2020 has been a year of constant transitions for me. To say I have felt unsettled is an understatement.
One thing that I have really come to learn is that when you start to plan your life…life laughs at you.
January
I started 2020 off celebrating with my sister and friends in Quebec City, which was much needed after a challenging 2019 for me. I felt liberated, excited and refreshed at the start of 2020.
If you haven’t seen it, check out my NYE in Quebec City vlog!
March
March was supposed to be such an exciting and freeing month for me. I had booked a week long vacation for my mom, sister and I to travel to London. I studied abroad there my junior year in college, so I was looking forward to showing my mom and sister all the fun places I had been and studied. Not to mention, it was some much needed time off for me!
In addition to this exciting vacation, on March 1st I decided to tell my boss that I was going to move to Boston on September 1st. I gave him 6 months notice, because I worked for a small private personal training business that heavily relied on my presence. I had paid internships throughout college with him, so I worked there part time for 3 years and full time for 2 years. I had made some lifelong relationships with my clients and was heartbroken to finally make the decision to leave, but I knew it was time for me to move on.
I wanted to move to Boston, because my parents and grandparents were born and raised there and I have never lived there myself, even though all of my extended family still lives there. Boston really has felt like my home away from home growing up. I also realized I would never move to the city in my life if I didn’t do it before I was 25. Not to mention, I was single so there was really nothing holding me back from doing it.
3 days before we were supposed to leave for London, the U.S. went into lockdown. I was in denial and angry for a week or two, because I saved so much money to be able to afford this trip, I just had told my boss I was leaving, and now I had no idea what my future held. Eventually, I was able to to switch my mindset to recognize how blessed I was to still have a job and that my family was healthy.
During these months of the early pandemic, I decided to invest time and money into myself. I decided to hire a wellness coach, Liz Marcuse, to help me do some deep emotional work and bring light to some aspects of my life and story that I didn’t realize I was suppressing.
I met Liz in Athleta in the Old Port, because she worked there and I got a discount from being a personal trainer! Her positive and enthusiastic energy was infectious and I decided to sign up for some of her yoga classes. I loved and looked forward to going to her classes every week and continue to recommend people to sign up for her emails, follow her on Instagram and take her yoga classes if possible!
If you haven’t listened, I have 2 podcast episodes with Liz! The 1st one is about body image, what it means to be a health & wellness coach and inner child wounds. The second episode is about living life in abundance, non-violent communication and family dynamics (especially during COVID).
May
In mid-May, after I completed 3 months of her wellness coaching, she reached out to me to see if I would consider living with her, since she was looking to move. I was so touched and excited by this offer and my gut told me “yes!” We looked at a few places and we found 1 home in South Portland that we both could see ourselves clearly in. It was a beautiful 2 story home on the ocean, walking distance from a lighthouse and a beach. It was truly a dream!
If you haven’t seen it, check out my YouTube video on the house tour and how I manifested it!
(to be continued…)