt like A LOT. And it was, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There were big changes, personal growth, learning experiences, family matters, vacations, new challenges, new opportunities, new friends, stressors and loss. It was a year that pushed me to all sorts of limits and taught me more about myself.
It’s amazing how short and long a year can simultaneously feel. Above all, I look back and I’m grateful. Parts of the year were very mentally challenging (to say the least), and while I’m glad it’s over, I’m also glad it happened. You have to get uncomfortable to grow.
2019 started out…
…coming home from a last-minute road trip to North Carolina for NYE, and upon arriving back in GR, we were immediately hit with a sh**ton of snow and ice that essentially lasted all month. In addition to the polar vortex (and me eating my feelings), I found myself helping open IMPACT Fitness + Wellness, my friend Chad’s gym. We had reconnected at the YMCA back in November, and I agreed to help him with marketing for his new business. On January 14th, IMPACT opened its doors, and me “helping with marketing” quickly turned into me being a coach and becoming a certified personal trainer.
The city of Grand Rapids shut down (not an exaggeration) for the last 4 days of January due to the snow, wind + temps, and finally, on Friday, February 1st, the sun graced us with her presence and the snow stopped. Conveniently, Devin, Ricky and I were already heading out of town to wine taste with friends in Traverse City that weekend, and I distinctly remember us arriving to 37 degrees and thinking it was a HEAT WAVE.
Other than our long weekend, February was mostly full work and of getting back on track. I remember getting on the scale the Monday we returned from Traverse City and seeing the highest number I’ve ever seen. My jeans were too tight, I didn’t feel great, and I knew I needed to fix it, stat. I set a goal to hit by June and began slowly working toward it. Around this same time, Devin accepted a job and moved to Washington, DC (in a matter of weeks). On the last day of the month I hopped on a flight from GR to DC to spend a long weekend with him in his new home.
2019 was the first year I experienced real work stress that manifested itself in migraines, profanity and more. We dealt with a chaotic (read: messy) and stressful acquisition that many of us didn’t really want and didn’t know what we were getting. As of today, it is significantly better, but there were a few really rough months there (that naturally coincided with the worst month of the year – February haha).
After 3 fun filled days with Devin in DC, I returned to GR feeling much better and more positive. Around this time I began the studying for my personal training certification and in doing so I realized that I am not cut out to work more than full time and study for anything.
March and April were pretty low key
Lots of coaching and studying for my personal training certification. I headed to Ann Arbor for a weekend to celebrate Casey’s birthday, and ended up meeting up with my family as well. Then, at Easter, part of my family came up to enjoy a weekend in GR. Amazingly it was 70 degrees and sunny, so we spent majority of the weekend outside, which was much needed after the winter.
Then, in late April, after months of decline, my grandpa passed away peacefully at 89 and a half. I’ve been lucky to not have a lot of experience with death, but this loss hit our family hard. On that side of the family my grandparents have 7 children (+ 5 spouses), 25 grandchildren, and 10 great grandchildren (soon to be 12!), so you can imagine the influence he had on all of us. The visitation showed us what we already knew – that he had impacted so many people in so many different communities.
I spent a lot of time back in Ohio in April and May; because after returning back to GR on a Tuesday evening post funeral, I packed up again and headed back Friday for a baby shower (my best friend Alie’s younger brother.) It was an unseasonably beautiful weekend for the baby shower, and I remember thinking about how weird it felt to go from saying goodbye to a life well-lived to preparing to welcome new life to the world. So bittersweet.
At the end of May, I took (AND PASSED) my personal training exam. [I took mine through NSCA] and Brendan and I enjoyed a celebratory dinner at Leo’s. Mainly because we were both really sick of me studying at night and being a ball of stress.
We stayed in town Memorial Day weekend and began gearing up for the wonderful and inevitable chaos that is summer. It truly is the best season, but the older I get the more I appreciate the beauty in each season and how that affects my life. I physically could not function all year round like I do in the summer, so at this point in the winter I’m welcoming more time at home, more cozy evenings and more hibernation.
June was a blast…
…and started out with Lizzie, Kenny, Brian and I reuniting at Splash House to cash in on our free tickets + hotel. (We won the balcony decorating contest last August, securing us free tickets to the festival for life, and free lodging for one weekend). I never thought I would be a person to repeatedly vacation in the same spot/do the same thing, but we truly have so much fun and look forward to it all year, that I’ll be sad when we have to stop. During June my dad and one of his best buds came to visit GR, and I gave them the “Maddy’s favorite spots tour,” which they thankfully enjoyed as much as I did. Brendan and I rounded out June with camping + friends at Electric Forest, a massive music festival near us.
