Every year since 2022, in the days between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, I make a Vision Board. I found a gentle peace that I was sad about it from 2019-2021 wouldn’t stay forever. Making the vision boards were something that propelled me forward. As I sat making mine this time last year, I noticed something: 2022, 2023, and 2024 all looked the same. There was no real movement from 2021, not in the way I’d like there to be.

I wasn’t happy this time at all last year. I felt financially irresponsible, in a relationship that I was dragging out, and not taking care of my health at all. Something in me snapped, and because of that snap, 2024 has truly been one of those “dream-like” years.

I want to take a moment to pray through words in a way, to offer my deepest gratitude to God for these blessings. I would be nothing without His guidance. When things are low, we are being sharpened and refined and it is all for His glory. I am thankful for the bad, and the good, but the good this year was beyond my wildest dreams or any vision board could have imagined. I know they were answered prayers.

Something I’m introducing because of this, is basically a recap of my year, and a “Gratitude Board” — it’s one thing to have the vision, but it’s another to be grateful to be receiving the gifts that come true. I’m working on being happy without waiting for the other shoe to drop, and I know that nervous energy can be channeled instead, into a peaceful gratitude.

So, without further ado, I wanted to kind of recap some of my themes this year:

Grit / Fitness / Health / Boundaries

Without lack of a better term or without sounding too “David Goggins” about it: I locked tf in the beginning of the year. I hadn’t been eating that well or really taking care of my health, I was spending too much, had a rocky relationship with my mom, and was 11 months into dating a grown man who was aloof, shallow, avoidant, and could not admit to himself the feelings he had for me.

I hard stopped it all. Record scratch. We’re done.

I broke up with that man not even a couple weeks into 2024, and vowed never to date a non-chalant one ever again. I could write paragraphs on this alone, but sometimes you have to be the one to walk away, and not look back. This took a lot of grit, but it had to be done.

I don’t have an addiction to alcohol, but I didn’t ever want to develop a dependency and I was worried I was caught in a “go out in order not to feel anything, then only temporarily aid the depression” loop with the bandaid that alcohol does to a lot of people. Before it got too far, I jumped ship. February 1, 2024 was my last alcoholic beverage and I’ve felt lighter since.

I got back into the gym in a way I never had before, with more constant discipline. I stopped with how I was eating, and started tracking my macros again. It’s important to note that I didn’t really lose weight. This was literally for my health, my strength, my future, and my mental health. I did however pass all of my Army Reserve requirements, passing the Army Combat Fitness Test and my height and weight standards.

Brooklyn & wholesome hobbies

I woke up one day in 2023, in my shitty apartment in Gramercy (loved the neighborhood, hated the space) and realized “No one has a gun to my head and is forcing me to live like this” And my priorities shifted from the glamorous dinners of downtown Manhattan, to a nearly urgent need to introduce a slower life, with more wholesome experiences. I moved from Manhattan to Brooklyn in Q1 and it was the best decision of my year. I wanted to live in Brooklyn when I originally moved to New York City years ago, but it never ended up happening for a couple reasons.

When moving, I even considered Jersey City & Hoboken to save money and get away from the constant buzz of the city. I think you can adore the glitz of NYC, without wanting to be anywhere that close to it. I had looked at 23 different apartments, before I found “The One.” My Brooklyn apartment was sent to me from God. Sometimes, you just know it was perfectly placed in your life, at that exact moment. It’s my dream apartment, and the kind you see on vision boards, and I got it for a huge deal. I’ve been there since March and I still sometimes don’t believe it’s really my life.

Then, the summer was elite due to the fact the building has a pool with a view of the NYC skyline. Hello!!!! Dream life. Pinch me. This can’t be real.

But with the move to Brooklyn, and the reduction of alcohol, I’ve found the wholesome hobbies I was looking for. I do more crafts now. I write more. My friends and I do little girl’s nights where we paint pumpkins, or play cards, or something like that. It’s exactly what I was looking for. I even model a tiny bit on the side, and walked in a show for New York Fashion Week, proving you can have both the soul-fueling life, with a smidge of glitz on the side. That’s what I wanted.

Friendships / Romance

Speaking of wholesome, this was THE year of flourishing friendships. I reconnected with people I hadn’t seen in years, traveled to DC & Cincinnati to see them, ran on the beach in Florida with another, had another come visit me in New York, and went on some incredible group trips: Medellin, Colombia girl’s trip in January, a group birthday trip in July to Cartagena, Colombia, a girl’s only birthday trip to Turks & Caicos, and a staycation an hour outside the cabin for winter. There’s honestly so much more in even the everyday internet encounters too, but it was just an incredible year for the friends.

My friendships just blew me away this year. When I stopped drinking, I was worried this would suffer, but it did exactly the opposite! The sobriety created a path for quality, and everyone in my life who knew me, supported me in this. Mind you: I think 98% of my friends still drink, I’m literally the only one that doesn’t. Does this work for every sober person? I’m sure it doesn’t, but I PREFER this. I want to be in the world’s of those I’ve gotten close to, and I want them to enjoy their time however they feel comfortable to. It’s such a blessing to still get an invite with the cool kids.

Lastly, but certainly not least, I put one picture on my 2024 vision board that showed a shadow of couple. 2022 & 2023, I hadn’t dared, but I was giving myself a tiny invitation for love to find me for 2024. As I mentioned, I chose to end a relationship in the first weeks of 2024 with someone I had dated for 90% of 2023. Instead of romance, I focused so hard on myself and those friendships I had mentioned. I kept to myself when it came to men, and worked with my therapist to find out exactly what I wanted in a partner. The second I opened my heart up again, like ACTUALLY finally did and prayed about it and declared in my journal I was ready, it found me. It’s still newish, and we take things day by day, but spending summer, fall, and winter with him has given me more laughs than I can count. I think he may be the funniest man on earth, which was always #1 on my wishlist. I kind of hope he doesn’t read this, for the sake of vulnerability, but he just looks and acts like someone I’ve always known would come around someday.

And that’s that. 2024, the year of answered prayers. A dream I hope doesn’t end anytime soon. I wish whoever is reading this all the peace, love, and joy they need for 2025. Thanks for reading.