I wouldn’t say I totally lost it in July, but I kinda lost it in July. I wrote more about it over the summer (here), but we will sum it up by saying I completely overcommitted and then also got stuck in a somewhat sh** situation where we had a few days to move out of our friend’s house and find somewhere to live because ours wasn’t ready (this was all due to some REALLY REALLY poor communication). Conveniently another friend only a few blocks away had an extra room for us, and it all ended up working out. (But not without some tears). Because of all this, I suggested to Brendan we escape reality for my birthday and head to the Upper Peninsula, since I had been saying for years that I wanted to kayak Pictured Rocks. If you’ve never been to the Upper Peninsula you should go; it is STUNNING. Seriously. I received messages when sharing photos on Instagram asking if I was still in Michigan haha.
August began the month of travel, as Brendan and I spent the first weekend in Colorado, visiting friends and family and celebrating my cousin’s wedding (which was absolutely perfect). We flew home on a Sunday night, I worked Monday-Thursday, then I hopped back on a plane to California for the second round of Splash House. We rented an Airbnb for the group of 10 we had, and it was the BEST weekend. Each of the 4 of us had invited another friend or two and it was so cool to see one of my best friends from high school immediately hit it off with one of my best friends from college. I love when my friends become friends haha. I think I was home for one weekend in August, and then Brendan and I road tripped down to Columbus, Ohio for a concert and to spend the weekend with our friends. I loved exploring the Short North neighborhood and hanging with our group of friends that live there.
By the time Labor Day rolled around I was done leaving Grand Rapids, so my parents came up and we enjoyed a laid-back weekend full of eating, walking and beaching…aka all the best things. (Well that and scrubbing hardwood trim at the house). September is beautiful in the Midwest, so I try to stay in town and soak it all up. I did end up back in Columbus for a girl’s weekend with Annie and got to see even more of the city. [As much as I can’t stand Ohio State, I do really enjoy Columbus haha].
October was a month full of some of my favorite people. It started out with a last-minute weekend trip to Detroit to celebrate the birthday boys (Brendan and Ryan). Some friends drove up from Columbus, some over from Kalamazoo, and we met there for dinner, a concert, one hilarious night in an Airbnb and brunch. I also finally got to try Detroit Cookie Company, and yes, Brendan and I did eat all 6 in one day. Then Lizzie came into town for a week and we spent some much-needed time together. The following weekend my cousin and her little family came to town and I happily gave them the kid-friendly tour of Grand Rapids. It was their first time in GR, and we had a blast…hoping they will return next summer so we can enjoy the goodness that is Lake Michigan.
The rest of the month flew by; I attended a blogger event in Holland, walked in the Boutiques of West Michigan Fashion Show, celebrated Devin’s birthday and then Brendan and I hosted 13 of our friends to our partially finished house for the 3-day Bassnectar concert in Grand Rapids for Halloween.
November was the “month of concerts” because I’m pretty sure the count was 7 in the span of 13 days. (Truly though – November doesn’t usually have that much going on, so I loved it). Devin, Ricky and I headed out of town for our second annual Chicago weekend and enjoyed 3 days in the city, shopping, eating, walking, exploring, and more. I headed back to Ohio for a long weekend at Thanksgiving and enjoyed 4 days with my family and best friend. Immediately following Thanksgiving weekend, Brendan and I FINALLY moved into our house. 17 months later. Whew.
We spent December going to Menards (just kidding, but not completely), getting a bit more settled into the house, and then celebrating the holidays with my people. Over Christmas we spent a day in Detroit exploring, then another evening in Ann Arbor, but as I’m writing this, I’m somehow blanking on what I else happened in December (other than get the flu – I remember that).
All in all, 2019 reminded me of how important my people are.
My friends and family are spread out all over, but we still make the time to see each other and I feel so grateful to have such amazing people in my life, both new and old. I am proud of myself for branching out and making new friends this year. It can be challenging to make new friends as an adult, but I’m happy to say I’ve added some new members to my girl gang (that felt cheesy but I’m leaving it).
I wrote this over the course of the last 3 weeks, and I’m glad I waited to finish this until the flu passed and I got a bit more settled into the year. I wasn’t feeling very positive with the start of the new year, partially because I was sick and partially because I had 3 specific goals for 2019, and only 2 of them were accomplished. But after a few conversations with close friends, I’m now able to look back on how far I’ve come instead of focusing on the one unaccomplished goal. I feel like the work I put in throughout 2019 is starting to pay off, and for that I am excited. I could end this with a plethora of inspiring-ish quotes, but instead I’ll just say thank you for being a part of my 2019. And double thank you if you actually read all 2074 words of this post. Cheers to 2020 and the potential of a new decade. Get comfortable being uncomfortable 🙂
xo, Maddy
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